Evaluating the Influence of Climate Change on Food Security and Nutritional Status among People in Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State, Northeast Nigeria

One aspect that poses a threat to the health and wellbeing of human race today is climate change. The impacts of climate change can never be over emphasized, climate change and health are fundamental elements that are surrounded by countless indicators. Climates change without doubt or fear of contradictions remain one of the determinants of health. The human body as a machine must be kept within a narrow physiological limit so also climate are indices that must be observed within an atmospherically friendly manner. This study on Evaluating the influence of climate change on food security and nutritional status among people in Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State, northeast Nigeria is a step to provide durable solutions to the ever-increasing negative influence of climate change on the continual survival of the people in Monguno local government area of Borno state northeast Nigeria. This study is explored to investigate the food security indicators of the people in Monguno local government, nutritional status of children under-five, climate change perceptions of the people in Monguno LGA and determination of regression analysis of predicting food insecurity respectively. The research was a mixed method research design. It was conducted in Monguno local government area of Borno state northeast Nigeria. The targeted population for the study is 125,000, emanating the population of people in Monguno LGA according to the United Nations office of humanitarian coordination (UNOCHA). A stratified random sampling method was used to determine the sample size. Sample size was obtained using Cochran’s formula of sample size determination. And a total of 384 samples was arrived at. By defining the strata, the population (125,000) was divided into 2 distinct groups based on the key features they possessed. The first group being the farmers/Fishermen and the second group being the vulnerable groups largely residing within internally displaced person camps which includes women, children and elderly persons. About 25,000 farmers and fishermen while 100,000 is for the vulnerable group. The sample size for each group was obtained as 77 for farmers/fishermen while 307 for vulnerable group respectively. Random sampling within each stratum was done by creating a list of individuals and household in each stratum or sampling frame. Simple random sampling was employed to select participants, numbers were assigned to the individuals in the sampling frame and excel was utilized to select participants. An adjustment for non-response was put into account by increasing the sample size proportionally for 10% non-response rate predicted. The adjusted sample size is 427 and divided proportionally to the 2 strata as 85 sample size to the farmers/fishermen and 342 to the vulnerable groups accordingly. This approach clears out that non-response rates have been put into account while maintaining proportional representation across the strata. For clear data analysis, food security, household hunger scale (HHS) food consumption score (FCS), and coping strategies index (CSI) will be calculated. These will aid in having baseline data to determine frequency of hunger, the diversity and frequency of food groups and strategies used to manage food shortages. a discussion of the anthropometric measurements emanating prevalence of malnutrition vis a vis stunting, wasting, underweight. This data will be presented in tables histograms respectively. Comparative analysis between farmers/fishermen and Vulnerable groups will be don’t thoroughly via T-test i.e. comparing food consumption scores between strata. Chi-Square Tests examine categorical variables such as food insecurity levels across groups. And comparatively, analyze subgroup i.e. women, children and elderly. Also, with regards to regression analysis, linear regression will be used to predict food security scores based on the factors like income, access to food and climate variabilities. Findings related to the household size. Based on this study Farmers/Fishermen have a higher mean age (39.2 ± 9.8 years) compared to the vulnerable groups (34.1 ± 10.6 years), with an overall mean age of 35.6 ± 10.3 years. Findings on the gender/sex distributions revealed that among farmers/fishermen, the majority are male (82%), with only 18% female. In comparison to the vulnerable groups are predominantly female (71%), with 29% male. On the household size findings, Farmers/Fishermen have smaller households on average (6.2 ± 2.1 members) compared to the vulnerable groups (7.5 ± 3.0 members), with an overall mean household size of 7.2 ± 2.8 members. The findings on household hunger scale, Farmers/Fishermen: 59% experience little to no hunger, Vulnerable Groups: Only 23% experience little to no hunger. The p-value