Non-Farm Work and Food Security among Farm Households in Nigeria

This study examines the impact of non-farm work on both household income and food security status among a sample of farm households. We use the Nigerian General Household Survey Panel, a representative survey of 5,000 urban and rural households. Sixty-seven percent of households reported engaging in non-farm activities. Extant studies on non-farm work have mostly examined its poverty implications for households in Albania, Ghana, etc. There is a paucity of such studies on Nigeria. To fill this research gap, we examined first, whether non-farm employment improved or worsened Nigerian households’ income levels. Previous studies suggest that engagement in non-farm work have the effect of stabilizing and oftentimes increasing household income. Furthermore, we explored the use of non-farm income. Whether or not households employed this income for food expenditures (thus improving household food security status) or re-investment in farm enterprise. We analyze the impact of non-farm work by using a propensity score model in order to account for self-selection bias that occurs when unobserved factors influence the household’s decision to participate in non-farm work, household income and food security status. The paper also examines the effect of gender heterogeneity in non-farm work on household income and food security.