Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices and their Influence on Food Security in Lagos State, Nigeria

Oluwakemi Funmilayo Akinkugbe, BSc

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This study examines the factors influencing smallholder farmers' choices to adopt Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) in Nigeria, focusing on improved seed, fertilizer, soil and water conservation. It examines how this adoption affects agricultural revenue and food security. Household dietary and decreased coping strategy scores are used for evaluating food security. This study is primarily focused on Lagos, a mega-city in Nigeria, due to the obstacles encountered by the farming sector, including land degradation, environmental concerns, poor agricultural output, and poverty. The socio-economic characteristics of the household examined include age, sex, educational status, household size, farming experience, farm size, household members working in agriculture. The results show gender variable has significant coefficients. The results appear to suggest that women are more likely to use sustainable farming practices. The significant coefficients of household size suggest that larger households are more likely to adopt multiple SAPs. Larger households usually mean better labour endowments, allowing them to adopt multiple SAPs more easily than small ones. It was also important to point that another measure used to analyse the level of food security was the food consumption index and this showed that, majority of the communities where the study was carried out had individuals along the poor category of dietary consumption. Further research should explore the area of making comparison between previously established traditional farming methods and the sustainable agricultural practices, with respect to the income of the farmers and the effect or impact this has on food security. In line with the findings of this research more work needs to be done on improving the wellbeing and quality of life of members of rural farming households.

Keywords

Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs), Food Security, Dietary Consumption, Lagos, Nigeria

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 28. 4. 2024

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 6. 6. 2024
• Supervisor: prof. Ing. Jan Banout, Ph.D.
• Reader: Miloslav Petrtýl, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme:
Tropical Farming Systems