OLADEJO, ANUOLUWAPO DEBORAH2025-12-122025-12-122024-09-20https://ir.funaab.edu.ng/handle/123456789/401A dissertation submitted to the Department Forestry and Wildlife Management, College of Environmental Resources Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree of Masters of Agroforestry.ABSTRACT Homegarden is the modern compound farm contributing to household food security, healthy life and conservation of local food crops. The study was conducted to determine the status of homegarden and its contribution to household food security in Osun State, Nigeria. Multi-Stage sampling technique with four-stage design was used to obtain a sample size of 150 respondents. Structured questionnaire was administered to elicit information from the respondents. Ten farms were selected from the three agro-ecological zones for ecology of homegardens. Frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviation and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to analyse the data. Likert scale and correlation of attributes were used to determine the perception of respondents to homegarden and contribution of homegarden to household food security. Simpson’s Diversity and Similarity Indices were analysed using PAST software version 3. Results showed that 52.0 % of the respondents were female; 80.6 % were within the age range of 31-60 years with the mean age of 43 years. Also, 63.3 % were christians, 84.0 % were married, 42.0 % had a family size of 5-7 persons with the mean family size of 6 persons and majority (80.0 %) had formal education. About 85.7 % of the respondents indicated farming as the secondary occupation while 46.0 % reported trade as the primary occupation. The size of the homegardens in the study area ranged from 331 m2to 8037 m2 and distances between garden plants and houses were between 2 m and 50 m in the three agro-ecological zones. Household income from primary occupation showed that 46.4 % of the respondents earned between ₦20,001 and ₦40,000; Income from homegarden showed that 53.9% earned less than ₦20,000; while monetary value of produce consumed by the family showed that 44.7 % consumed up to ₦10,000 produce monthly. A total of 133 species made up of 39 plant species (food crops, vegetables and spices), 28 fruit trees, 36 timber species, 18 medicinal plants and 12 animal species were encountered in the study area. The most diverse zone was Ife/Ijesha with the lowest dominance value of 0.06 and the highest diversity value of 0.94; Osogbo and Ife/Ijesha had the highest similarity indices of 73.0 %. Female were involved in 12 operations out of the 17 operations carried out in homegarden management. Major constraint of homegardens was damage due to insect pests, diseases, animals, and theft (55.3 %), inadequate access to water (49.3 %) and limited access to agricultural inputs such as seeds, planting material, tools, and capital (41.3 %). Most (69.3 %) strongly agreed that homegardening helped in addressing food insecurity. The combined benefits derived from the homegardens in the three agro-ecological zones, showed that Source of food is the most promising to be the dominant use. Conclusively, homegardens play a crucial role in the livelihoods of the communities and households.enThesis