Analysis of Food Insecurity Status of Urban Food Crop Farming Households in Cross River State, Nigeria: A USDA Approach

The study analyzed food security status of urban food crop farming households in Cross River State. A two-stage sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 217 urban food crop farmers in three urban areas in Cross River State namely; Calabar, Ikom and Ugep. The USDA approach was used to analyze and measure the intensity of food insecurity and hunger among farm households in the study area. The result showed that only 12.44% of urban farmers were food secure, 55.76% were food insecure without hunger, 25.35% were moderately food insecure with hunger and 6.45% were severely food insecure with hunger. Staple food crops such as cassava, yam, rice, and maize were shown to contribute immensely to the food security status of farming households. Buying foods on credit, allowing their children to eat first, and occasionally eating fruit were the coping strategies adopted by urban food crop farming households against food insecurity. The study therefore recommends among other things, that to reduce food insecurity, farmers should be encouraged to produce more cassava, yam, rice and maize, and this staple food crops should be made available and accessible for household consumption.