Effect of healthcare accessibility on cocoa farmers food security in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Effect of healthcare accessibility on cocoa farmers’ food security explored latest research from the economic, medical and food security literature concerning the eminence of care, physical accessibility, cost, availability of the right type of care for those in need, and its significances on food security, with a focus on healthcare personnel availability. A multistage (five-stage) sampling procedure was employed to select 200 farmers and data were collected using structured questionnaire. Accessibility Index (AI), Food Security Index (FSI) and Tobit regression model were used for the analysis. The accessibility index shows that Owo LGA has 5 patients per doctor, Idanre LGA has 9 patients per doctor and Ile Oluji LGA has 8 patients per doctor while Ondo West LGA has 7 patients per doctor. Consultation cost, service cost and diagnosis cost were found to have negative effect on farmers’ income while medicine and surgical cost were found significant to farmers’ income. Although 65.50% of the respondents were food secured, the number of patient per different health personnel and facility as well as family size (0.000) have a significant relationship with farmers' food security status. Thus, it is suggested that more deployment of health care officers and facilities are needed in the study areas. Key words: Food security, farmers, healthcare, accessibility, income, cocoa.