Agricultural Commercialization: Effect on Food Security among Smallholder Farming Households in Southwestern Nigeria

Agricultural commercialization has several effects on farm households life conditions. This study therefore, examined the current level of crop commercialization and its effect on food security among smallholder farming households. Primary data were collected from 373 selected smallholder farm households in the study area with the aid of well structured questionnaire using multistage sampling procedure. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics, Household Commercialization Index (HCI) and logit regression model. The study indicated that average HCI was 0.83. Farmers with low, medium and high HCI were 6.44 %, 9.65 % and 83.91 % respectively. The empirical results show that age, level of education, farm size, farm income, access to extension services, access to credit, off farm income and crop commercialization had a significant and positive relationship effect on food security at household level. The study concludes that crop commercialization has a positive influence on food security.