IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v7y2019i4p103-d274814.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of Food Security and Technical Efficiency among Agricultural Households in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Zainab Oyetunde-Usman

    (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB, UK)

  • Kehinde Oluseyi Olagunju

    (Agricultural and Food Economics Branch, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, 18a Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK)

Abstract

The challenge of food security in Nigeria hinges on several factors of which poor technical efficiency is key. Using a stochastic frontier framework, we estimated the technical efficiency of agricultural households in Nigeria and tested for the significance of mean technical efficiency of food-secure and food-insecure agricultural households. We further assessed the determinants of agricultural households’ inefficiencies within the stochastic frontier model and adopted a standard probit model to assess the determinants of households’ food security status. The results of our analyses revealed that; on the overall, the agricultural households had a mean technical efficiency of 52%, suggesting that agricultural households have the tendency of improving their technical efficiency by 48% using the available resource more efficiently. We found that households that are food-secure are more technically efficient than food in-secure households and this was significant at one-percent. Our results provide useful insights into the role of land size and number of assets as determinants of agricultural households’ food security and technical efficiency status.

Suggested Citation

  • Zainab Oyetunde-Usman & Kehinde Oluseyi Olagunju, 2019. "Determinants of Food Security and Technical Efficiency among Agricultural Households in Nigeria," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-13, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:7:y:2019:i:4:p:103-:d:274814
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/7/4/103/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/7/4/103/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kuku, Oluyemisi & Mathiassen, Astrid & Wadhwa, Amit & Myles, Lucy & Ajibola, Akeem, 2013. "Comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis: Nigeria:," IFPRI discussion papers 1275, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Babatunde, Raphael O. & Qaim, Matin, 2010. "Impact of off-farm income on food security and nutrition in Nigeria," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 303-311, August.
    3. Dethier, Jean-Jacques & Effenberger, Alexandra, 2012. "Agriculture and development: A brief review of the literature," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 175-205.
    4. Umar Ijaz Ahmed & Liu Ying & Muhammad Khalid Bashir & Muhammad Abid & Farhad Zulfiqar, 2017. "Status and determinants of small farming households' food security and role of market access in enhancing food security in rural Pakistan," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Ravallion, Martin & Lokshin, Michael, 2002. "Self-rated economic welfare in Russia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1453-1473, September.
    6. Ogunniyi, A. & Mavrotas, G. & Olagunju, K. & Fadare, O. & Rufai, A.M., 2018. "The Paradigm of Governance Quality, Migration and its Implication on Food and Nutritional Security in Sub- Saharan Africa: What does Dynamic Generalized Method of Moments estimation reveal?," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275994, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Janvry, Alain de & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2001. "Income Strategies Among Rural Households in Mexico: The Role of Off-farm Activities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 467-480, March.
    8. William Greene, 2003. "Simulated Likelihood Estimation of the Normal-Gamma Stochastic Frontier Function," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 179-190, April.
    9. Federico Belotti & Silvio Daidone & Giuseppe Ilardi & Vincenzo Atella, 2013. "Stochastic frontier analysis using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 13(4), pages 718-758, December.
    10. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    11. Ogundari, Kolawole, 2014. "The Paradigm of Agricultural Efficiency and its Implication on Food Security in Africa: What Does Meta-analysis Reveal?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 690-702.
    12. Mushunje, A. & Belete, A., 2001. "Efficiency of Zimbabwean Small Scale Communal Farmers," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 40(3), September.
    13. Bezu, Sosina & Kassie, Girma T. & Shiferaw, Bekele & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, 2014. "Impact of Improved Maize Adoption on Welfare of Farm Households in Malawi: A Panel Data Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 120-131.
    14. Gbemisola Oseni & Paul Winters, 2009. "Rural nonfarm activities and agricultural crop production in Nigeria," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 189-201, March.
    15. Kassie, Menale & Jaleta, Moti & Shiferaw, Bekele & Mmbando, Frank & Mekuria, Mulugetta, 2013. "Adoption of interrelated sustainable agricultural practices in smallholder systems: Evidence from rural Tanzania," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 525-540.
    16. Ursula Aldana & Brad Barham & Jeremy Foltz & Pilar Useche, 2012. "Early adoption, experience, and farm performance of GM corn seeds," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 43, pages 11-18, November.
    17. Abdul Nafeo Abdulai & Awudu Abdulai, 2016. "Allocative and scale efficiency among maize farmers in Zambia: a zero efficiency stochastic frontier approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(55), pages 5364-5378, November.
    18. Alene, AD & Hassan, RM, 2003. "The Determinants Of Farm-Level Technical Efficiency Among Adopters Of Improved Maize Production Technology In Western Ethiopia," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 42(1).
    19. Tahirou Abdoulaye & Tesfamicheal Wossen & Bola Awotide, 2018. "Impacts of improved maize varieties in Nigeria: ex-post assessment of productivity and welfare outcomes," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(2), pages 369-379, April.
    20. Kolawole Ogundari, 2013. "Crop diversification and technical efficiency in food crop production," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(3), pages 267-287, February.
    21. Ruben, Ruerd & Van den berg, Marrit, 2001. "Nonfarm Employment and Poverty Alleviation of Rural Farm Households in Honduras," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 549-560, March.
    22. Apurba Shee & Spiro E. Stefanou, 2015. "Endogeneity Corrected Stochastic Production Frontier and Technical Efficiency," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(3), pages 939-952.
    23. Stevenson, Rodney E., 1980. "Likelihood functions for generalized stochastic frontier estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 57-66, May.
    24. Ogunniyi Adebayo & Kehinde Olagunju & Salman K. Kabir & Ogundipe Adeyemi, 2016. "Social Crisis, Terrorism and Food Poverty Dynamics: Evidence from Northern Nigeria," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(4), pages 1865-1872.
    25. Mustafa U. Karakaplan & Levent Kutlu, 2017. "Handling Endogeneity in Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 889-901.
    26. Uttam Khanal & Clevo Wilson & Boon Lee & Viet-Ngu Hoang, 2018. "Do climate change adaptation practices improve technical efficiency of smallholder farmers? Evidence from Nepal," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 507-521, April.
    27. Nelson Mango & Byron Zamasiya & Clifton Makate & Kefasi Nyikahadzoi & Shephard Siziba, 2014. "Factors influencing household food security among smallholder farmers in the Mudzi district of Zimbabwe," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(4), pages 625-640, July.
    28. Luis Orea & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2004. "Efficiency measurement using a latent class stochastic frontier model," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 169-183, January.
    29. repec:wly:soecon:v:82:2:y:2015:p:580-597 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Kassie, Menale & Ndiritu, Simon Wagura & Stage, Jesper, 2014. "What Determines Gender Inequality in Household Food Security in Kenya? Application of Exogenous Switching Treatment Regression," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 153-171.
    31. Francesco Aiello & Graziella Bonanno, 2016. "Efficiency in banking: a meta-regression analysis," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 112-149, January.
    32. Hung-Jen Wang, 2002. "Heteroscedasticity and Non-Monotonic Efficiency Effects of a Stochastic Frontier Model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 241-253, November.
    33. Ng'ombe, John & Kalinda, Thomson, 2015. "A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Technical Efficiency of Maize Production Under Minimum Tillage in Zambia," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(2).
    34. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kumilachew Alamerie Melesse, 2018. "Impact of off-farm activities on technical efficiency: evidence from maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    35. Babatunde, Raphael O. & Qaim, Matin, 2010. "Impact of Off-farm Income on Food Security and Nutrition in Nigeria," 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa 97332, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    36. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    37. Dawson, Neil & Martin, Adrian & Sikor, Thomas, 2016. "Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications of Imposed Innovation for the Wellbeing of Rural Smallholders," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 204-218.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Waheed Mobolaji Ashagidigbi & Olajumoke Oluwatoyosi Orilua & Kehinde Ademola Olagunju & Abiodun Olusola Omotayo, 2022. "Gender, Empowerment and Food Security Status of Households in Nigeria," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, July.
    2. Ramezani, Mohammadreza & Dourandish, Arash & Jamali Jaghdani, Tinoush & Aminizadeh, Milad, 2022. "The influence of dense planting system on the technical efficiency of saffron production and land use sustainability: Empirical evidence from Gonabad county, Iran," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(1).
    3. Abiodun Olusola Omotayo & Abeeb Babatunde Omotoso & Adebola Saidat Daud & Adebayo Isaiah Ogunniyi & Kehinde Oluseyi Olagunju, 2020. "What Drives Households’ Payment for Waste Disposal and Recycling Behaviours? Empirical Evidence from South Africa’s General Household Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-22, October.
    4. Luke Oyesola Olarinde & Adebayo Busura Abass & Tahirou Abdoulaye & Adebusola Adenike Adepoju & Matthew Olufemi Adio & Emmanuel Gbenga Fanifosi & Awoyale Wasiu, 2020. "The Influence of Social Networking on Food Security Status of Cassava Farming Households in Nigeria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-35, July.
    5. Dolapo Adeyanju & John Mburu & Wainaina Gituro & Chepchumba Chumo & Djana Mignouna & Adebayo Ogunniyi & John Kehinde Akomolafe & Joseph Ejima, 2023. "Assessing food security among young farmers in Africa: evidence from Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    6. Ridwan Lanre Ibrahim & Usama Al-Mulali & Kazeem Bello Ajide & Abubakar Mohammed & Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh Al-Faryan, 2023. "The Implications of Food Security on Sustainability: Do Trade Facilitation, Population Growth, and Institutional Quality Make or Mar the Target for SSA?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-23, January.
    7. Oluwatofunmi Popoola, Grace & Reuben Adeniyi, Olawamiwa & Ajayi Omolehin, Raphael, 2023. "Are Agricultural Households Resilient to Food Insecurity in Nigeria?," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 15(2), June.
    8. Cleopatra Oluseye Ibukun & Abayomi Ayinla Adebayo, 2021. "Household food security and the COVID‐19 pandemic in Nigeria," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(S1), pages 75-87, April.
    9. Jirgi, A. J. & Oseghale, A. I. & Okafor, Q. E., 2021. "Food Security Status Of Women Rice Farmers In Shiroro Local Government Area Of Niger State, Nigeria," Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 11(1), October.
    10. repec:ags:aaea22:335656 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kumilachew Alamerie Melesse, 2018. "Impact of off-farm activities on technical efficiency: evidence from maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Subal C. Kumbhakar & Christopher F. Parmeter & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2022. "Stochastic Frontier Analysis: Foundations and Advances I," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 8, pages 331-370, Springer.
    3. Manda, J. & Gardebroek, C. & Kuntashula, E. & Alene, A.D., 2018. "Impact of Improved Maize Varieties on Food Security in Eastern Zambia: a doubly robust analysis," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277004, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Orea, Luis, 2019. "The Econometric Measurement of Firms’ Efficiency," Efficiency Series Papers 2019/02, University of Oviedo, Department of Economics, Oviedo Efficiency Group (OEG).
    5. Alwin D'Souza & Ashok K. Mishra & Stefan Hirsch, 2020. "Enhancing food security through diet quality: The role of nonfarm work in rural India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 95-110, January.
    6. Sènakpon F.A. Dedehouanou & Dugassa Aichatou Ousseini & Abdoulaziz Laouali Harouna & Jabir Maimounata, 2015. "Spillovers from Off-farm Self-Employment Opportunities in Rural NIGER," Working Papers 2015/03, Maastricht School of Management.
    7. Ng’ombe, John N., 2017. "Technical efficiency of smallholder maize production in Zambia: a stochastic meta-frontier approach," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 56(3), December.
    8. John N. Ng’ombe, 2017. "Technical efficiency of smallholder maize production in Zambia: a stochastic meta-frontier approach," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(4), pages 347-365, October.
    9. Mondal, Ripon Kumar & Selvanathan, Eliyathamby A & Selvanathan, Saroja, 2020. "The impact of rural nonfarm employment on agricultural input use and productivity in Bangladesh," 2020 Conference (64th), February 12-14, 2020, Perth, Western Australia 305251, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    10. Bao Hoang Nguyen & Robin C. Sickles & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2021. "What do we know from the vast literature on efficiency and productivity in healthcare? A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis," CEPA Working Papers Series WP092021, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    11. Hörner, Denise & Wollni, Meike, 2021. "Integrated soil fertility management and household welfare in Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    12. Shamsuzzoha & Makoto Tanaka, 2021. "The role of human capital on the performance of manufacturing firms in Bangladesh," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(1), pages 21-33, January.
    13. Bao Hoang Nguyen & Robin C. Sickles & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2022. "Efficiency Analysis with Stochastic Frontier Models Using Popular Statistical Softwares," Springer Books, in: Duangkamon Chotikapanich & Alicia N. Rambaldi & Nicholas Rohde (ed.), Advances in Economic Measurement, chapter 0, pages 129-171, Springer.
    14. N'cho, Simon Akahoua & Mourits, Monique & Demont, Matty & Adegbola, Patrice Y. & Lansink, Alfons Oude, 2017. "Impact of infestation by parasitic weeds on rice farmers’ productivity and technical efficiency in sub-Saharan Africa," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 12(1), March.
    15. Willam Greene, 2005. "Fixed and Random Effects in Stochastic Frontier Models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 7-32, January.
    16. Zereyesus, Yacob A. & Embaye, Weldensie T. & Tsiboe, Francis & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2017. "Implications of Non-Farm Work to Vulnerability to Food Poverty-Recent Evidence From Northern Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 113-124.
    17. Mamoudou Ba & Amar Anwar & Mazhar Mughal, 2021. "Non‐farm employment and poverty reduction in Mauritania," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 490-514, April.
    18. Ali M. Oumer & Amin Mugera & Michael Burton & Atakelty Hailu, 2022. "Technical efficiency and firm heterogeneity in stochastic frontier models: application to smallholder maize farms in Ethiopia," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 213-241, April.
    19. Truong Lam Do & Trung Thanh Nguyen & Ulrike Grote, 2019. "Nonfarm employment and household food security: evidence from panel data for rural Cambodia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(3), pages 703-718, June.
    20. Muhammad Rizwan & Ping Qing & Abdul Saboor & Muhammad Amjed Iqbal & Adnan Nazir, 2020. "Production Risk and Competency among Categorized Rice Peasants: Cross-Sectional Evidence from an Emerging Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:7:y:2019:i:4:p:103-:d:274814. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.