Household Food Security and Women’s Empowerment in a selected Rural Community, North-West Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Food security is an urgent global challenge driven by gender inequality. Women's empowerment is seen to improve household food security. This study determined household food security and its association with women's empowerment in Jaja, a rural community in Kaduna state, Northwest Nigeria.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study of women 15 to 49 years selected from each house in the community using simple random sampling by balloting. Following an informed consent, a pretested semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain socio-demographic and household characteristics. Some domains of empowerment measured were level of education, literacy and income. Household food insecurity was assessed using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). Data was analysed with IBM SPSS version 26 software, and associations between variables were tested at p<0.05 level of significance.

Results: The study enrolled 371 women, who were predominantly married, Hausa and Muslims. Mean age of respondents was 26.9(SD±7.3) years, 197(53.1%) had no formal education, 259 (69.8%) were literate and their median monthly income was 500 Nigerian Naira only. 182(49.2%) households were not food secured. Household food insecurity was significantly associated with age (p<0.001), education (p=0.001), literacy (p<0.001) and income (p=0.045). There were significant associations between food security and household size (p<0.001), keeping a backyard garden (p=0.016) and ownership of farmland (p=0.006).

Conclusion: Household food insecurity remains prevalent in this rural community and is significantly associated with key proxies of women's empowerment. Interventions that promote women’s empowerment, improved education, income generation, and agricultural access are needed to strengthen household food security.