Impact of household food security and nutrition programme on the nutritional status of children in Oyo state, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of household food security and nutrition programme (HFSN) on the nutritional status of children (0–5 years) in Oyo state, Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

Pre‐tested structured and unstructured questionnaires were used to elicit information from 201 programme and 201 non‐programme women participants. The participants who are farmers were selected using systematic random sampling technique from each of the six local government areas covered by the programme, while non‐participants were selected using simple random sampling technique. Also, anthropometry technique was used to assess the nutritional status of the children of both groups. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages and means were used to describe the findings while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the significant difference in the nutritional status of the children of the two groups.

Findings

The results show that the women farmers who participated in programme activities possessed some personal and household characteristics which influenced the nutritional status of the children. The participants utilized most of the prograrmme recommendations and significant differences existed in the weight for age and height for age indices of their children.

Originality/value

The results indicate the need for constant surveillance and collaborative effort of the health, agricultural extension and education departments in providing women farmers with the education and training needed to reduce the incidence of malnutrition and food insecurity.

Citation

Lawal, B.O. and Jibowo, A.A. (2006), "Impact of household food security and nutrition programme on the nutritional status of children in Oyo state, Nigeria", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 327-336. https://doi.org/10.1108/00346650610703171