An Analysis of Food Poverty and the Gender of Household Heads in Nigeria’s State of Lagos
[1]
Ponnle Solomon Lawson, Department of General Studies, Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Nigeria.
This study investigated the rates of food poverty in both male-headed and female-headed households in Nigeria’s States of Lagos based on food poverty line of N39,759.49 which is the annual amount that could get an individual 3,000 calories per day at N108.93 a day per person. Structured questionnaire administration was used by the study as its method of data collection. In all, 25 structured questionnaires each were administered on the household heads of both male-headed and female-headed households in the study area. The data was analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics tool of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software programme which presented percentages and frequency tables of the rates of food poverty in both male-headed and female-headed households in the study area. The results generated by the SPSS revealed that while 36 percent of the sampled male-headed households were living below 3,000 calories daily, that is, below daily food cost of N108.93 in Nigeria’s States of Lagos, 80 percent of the sampled female-headed households were living below 3,000 calories daily, that is, below daily food cost of N108.93 in the state. The results indicated that the rate of food poverty is higher in female-headed households than in male-headed households based on food poverty line of N39,759.49 which is the annual amount that could get an individual 3,000 calories per day at N108.93 a day per person in Nigeria’s States of Lagos.
Food Poverty, Gender/Sex, Male-Headed Household, Female-Headed Household
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