THE IMPACT OF INSECURITY ON FOOD SECURITY AMONG RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN SOKOTO EAST SENATORIAL DISTRICT OF SOKOTO STATE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Insecurity, Food Security, Arm Banditry, PovertyAbstract
Nigeria faces several security challenges, the country in the recent time become a scene of wide spread insecurity, violence, criminality and outright insurgency such as Boko haram, arm robbery and arm banditry which in particular unleashed relentless terror attacks that led the destruction of hundreds of houses and dead of thousands of rural farming households in North-western part of the country. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of insecurity specifically arm banditry on food security in sokoto east senatorial district. The study made use of primary source of data. The data was collected from the rural household heads in the study area using structured questionnaires in form of interview scheduled; Multi stage sampling technique was adopted in selecting the respondents for the study. The first stage involved purposive selection of four Local Government Areas in the Senatorial district based on the intensity of the insurgency (Arm banditry) activities. However, the second stage involved a random selection of 30 rural household heads in each of the four Local Government Areas selected arriving at a total of 120 respondents, and descriptive method of analysis using frequencies and percentages was employed. The result indicates that, insecurity have made farming communities practically difficult to continue to engage in agricultural production optimally, thus affecting productivity and causing market disruptions with attendant consequences on food insecurity in the study area and country at large. The study among others recommended the entrenchment of good democratic, people centered governance with leadership that is transparent and accountable, in which the rule of law is respected and fundamental human rights are guaranteed to check the problem of insecurity and improve food security in the country.