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Abstract
A country needs a well nourished population of children for a productive future. Malnutrition is
by far the biggest contributor to child morbidity and mortality; therefore, combating malnutrition
in our communities should be an issue to policy makers. With the use of anthropometric indices
derived from survey data collected from 150 randomly selected children from 150 farming
households in Kabba Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State, this study assessed
malnutrition of children in the Central part of Nigeria. Logit model was used to examine the
relationship between some anthropometric indices and the general characteristics of the
household and the children. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the
sampled households. The result showed that about one-quarter of the children are underweight
while a very insignificant number of the sampled children were wasted. The probit result showed
that daily calorie intake and access to safe water had significant effect on underweight of
children in the study area. Daily calorie intake per child was also significant on stunting and
wasting. Over 66% of the farming households had access to well water and only 21% had
access to bore-hole. Majority of the children could be said to be more susceptible to water borne
diseases. Provision of better domestic water source, mass food production strategies can be
policy options for a virile labour force in the study area.