FOOD SECURITY AND CROP GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN MONGUNO, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between crop genetic diversity and food security among smallholder farming households in Monguno Local Government Area (LGA), Borno State, northeast Nigeria — a post-conflict agrarian community embedded in the ecologically stressed Lake Chad Basin. Thirteen years of Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgency have devastated agricultural systems, eroded traditional seed banks, disrupted agronomic knowledge transmission, and displaced farming communities, creating one of sub-Saharan Africa's most acute food security crises. Against this backdrop, the study investigates whether and how the diversity of crop genetic material cultivated by smallholder farmers mediates household-level food security outcomes. Employing a cross-sectional mixed-methods design, data were collected from 396 smallholder farming households selected through stratified random sampling. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS), the Food Consumption Score (FCS), and a Crop Diversity Index (CDI) were used as primary measurement instruments. Regression analysis, Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index calculations, and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques — including transect walks, seasonal calendars, and seed-system mapping — were deployed for analysis. Results reveal that Monguno's smallholder farmers cultivate a mean of 4.2 crop species per household (CDI=0.61), significantly below the pre-conflict estimate of 9.3 species — a 55% erosion in on-farm crop genetic diversity attributable predominantly to conflict-induced displacement and seed-system breakdown. Crop diversity is a statistically significant positive predictor of household food security (β=0.387, p<.001), dietary diversity (β=0.342, p<.001), and resilience to climatic shocks (β=0.314, p<.001), after controlling for farm size, household composition, access to markets, and conflict exposure. Qualitative findings illuminate how traditional seed exchange networks, women's seed custodianship roles, and indigenous crop knowledge — all severely disrupted by conflict — served as the primary mechanisms sustaining crop diversity and food security in the pre-conflict era. The study recommends the immediate establishment of a Community Seed Bank (CSB) in Monguno, integration of agrobiodiversity conservation into humanitarian agricultural recovery programmes, and gender-sensitive seed system restoration policies aligned with Nigeria's National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.