118 RURAL HOUSEHOLD PERCEPTION AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES TO SEASONAL FOOD SHORTAGES IN THE NORTHERN GUINEA SAVANNA OF NIGERIA Damisa, Maiyaki Abdullahi, Saleh, Mamman Kwaagnya, Lyocks, Sunday Wakili Jula and Aliyu Rukaiya Sami Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria ABSTRACT Farming households in the Savanna belt of Nigeria usually experience incidence of hunger 2-3 months after harvest. The food shortage experienced by the households becomes harsh by January /February and the shortage becomes severe by March /June. This cycle of seasonal food shortage by farming households keeps occurring yearly. This paper therefore, investigated the farming household perception and response strategies to the seasonal food shortages in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria. The study was carried out in four villages randomly selected from two Local Government Areas in Kaduna and Katsina States. A total of 230 farming households were interviewed. The double-hurdle model was employed in the analysis. The result showed that more than 70 percent of households experience severe food shortage and the factors that influenced household perception of food shortage are different from factors that influence the household response strategies to food shortage. Keywords: Double-Hurdle, Household, Food Shortage, Perception, Response Strategy INTRODUCTION The 1996 World Food Summit (WFS) brought to centre stage in the development debate the issue of hunger and food insecurity as both cause and effect of poverty and slow growth. In the wake of this new push, reducing hunger and food insecurity also became one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), bringing with it the necessity for individual countries to measure progress in achieving the proposed targets (Migotto, Davis, Carletto, & Beegle, 2007). The conceptualization of food security has evolved over time, partly preceding and partly paralleling similar evolutions in poverty. Since the World Food Conference (WFC) of 1974, food security paradigms have shifted from the global and national level to the household and individual level; from a 'food first' to a 'livelihood' perspective and from objective indicators to subjective perceptions (Maxwell, 1996). In many parts of Nigeria, food production has not kept pace with population requirement (Ibrahim, Uba-Eze, Oyewole, & Onuk, 2009). According to FOS (1999), per capita food production has fallen at an average annual rate of one per cent (1%) or more over the period of 16 years successively. The percentage of Nigerian households that are not food secured has risen from 18 percent (18%) in 1986 to 40 percent (40%) by 1998 (NNPC, 2001). Farming households in the Savanna belt of Nigeria usually experience incidence of hunger 2-3 months after harvest. These households according to Damisa et al., (2011) hardly produce to meet domestic food demand, yet they sell most of their farm produce at harvest time specifically around October-December to pay back loans collected and equally meet with other pressing domestic obligations. The food shortage experienced by the households becomes harsh by January /February and the shortage becomes severe by March /June. This cycle of seasonal food shortage by farming households Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (Volume 13, No.6, 2011) ISSN: 1520-5509 Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, Pennsylvania