Citation: Ashagidigbi, W.M.; Orilua, O.O.; Olagunju, K.A.; Omotayo, A.O. Gender, Empowerment and Food Security Status of Households in Nigeria. Agriculture 2022, 12, 956. https:// doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12070956 Academic Editor: Gioacchino Pappalardo Received: 16 April 2022 Accepted: 27 June 2022 Published: 2 July 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). agriculture Article Gender, Empowerment and Food Security Status of Households in Nigeria Waheed Mobolaji Ashagidigbi 1 , Olajumoke Oluwatoyosi Orilua 1 , Kehinde Ademola Olagunju 2 and Abiodun Olusola Omotayo 3, * 1 Agricultural and Resource Economics Department, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 704, Akure 340110, Nigeria; wmashagidigbi@futa.edu.ng (W.M.A.); olajumokeorilua1996@gmail.com (O.O.O.) 2 Department of Agri-Food Economics and Trade, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznan, Poland; 78098@student.up.poznan.pl 3 Food Security and Focused Area Research Group, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, North West University, Private Bag X2046, Mmabatho 2735, North West Province, South Africa * Correspondence: 25301284@nwu.ac.za; Tel.: +27-611-649-252 Abstract: Gender inequality in access to productive and economic resources has been a topical issue in sub-Saharan Africa. The restrictive access to resources, assets and decision making by women has been linked to food insecurity. Using a large cross-sectional dataset from the 2018/2019 Living Standard Measurement Survey, this paper examines the interrelationship among gender, empowerment and households’ food security status in Nigeria. The analytical techniques adopted include the empowerment index, dietary diversity score and the Tobit and the ordered probit regression models. The findings suggest that the level of empowerment is generally low in Nigeria (21.63%) but much worse among the female gender (11.78%). The results also show that female gender and rural and North West residents were mostly in the food insecure and disempowered group. The study concludes that empowerment and food policy measures that would enhance access and control of productive and economic resources by the female gender and rural and North West residents should be formulated to ensure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ending hunger and promoting gender equality. Keywords: gender; economic resources; dietary diversity; nutrition; ordered probit 1. Introduction Women occupy a central place in subsistence agricultural production and are account- able for 80% of agricultural production [1]. They are majorly involved in food production, processing, preparation and marketing; despite these activities, women’s contributions to food and agricultural production are still largely undervalued. In many developing countries, women often face a range of obstacles to achieving their full potential, ranging from constricting cultural practices to biased laws and highly fragmented labour mar- kets [2]. Gender discrepancies in access to agricultural resources and services adversely influence their productivity and, subsequently, the food and nutrition security of their households [3,4]. Several studies have established that women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are limited compared to their male counterparts in channels through which they can have easy access to productive inputs such as improved seed varieties, extension services, and land input [2,3,5–7]. In addition, women are also limited in the level of participation in cooperatives and farmer groups, such as producers’ organisations and marketing groups and labour-saving cooperatives, which may also contribute to reduced access to markets with implications on food and nutrition security [4,8]. Many programmes fail to offer credence to the multiplicity of women’s life experiences. However, to understand and Agriculture 2022, 12, 956. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12070956 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture