Online: ISSN 2784 – 0360 | ISSN – L 2784 – 0360 | Print: ISSN 2784 – 0379 ISSN-L 2784 – 0360

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Babatunde R.O.

Effect of water sources on the health of rural children: evidence from household survey in Kwara state, Nigeria

Feb 6, 2025 |

R.O. Babatunde, M.F. Salami, J.O. Aroke

ABSTRACT. Majority of the disease outbreak in developing countries have been attributed to contaminated water with children being the worst hit. Therefore, this study analyzed the effect of water sources on the health status of children under the age of 5 years in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. Primary data was obtained through the use of semi-structured interviews; 150 households with at least one child under five years were interviewed however; only 146 questionnaires were completed and found valid for analysis. The data was subjected to descriptive statistics, such as pie chart, bar charts. The results show that majority (58.2%) of the children were males. Also, most (83.5%) of the children were infants, i.e. within the age range of 0-2 years. Most (96%) of the households had access to improved water sources of which protected dug well is the most accessible. Many (42%) of the households reported that they experience periods of water shortage, this explains why water washed diseases (disease associated with poor hygiene in the face of water scarcity) was the most predominant diseases reported among the children with 70 reported cases. These were closely followed by the water related insect vector diseases with 64 reported cases and then water borne diseases with 48 reported cases. Water based diseases rarely occurred in the study area. This study, therefore, recommends that effort should be geared towards provision of safe water all year round for the farming households. Also, insecticide treated nets should be made available for the children in the farming households so as to prevent insect bites.

Keywords: water washed diseases; incidence rate; dysentery; malaria; improved water sources; water shortage.

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Effect of food expenditure on farming households’ welfare in Osun state, Nigeria

Oct 10, 2019 |

R.O. Babatunde, A.E. Omoniwa, A.O. Adekunle, G.T. Oyeleke

ABSTRACT. Food and nutrition security remain Africa’s most fundamental challenge for human welfare and economic growth. In this study, recent survey data from Osun State, Nigeria, was used to examine the effect of food expenditure on farming households’ welfare in Nigeria. Logistic and OLS regression models were the analytical tools used. Food Insecurity Gap (FIG) and Squared Food Insecurity Gap (SFIG) were used to capture the severity of food insecurity among the households. The results showed that, all households sampled consume rice, beans, vegetable, fish and oil as basic food items, while only 32% of them consume potatoes. The regression results showed that the household size, per capita income, dependency ratio and age were the highly significant factors influencing food expenditure. However, the coping strategy that was mostly adopted by the farmers in the study area was to cut down on the numbers of food items consumed. Therefore, it was recommended that farm mechanization should be encouraged for optimal land use and productivity. In all, promoting agricultural policies with appropriate price incentives that focus on intensification, diversification and resource-stabilizing innovations will create more wealth for all categories of farming households and this in turn will ensure food security, especially in an era of economic deregulation.

Keywords: food Insecurity; per capita expenditure; welfare; innovations; intensi-fication.

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© by the authors; licensee Journal of Applied Life Sciences and Environment, Iasi, Romania. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)