Gender-Responsive Policies for Enhancing Food Security in Aquaculture Amidst Climate Change in Ondo State, Nigeria

Gender disparities persist within the aquaculture value chain, affecting women’s empowerment and overall food security. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used in selecting 231 catfish farmers for the study. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire and were subjected to descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and mean as well as inferential statistics such as Food Security Index and Logistic regression. Results revealed that average age for catfish farmers were 42, 43 and 40 years for the pooled, male and female respectively (p<0.10). The distribution of catfish farmers according to years of fishing experience showed that the mean farming experience of the fish farming were 11, 12 and 9 years for the pooled, male and female respectively (p<0.05). The results showed that while food insecurity affects households led by men and women equally, it affects the latter group more severely. Household size (p<0.10), education (p<0.01), fishing experience (p<0.05), climate effects (p<0.05), were found to be significant factors influencing food security status for families headed by men and women, respectively. The study concluded that food insecurity affects female households’ more than male households. The study therefore recommends that gender should be mainstream in aquaculture policies and programs by fishery stakeholders in addition to enforcing policies that guarantee women’s rights to access to land and water bodies for aquaculture through facilitating women’s access to microcredit, grants, and insurance tailored to aquaculture activities.