Exploring the Effect of Fadama III Project on Food Security in Abuja, Nigeria

Food security, according to Neill (2010), is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. National and international political action seems to require the identification of simple deficits that can be the basis for setting of targets, thus necessitating the adoption of single, simplistic indicators for policy analysis. Something like the “State of global food insecurity” analysis has to be undertaken. Since food insecurity is about risks and uncertainty, the formal analysis should include both chronic sub-nutrition and transitory, acute insecurity that reflects economic and food system volatility. Such formal exploration is usefully complemented by multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of food security. Similarly, Community Food Security has been defined as follows: Community food security exists when all citizens obtain a safe, personally acceptable, nutritious diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes healthy choices, community self-reliance and equal access for everyone." Cook and Frank (2008), also defined food security as an optimal physical, cognitive, and emotional development and function in humans requires access to food of adequate quantity and quality at all stages of the lifespan. Sustainable food security has been defined in various ways by different scholars. According to FAO (2013), food security is access to the food needed by all people to enable them live a healthy life at all times. A country is said to be food secured when there is access to food of acceptable quantity and quality consistent with decent existence at all times for the majority of the population (Idachaba, 2004). This means that food must be available to the people so as to meet the basic nutritional standard needed by the body. But it should be noted that availability of food does not mean accessibility to food. Availability depends on production, consumer prices, information flows and the market dynamics. Food security is determined by various socio-economic, natural and political factors. These factors include income, education, age, availability of infrastructure, availability of extension services, government policies on trade, and agricultural land area under cultivation, availability of Agro-inputs and social safety net (FAO, 2013).

In Nigeria, determinants of food security are stability of access, household economic status, household income variability, quality of household human capital, degree of producer and consumer price variability, food storage and inventory, household size, and access to social capital (Amaza et al, 2007; Oni et al, 2011). Food security has also been found to be both temporal and spatial in nature (Anderson, 2009; Ayantoye et al, 2011). World Bank (1986), defined sustainable food security as an access to enough food for an active, healthy life at present as well as ability to provide enough in the future. Furthermore, Abudullahi (2008), defined sustainable food security as when people have physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive healthy life at present as well as in the future. This definition outlines some indices for measuring the extent or degree of food security to be achieved by any country and the indices are adequate national food supply, nutritional content, accessibility, affordability and environmental protection. Absence of food security is food insecurity; food insecurity on the other hand represents lack of access to enough food and can either be chronic or temporary. Adeoti (1989) opine that chronic food insecurity arises from lack of resources to acquire and produce food thereby leading to persistent inadequate diet. FAO (2013) refers to food insecurity as the consequences of inadequate consumption of nutritious food bearing in mind that the physiological use of food is within the domain of nutrition and health. When individuals cannot provide enough food for their families, it leads to hunger and poor health. Poor health reduces one’sability to work and live a productive healthy life. Poor human development destabilizes a country’spotential for economic development for generations to come (Otaha, 2013).

FAO (2013), explains that the core determinants of food security are availability, accessibility, utilization and stability. Food Availability: Availability of food plays a conspicuous role in food security. Having enough food in a nation is necessary but not adequate to ensure that people have satisfactory access to food. Over the years, population has increased faster than the supply of food thus resulting in food unavailability per person.

Food Accessibility: The ability to have access to food depends on two major conditions; Economic access and physical access. Economic access depends on one’sincome, the price of food and the purchasing power of the people. Physical access depends on the availability and quality of infrastructure needed for the production and distribution of food. Lack of economic access to food is as a result of the increase in the rate of poverty.

Food Utilization: Food utilization is measured by two outcomes indicators which reflect the impact of inadequate food intake and utilization. The first outcome is measured by under-five years of age nutrition level while second measurement is quality of food, health and hygiene.

According to FAO (2013), measuring the nutritional status of under-five years of age is an effective approximation for the entire population. The indicators for the measurement of under-five years of age are wasting (too thin for height); underweight (too thin for age) and stunting (too short for age). Most times, progress in terms of having accessing to food is not always accompanied by progress in the utilization of the food. A more direct indicator of food utilization is underweight because it shows improvement more promptly than stunting and wasting whose improvement can take a longer time to be noticeable. Since 1990, the prevalence rates of under-five stunting and underweight have declined in some developing countries, while some countries still report a prevalence rate of 30% or more and World Health Organization categorizes this as being high (WHOUNICEF, 2011).

Stability: Stability has to do with exposure to short-term risks which have a way of endangering long-term progress. Key indicators for exposure to risk include climate shocks such as droughts, erosion and volatility in the prices of inputs for food production. The world price shocks leads to domestic price instability which is a threat to domestic food producers as they stand the chance of losing invested capital. Nigerian farmers are mainly smallholders farming mainly for subsistence, this makes it difficult for them to cope with changes in the prices of inputs, and it also lowers their ability to adopt new technologies thereby resulting in reduced overall production. Changing weather patterns as a result of climate change have played apart in reducing food supply, for instance flood in the southern parts of the country and drought in the northern parts leads to substantial losses in production and income. The interplay of all these variables determines whether an individual, household, state or nation is food secured or not. This is because sustainable food security at the household level does not guarantee sustainable food security at the state or national level. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of Fadama III project on food security in terms of: availability, affordability, accessibility and nutritional quality of food in Abuja. The specific objectives of this study are to: i) Describe the socio-economic characteristics of the Fadama III beneficiaries in Abuja; ii) Identify the Fadama III Projects available in the study area; iii) Assess the effectiveness of Fadama III Project on beneficiaries in the study area.