Women’s Ownership of Agricultural Land on Farming Household Food Security in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Women’s ownership of agricultural land plays an important role in food and
nutritional security. The study examined the effects of women’s agricultural
land ownership on the food security status of farming households in Ogun
State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 farming
households from the study area. Data was obtained using a well-structured
questionnaire consisting of the 18 items of United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) food security questions. Analytical techniques used for
data analysis were descriptive statistics and logit regression model. Findings
from the study revealed that the mean age of the women was 38 years,
married, with an average household size of 4 persons. Results of the land
ownership status of the women revealed that only (10.8%) of the women
owned farmlands with majority (51.8%) of them acquiring farmland by
inheritance. Furthermore, analysis on the food security status of the farming
households revealed that a greater proportion (55.8%) of the households were
food insecure. Factors found to significantly influence the food security status
of the farming households were women’s land ownership (p<0.01), age
(p<0.01), income (p<0.05), farming experience (p<0.01), educational level
(p<0.01) and membership of cooperative society (p<0.01). The study
therefore concludes that women’s ownership of agricultural land significantly
improves household food security in Ogun State. Therefore, it is
recommended that women should be given equal right to farmland ownership
like their male counterparts in order to reduce the burden of food insecurity
particularly among rural households in Nigeria.