Abstract

Food security is a critical issue faced by urban households due to various factors such as limited access to fresh and affordable food, rising food prices, and reliance on external food sources. It therefore becomes imperative to determine the coping strategies employed for food security among urban households in Ibadan Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 101 respondents for the study and data collected through questionnaires were analysed using both descriptive such as frequency and percentage and inferential statistics such as Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Results show that the respondents’ mean age was 32±10 years; while 69.3% were female; with 57.4% and 49.5% practicing Islamic religion and married, respectively. Mean household size was 5±3 persons; majority of the respondents (72.3%) had tertiary education; 26.7% engaged in trading; majority of the respondents (54.5%) were not engaged in secondary occupation, and majority earn a mean monthly income of N95, 000±50,000. The more than half of the respondents (54.5%) had low levels of household food security. The findings shows that the most severe constraint faced by the majority of respondents was inflation, specifically the high cost of food and groceries, with a mean score of 1.15, ranking it first. This was followed by seasonal or unforeseen food shortages, which had a mean score of 0.92 and was ranked second. A reduction in annual income emerged as the third major constraint, with a mean score of 0.86. Lastly, conflict and insecurity were identified as the fourth most significant challenge, with a mean score of 0.70.The majority of respondents employed rationing money between food and other necessities (0.97) as coping strategies. Constraints faced by urban households in ensuring food security correlated with coping strategies employed by households in the study area ((r=0.505, p=0.001)). The study concludes that rationing money between food and other necessities was the most used coping strategies in ensuring food security in the study area. It is therefore recommended that households adopt basic budgeting and financial literacy training tailored to low-income and rural populations.

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