Feminization, food security, and hunger eradication: A Case of Omu-Aran community in Kwara State, Nigeria

A profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if we are to nourish today's 795 million hungry and the expected 2 billion people by 2050. Aside from hunger and malnutrition, food insecurity results in a wide range of problems such as health, environmental degradation, and a high rate of crime. When food security improves, most facets of life improve as well. While most Nigerians engaged in activities outside the agricultural sector, the country is in danger of being engulfed in a food crisis. Improving agriculture and food security (being able to produce enough food to sustain families and communities year after year), is a herculean task for the Omu-Aran community. There are no incentives for women to engage in commercial agriculture. Based on the above, this study tends to examine the role of women in proving food security and how this could help in the eradication of hunger in the Omu-Aran community in Kwara State. It argues that women have more restricted access than men to productive resources and opportunities including land, livestock, inputs, education, extension and research services, and financial services. Closing this gender gap would give an important boost to agricultural productivity and output, and in bringing agricultural yields similar to those of men, government at all levels, as well as corporate and financial establishments, must commit a large chunk of resources towards motivating women farmers. Role theory provides the theoretical framework for the study. The design for the study was both descriptive and exploratory. A two-stage sampling consisting of purposive and simple random techniques were used to select the respondents. The sample population comprises 35 food crop farming households in the Omu-Aran community. A structured interview was used to elicit information on the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. Twenty- five in-depth interviews were conducted. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively while qualitative data was content analyses.