ABSTRACT

The study assessed the food, nutrition security and anthropometric status of farmers in Obowo L.G.A of Imo state. A cross sectional study design was conducted among 355 farmers from Obowo Local Government, where 5 out of 14 communities in Obowo were randomly selected with the help of balloting without replacement. A total of 355 structured questionnaires were developed to collect information from the study participant. The questionnaire was divided into five (5) sections: (personal and socioeconomic status, household characteristics, anthropometry, food security and nutrition security). The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Service Solution (SPSS) for Windows Version 20.0 software programs. The association between food/nutrition security and anthropometric status of the farmers were analyzed using Chi-square and Pearson's correlation. The result on socio-economic characteristics of the farmers showed that 51 % were female, 35.8% were between the ages of 36-45 years and 95.2% were Christians. Also, it was indicated that 47.3% of the farmers were married while 31% were single. Less than half (47.9%) of the farmers had primary school education and 29.3% had secondary education. From the study, 67% of the farmers got food from the market and 27 .3% from their farms. Also, 41.4% of the houses were floored with cement and 25.1% with carpet. Furthermore, 54.4% were food secure, 40.4% were food insecure without hunger while 5.2% were food insecure with hunger. Results showed that 60.2% were nutrition secure, 31.9% were moderately nutrition insecure while 7.9% were severely nutrition insecure. Also, 1.7% of the farmers were underweight, 13.5% had normal weight, and 4 7.1 % were overweight while 3 7. 7% of the farmers were obese. From this study, there was negative but significant relationship between food and nutrition security status and BMI of the farmers. Also, there was a significant association between nutrition security status of the farmers and their anthropometric status. Health care providers should provide nutrition education that focuses on food procurement, preparation, storage and hygienic methods in other to address the food and nutrition insecurity experienced at the community level.