EFFECT OF USAID MARKET II PROGRAMME ON THE FOOD SECURITY STATUS OF BENEFICIARY FARMERS IN AKWA IBOM STATE SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA

Over the years, various agricultural programmes and policies that are both public and private sector driven has been developed, focusing more on increasing farm production with little or no emphasis on the food security status of farmers. The study determined the effect of USAID/MARKETS II Programme on the food security status of farmers in Akwa Ibom State, south-south Nigeria and was analyzed 2020. Specifically the determined the food security status, index and compared the differences in the food security status of programme beneficiary and nonbeneficiary farmers. It adopted both purposive and multi-stage random sampling procedures to select one hundred and eighty (180) respondents made up of 90 programme beneficiary and 90 non-beneficiary farmers). The study made use of structured questionnaire to collect data and were subjected to analysis using food security index and Ztest analyses).Food security status result showed that the mean per capita household expenditure per month for programme beneficiary farmers was N21,120.46(69.02USD)as against the non-programme beneficiary farmers with N5,474.41(17.89 USD). More so, the food security index, showed that a moderate proportion of programme beneficiary farmers were food secured (43.33%) than non-programme beneficiary farmers (33.33%).The study concluded that the programme has impacted on the beneficiary farmers by increasing their food security status. Policies aimed at replicating the programme in other rural communities and encouraging farmers to engage in foreign sponsored programmes is thereby advocated in order to guarantee household food security.