Impact of Women Empowerment on Food Security among Rural Households in Kwara State, Nigeria

Subject Areas : Agricultural Extension

Azeez Muhammad-Lawal ¹ , Kemi Omotesho ² , Oluwaremilekun Jimoh ³ , Nimat Abdulraheem ⁴ , Lvie Loreta Olaghere ⁵

1 - Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
2 - Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
3 - Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
4 - Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
5 - Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

Received: 2018-05-19 Accepted : 2018-12-16 Published : 2018-12-01

Keywords: Correlation, Rural Households, Food Security, Women empowerment,

Abstract :

Thestudy investigated the impact of women empowerment on food security in Kwara State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study assessed the levels of food security and women empowerment in the study area as well as examined the relationship between both. Also, constraints on women empowerment in the study area were identified. An interview schedule was used to elicit datafrom 150 rural households across ten communities in the State following a three-stage random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, Likert scale, women empowerment index, food security index and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation were the analytical tools used. The study revealed that 52% of the households were food- secure. Only 5% of the women in the study area had empowerment index higher than 0.6, with most having least scores for psychological indicators of empowerment levels. A positive correlation (r=0.245) was observed at p

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