The Effect of Food and Financial Remittances on Household Food Security in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Remittances from migrants are an important livelihood strategy to mitigate the impact of adverse economic conditions, particularly in developing countries and rural areas. This study examines how migration and remittances affect household food security by analyzing data collected from 180 farmers in northern Nigeria in 2018. The descriptive results show that households use remittances mainly for health care and education. Remittances are most commonly provided in the form of finances and food. Binary logit regression results show that food remittances have a significant positive impact on food security status. Financial remittances did not have a statistically significant impact on food security. As the number of migrants in a household increases, the probability that the household is food secure decreases. The propensity scores matching result also showed that migrant households receiving food remittances were more food secure. In light of these findings, we emphasized the need to include both financial and food remittances in studies to understand the effect on food security.