Food Energy Availability from Agriculture at the Farm-Level in Southeastern Nigeria: Level, Composition and Determinants

Among the four pillars of ‘food security’ (i.e., ‘food availability’, ‘food accessibility’, ‘food stability’ and ‘food utilization’), ‘food availability (FA)’ underpins the core concept because at the micro-level it is strongly related to the overall availability of food, which is determined by domestic food production, food imports and food aid. This paper examines the level of food energy availability (FEA) at the farm level, relationships between farm size and FEA and the determinants of FEA based on a survey of 400 households from Ebonyi and Anambra States of Southeastern Nigeria. FEA in this study refers to Partial Food Energy Availability (PFEA) because it excludes procurement of food from other sources, e.g., purchase from the market, borrow/exchange from others and/or receiving as food aid. Results show that the sample is dominated by small–scale farmers (81% of the total sample) owning land