ANCHOR BORROWER’S PROGRAMME AND FOOD SECURITY STATUS OF RICE OUTGROWERS IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Credit has been recognized as a powerful instrument for tackling the food security and poverty crisis. Thus, this study examined the effect of Anchor Borrower’s Programme(ABP) on the food security status of rice outgrowers beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in Kwara State. Multistage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of 242 ABP beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries rice out-growers. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and United State Development Agency (USDA) approach of measuring food security were employed for this study. The results revealed the mean age of ABP beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries rice out-growers as 42 years and 51 years with covariance (CV) of 22.4% and 25.3% respectively. A mean household size of 7 and 10 with an average annual income of N564, 235 and N 297,782 were further revealed by the study for both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries respectively. Income, farm size membership of cooperative, dependency ratio, age and household size were major drivers of food security among ABP rice out-grower in the study area. The scale further showed that the ABP beneficiaries were more food secured than the non-beneficiaries. The study concluded that ABP had impacted the food security status of the rice out-growers. ABP should be extended to more rice out-growers in the state with adequate and constant interventions on annual basis by all levels of government.