Assessment of the Contributions of National Special Program for Food Security (nspfs) to Food Security in Kwara-state, Nigeria

NIGERIA had over the years embarked on several agric-food intervention strategies either as a sole financier or jointly in partnership with other development agencies with the ultimate aim of the attainment of food and nutritional security. However, recent estimates of the number of food insecure mouths in the country and the staggering amount of foreign exchange in favor of food importation indicate that the country may not be food self sufficient. This calls for assessing the contributions of intervention strategies employed in the agricultural sector for food security. This study examined the contributions of the National Special Program for Food Security (NSPFS) to beneficiary food security by making use of the Household Dietary Diversity (HDD) score. The study was conducted in Kwara State and respondents comprised of crop farmer beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, drawn probabilistically from the three NSPFS project sites in the study area. The Poisson model was used to analyze the study's objective. Findings reveal a significant difference between the HDD of the beneficiary and non- beneficiary farming households (p=0.01). Identified significant variables responsible for the variation in HDD included NSPFS participation (p=0.01), household size (p=0.078) and household annual income (P=0.013). The use of the HDD as a measure of food security has limitations. Season and the fesivities may predispose respondents to consuming more at a particular time which may not reflect the spread of consumption over the entire year. In order to reduce this limitation associated with the use of dietary diversity as a food security measurement, the questionnaire was administered to the respondents' households before the start of the planting season and when no festivals and socio-cultural celebrations were going on. Given the global commitment to food security, this study recommends the intensification of the NSPFS project to cover more sites and include more beneficiaries. Furthermore, it suggests that appropriate logistics and support be provided that will facilitate the assessment of the project's incentives by beneficiaries. This study is an original contribution.