Assessment of the Effect of Consumption of Lake Rice on Food Security of Households in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, food insecurity is still a critical challenge among rural and urban households. To enhance the country’s food security status, a novelty was introduced to the nation’s drive towards self-sufficiency in food production in 2016 when Lagos and Kebbi States launched the much-awaited Lagos-Kebbi Rice, christened LAKE RICE. Thus, this study assessed the effect of the consumption of Lake Rice on food security of households in Lagos state, Nigeria. Random sampling technique was used to pick 200 farming households for this study. The analytical tools include: descriptive statistics, likert scale, food security index and logistic regression. The result implied that majority of the sampled respondents were male with an average household size of 6 persons. The food insecure and secure households’ were 26% and 74% respectively when Lake Rice was consumed. On the other hand, the percentage of food insecure and secure households was 29.5% and 70.5% respectively when other rice was consumed. The result indicated that the introduction of Lake Rice has to certain extent reduced the food insecurity of households. This is probably because Lake Rice is readily accessible, available and highly consumed than other rice. The logistic regression suggested that age of the respondents, family size, income and amount of Lake Rice consumed were the critical determinants of food security among households. The most effective coping strategies adopted by the respondents are reduction in daily/monthly spending. The government should encourage the production of Lake Rice by given soft loans to farmers. Policies and strategies that reduce household size should be enthusiastically pursued to reduce food insecurity.