Abstract

Household resilience to shocks depends largely on the livelihood options available, especially the income-generating activities they engage in. Understanding how such strategies influence resilience is key to strengthening recovery from shocks and reducing food insecurity. This paper examines the interconnection of livelihood strategies and household resilience to food insecurity in Nigeria. The General Household Survey data 2010/2011 and 2015/2016 (wave 1 and wave 3), were analysed using the Forster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT), Resilience Index Measurement Approach (RIMA II), and the Fixed Effect Regression Model at (p<0.05)
The male headed households dominated the respondents with mean age of was 54years. About a quarter of the households had no formal education, 33.5 % had primary education, 17.5 % had secondary education, and 22.9% had tertiary education. four in five of the household heads were married. The mean household size was 9 with the mean farm size of 0.45Ha. Less than 2% of the households engaged in farm, 58.9% in off-farm and 39.4% in non-farm activities. The food security incidence, depth and severity were 0.399, 0.14 and 0.07; respectively. The mean resilience among the household was 0.59 with households having 5.7% low, 62.5% moderate, 32.1% high level of resilience; respectively. Both access to basic services and adaptive capacity index reduced household resilience. Conversely, safety net index increased the resilience capacity of households. Also, farm-based livelihood activities and household size increased resilience among the rural households
In sum, increase in safety nets and engagement in farm-based livelihood activities could serve as a means of strengthening resilience among households in Nigeria.