Development and Validation of a Composite Livestock Production Index for Smallholder Food Security Assessment in Nigeria

This study develops and validates a composite livestock production index for assessing the contribution of livestock to food security in Nigerian smallholder households, providing an original measurement tool that captures the multidimensional nature of livestock's food security role beyond simple income metrics. Livestock contribute to smallholder food security through multiple pathways including direct consumption of meat, milk, eggs, and blood, income for purchasing food, asset accumulation as a buffer against shocks, draught power for crop production, and manure for soil fertility. Existing measurement approaches treat these contributions separately, missing their combined effect on household food security. This study develops the Composite Livestock Food Security Contribution Index through a multi-step methodology: qualitative identification of contribution pathways through focus group discussions with 240 livestock-keeping households across all geopolitical zones, Delphi expert weighting of pathway importance, quantitative operationalisation of each dimension, and psychometric validation in a national survey of 1,800 households in the LSMS-ISA Nigeria 2022 round supplemented by original livestock production measurements. Construct validity is tested against established food security measures including the HFIAS and dietary diversity scores. Predictive validity is tested using panel data. Findings demonstrate that the CLFSI captures 28 percent more variance in household food security outcomes than single-dimension income-based livestock measures and shows superior predictive validity for dietary diversity. The index is sensitive to livestock species diversity and management system intensity. The study contributes an original validated measurement tool and recommends its adoption in national agricultural household surveys as the standard livestock food security contribution measure.

Keywords: composite index, livestock food security, smallholder households, Nigeria, index validation.