Impact of Kampe Irrigation Dam on Farming Household Dietary Diversity in Kogi state, Nigeria

A diverse range of foods has been shown to increase energy and micronutrients intake in the developing countries. It is widely asserted in the literature and development circles that farm household access to irrigation dam can provide a significant improvement of household’s dietary diversity. This study set out to assess the role of Kampe irrigation dam on farm household dietary diversity in Kogi State, Nigeria. A total of 140 respondents were interviewed using structured questionnaire. A two stage sampling technique was utilized for the study. The respondents were divided into two stratum, namely irrigation beneficiary and irrigation non-beneficiary. A simple random sampling technique was used to draw respondents from the two strata and the collected data were analyzed with frequency counts, percentages, and Poisson regression analysis was used to identify the factors influencing farm household’s dietary diversity score. A structured questionnaire with in-built 24-hour diet recall was use for data collection. A 12-food group model was used to evaluate diet diversity (DD). The results show that majority of the respondents (94.3 %) were married and mostly farmers (100 %). Overall, mean dietary diversity score (DDS) was 6.5, irrigation beneficiaries dietary diversity score was 7 on average and non-beneficiaries score was 6. Age of household head, household size, farm size, and income were all identified to contribute significantly to household dietary diversity score (DDS). In conclusion dietary diversity is fairly good for irrigation beneficiary compared to the overall average in the study area and efforts to improve nutritional status must address the issue of dietary diversity.