In the face of the unprecedented threat the world is faced with, caused by covid-19 pandemic which has affected health and disrupted the functioning of food system resulting in inadequate nutrition of many people around the world. The study examined the movement in the price of staple food commodities as a result of Covid-19 and its impact on food security of households in Kwara State, Nigeria. Primary data was used for the study and a convenient sampling technique was adopted in the selection of the respondents. A structured questionnaire was used for the purpose of extracting needed information from households selected for the study. The data were analyzed using with Descriptive Statistics, Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Correlation Analysis. The result showed that there was increase in price in all the major staple foods consumed during covid-19. Only 23% of the households were found to be food secure while 51% and 26% of all the households surveyed were found to be moderately and severely food insecure respectively. The effect of the increase in the price of staple commodity food on households food security was statistically significant (r = -0.375, p < 0.000) showing that movement in the prices of staple food has negative effect on food security of people. It is therefore recommended that there should be regulation of commodity food prices as this will enable medium and low income households to buy. تفاصيل المقالة

The study made use of a gender disaggregated data to examine the effect of income on modern healthcare utilization among female and male headed household farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. A total of 200 households were randomly selected for the study. A structured questionnaire was used for the purpose of extracting needed information from the respondents. The data collected was analyzed with descriptive statistics and Ordinary least square regression analysis. The mean annual health expenditure of the male and female headed households were #2,810 and #4,010 respectively. The result of regression analysis revealed that access to modern healthcare service, years of schooling, membership of Social group and amount of credit accessed significantly affects utilization of modern heath care among the male farming households heads while household size, years of schooling, access to healthcare service, amount of credit, membership of social group and Income affects the utilization of modern healthcare among the female headed households. The study concluded that income significantly affects utilization of modern healthcare among female headed households when compared with their male counterparts. It is therefore recommended that there should proper awareness of the benefit of using modern healthcare services in farming communities especially among the male headed households. DOR: 20.1001.1.22517588.2021.11.2.5.9 تفاصيل المقالة