The effect of livestock ownership on dietary diversity amongst rural households in Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of rural households’ livestock ownership on dietary diversity in Nigeria, using secondary data obtained from the 2018/2019 NLSS (Nigerian Living Standard Survey) data. Descriptive statistics and Poisson regression were used for data analysis. The results showed that the majority (83.5%) of the household heads were males, approximately 57% were married, and 54.34% had a formal education. Also, an average of 79% and 61% are households kept chickens and goat. Approximately 40% of female headed households kept sheep as opposed to 10% in male headed households. The result revealed that 42% and 48.60% of the households had high and very high dietary diversity. Findings from the Poisson regression model analysis showed that livestock (chicken, goat and sheep) ownership (p<0.01), income growth (p<0.01) and higher educational status/qualification (p<0.01) significantly enhanced household dietary diversity. Inferences drawn from the study indicate that livestock ownership (poultry and small ruminants improves household dietary diversity among rural households in the country. It is therefore recommended that the government should support poultry and small ruminant livestock production to boost household dietary diversity. Strategies to raise household income and enhance access to formal education should be embraced to enhance food consumption diversity.