Integrated Urban Micro Farming Strategy Mitigation against Food Crises in Odeda Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate integrated urban micro farming as complementary strategy for mitigating against food crises in Odeda Local Government Area in Ogun State Nigeria by describing the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, examine their incidence of food crises, identify factors responsible for food insecurity and identify and describe integrated urban micro farming activities  in the study  area. Out of about 120 urban and periurban farmers who were involved in urban farming activities eighty (80) respondents were randomly selected Primary data were collected from the respondents with the aid of semi-structured questionnaire and interview- guide. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies and tables were used to achieve the stated objectives. The result shows that about 62% engage in integrated farming while majority (41%) of the respondents’ level of income is between N 60,000 and N 100,000 and 69% respondents indicated that their households’ size was between 6-10 persons. About 60% of the respondents experiences food crises. Also about 11% of the food crises in the study area were as a result of high rate of land lease for city development and 26% was as a result of inadequate credit facilities while the major (37%) cause resulted from rapid rural/urban migration. The study concluded that urban micro farming serves as buffer for provision of food to the ever growing teeming population in the cities It was therefore recommended that If micro integrated farming potential is to be exploited to the full, government, the municipalities and the private sector should be involved by making land available both within the city centres and the fringes. There should also be injection of micro loans for urban farmers and favourable policies about urban and peri-urban agriculture should evolve to aid food production.