Food insecurity access scale and dietary score as proxy indicators of nutritional status among backyard livestock households during COVID-19 pandemic in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Food insecurity access scale and dietary score as proxy indicators of nutritional status among backyard livestock households during COVID-19 pandemic in Southwest Nigeria Popoola, M. A., Yahaya, M. O., Awodola-Peters, O. O., Adebisi, G. L., Bolarinwa, M. O., Adedeji, Y. O., Olaniyi, T. A. and Saka, A. A. Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria *Corresponding author: [email protected] Food insecurity and dietary diversity of households are important nutrition outcome which have been found reliable in assessing the dietary intake of a population during a determined period and they have been used as indicators of food security among households. A facility based cross-sectional study design was conducted on 374 households that were involved in backyard livestock production in Southwest Nigeria during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Household dietary diversity (HDD) was measured using 12 different foods from which the HDD score was estimated, which is a continuous score ranged from 0 to 12, and was recoded to a three-level ordered categorical variable. Food insecurity was also assessed using household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) generated from nine items (questions) specific to an experience of food insecurity occurring within the previous four weeks among the households. A probit regression model was specified to determine the variables responsible for increasing the probability of the households being food insecured during the lockdown. Result showed that more than half of households involved in backyard livestock production was within medium dietary diversity category (71.7%) and moderately had access to food (75.4%). State of residence, household size, income generated by members of households, species of livestock raised and purpose of livestock production were major determinants of food insecurity (access) during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown among the respondents. Thus, there is need to promote sustainable and diversification of livelihood among households through backyard livestock production in a bid to increase and sustain their food security status.