Issues relating to food availability, accessibility/affordability, and food utilization remain paramount among different stakeholders such as policymakers and academics. Using data from 250 maize farming households in Nigeria, the study used Foster–Greer–Thorbecke and probit regression model to investigate the factors determining households food security. The food insecurity measure shows that 23.2% points of the households express the incidence of food insecurity while 5.5% points and 1.8% points were found to have depth and severity of food insecurity, respectively. After controlling for households’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics, the probit regression model suggested that, among others, value of output sold, education, credit access and participation in government safety nets program significantly influenced food security among the maize farmers in the study area. Based on our findings, effort should be intensified to enhance the productivity of land through improved production practices. There should be high-level awareness that will increase farmers’ participation in safety net programs. Thus, government at all levels (local, state, and federal) should have adequate budget allocation to this course in order to improve the livelihood outcomes of the farming households.

The formation of agricultural cooperatives has been widely promoted as an agricultural development policy initiative to help smallholder farmers cope with multiple production and marketing challenges. Using a nationally representative survey dataset of smallholder maize producers from rural Nigeria, this study assesses the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on technical efficiency (TE). We based our estimation approach on the combination of a newly developed sample selection stochastic production frontier model with propensity score matching to control for possible selectivity biases from both observables and unobservables. We estimate stochastic meta-frontiers to examine TE differences between cooperative members and non-members. Our results reveal that TE levels of members are consistently higher than that of non-members. This calls for continued policy incentives targeted at encouraging farmers to form as well as participate in agricultural cooperatives.

Using household survey data from a sample of about 2305 households selected from eighteen states in Nigeria, this paper analyses the impact of irrigation technology usage on crop yield, crop income and household food security in Nigeria among smallholder farmers. The logistic regression estimate revealed that years of education, household size, rainfall information, access to credit, regional dummies are the main drivers of usage decision. The results of the linear regression with endogenous treatment effects showed that irrigation technology use is positively related to crop yield, crop income and household food security. In consistence, the impact analysis using propensity score matching (PSM) also showed a significant and positive effect of irrigation technology use on crop yield, crop income and household food security. We suggest to policy makers, implementers, and any funding agencies with similar interest to further capitalize and scale up the irrigation technology facilities, especially for the poor households, and create more awareness to improve the livelihood of rural households. However, despite the positive impact of irrigation technology use, we contend that other sustainable irrigation sources, such as rainwater harvesting should be used due to possible environmental impact in the excessive use of irrigation technology. Moreover, rained agriculture can be improved with other farming techniques such as agroforestry and soil and water conservation practices.