FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL AND ITS INFLUENCE ON FOOD SECURITY STATUS AMONG RURAL FARMERS IN GWER-WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE, NIGERIA.

This study was carried out to analyze the influence of fuel subsidy removal on food security among rural farmers in Gwer-West Local Government Area of Benue State. Public opinion survey design was adopted for the study; multi-stage technique was used to select 100 respondents. Data for the study were sourced from primary sources with the aid of questionnaire. Descriptive statistic and logit regression were tools for data analysis. Results showed that most 70.0% of the rural farmers in Gwer-West experienced some level of food insecurity. Results of the logit regressions indicated that fuel subsidy removal (-.0940236), cost of transportation (-.0424023), cost of labour (-.0151491), and inadequate capital (-.0563771) negatively and significantly influenced food security while educational level (.0130138), and farming experience (.0134532) were positive and statistically significant to food security status. The result also showed that the major coping strategies adopted by rural farmers in Gwer-West Local Government Area of Benue State to cope with the hardship orchestrated by fuel subsidy removal were reduction of food consumption (88.0%), followed by reduction of movement (86.0%) and diversification of income (84.0%). It was concluded that rural farmer’s food security is negatively and significantly influenced by the removal of fuel subsidies, which leads to a high cost of agricultural production inputs, a high cost of transportation, and an increase in food stuff prices. It was recommended that government should subsidize agricultural production inputs and means of transportation to rural farmers to make agricultural production inputs available and affordable to rural farmers.