Impact of strategic deployment of improved crop varieties on household food security and poverty in northern Nigeria

This study assessed the impact of deploying improved arable crop varieties on household food security and poverty in northern Nigeria. Four-stage sampling technique was employed to select 350 farmers. Primary data were collected from respondents using structured questionnaire and analyzed using instrumental variable with two stage least square estimation method. The parameter estimates of the regression model for the determinants of food security using food expenditure showed that age (β = - 0.002, p < 0.01), distance of household to health centre (β = - 0.004, p < 0.10), sex (β = - 0.20, p < 0.01) and marital status (β = - 0.22, p < 0.01) were negative and statistically significant. The parameter estimates using both protein consumption measure and calorie consumption measure showed that food expenditure (β = 0.002, p < 0.01), distance to market (β = 0.01, p < 0.10) and other crops grown (β = 0.02, p < 0.01) were all positive and statistically significant while influence of age (β = - 0.004, p < 0.05) and distance to health centre (β = - 0.005, p < 0.05) on protein and calorie consumption were negative and statistically significant. However, the parameter estimates of the regression model using total expenditure measure showed that age (β = -0.001, p < 0.01), sex (β = - 0.25, p < 0.01) and marital status (β = - 0.21, p < 0.01) were negative and statistically significant. The study concluded that the project had enhanced food security and contributed to poverty alleviation among adopters.