Article Sidebar
Article Details
NAJ supports free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research and development practice are made widely available. It is therefore committed to open access, which, for authors, enables the widest possible dissemination of their findings and, for readers, increases their ability to discover pertinent information. The Journal adopts and uses the CC: BY license and is open access. This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Copyright for articles published in this Journal is retained by the Journal.
Main Article Content
Effect of social capital on food security among rural farming households in Abia state, Nigeria
Abstract
The study analyzed the effect of social capital on food security of rural farming households in Abia State, Nigeria with specific focus on measuring social capital dimensions among the rural farming households; determining the food security status of the households; analyzing the influence of socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents on food security and estimating the effect of social capital on food security. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in the selection of 120 households as respondents from whom information and data were elicited using structured and pretested questionnaire. Analysis of data was done using multiplicative index, food security index, Probit model and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient. The result of the multiplicative index of core social capital dimensions posted an average aggregate social capital index of 45.14, indicating a slightly below average performance. This aggregate index was decomposed into cash contribution (83.94), meeting attendance index (76.26), decision making index (31.42), labour contribution index (21.83) and density of membership (16.40). The distribution of food security indices showed that the majority of the rural households which accounted for 89.17% of the sampled population posted food security of index of less than two. The analysis of factors that influenced food security using probit model showed that coefficients of age, sex, marital status, household size and income were statistically significant at different probability levels. However, the effect of social capital on food security using correlation analysis recorded a correlation coefficient of 0.101 that was not statistically significant, implying absence of any significant relationship between social capital and food security in the study area. It is therefore recommended that the rural farming households should be encouraged to form and participate in cooperatives where opportunities for the access to social capital abound.
Keywords: Social capital, food security index, rural, farming households
