Food insecurity remains a major concern for numerous rural households in Sub-Saharan Africa who rely on agriculture as their main source of livelihood. The assessment of the links between food security and livelihoods is central for overcoming widespread food insecurity. However, assessments remain challenging due to food security's multi-dimensionality and the challenge of finding indicators that are comparable and applicable to various contexts. This study addresses this challenge by adapting a food security index (FSI) and uses it to assess the livelihood drivers of food security. The index captures the multi-dimensionality of food security using conventional food security indicators. The assessed indicators include measures of "food consumption score," "household dietary diversity score," "coping strategies index," the "household food insecurity access scale," and "months of adequate household food provisioning." The study covered 600 randomly selected households representative of three agro-ecological zones located close to large-scale agricultural investment in Mount Kenya region in Kenya. We used linear regression to identify livelihood factors significantly influencing food security. Spearman's rank-order correlation and student's T-test demonstrated a strong and significant correlation between the composite FSI index and each classical indicators of food security. Overall, 32% of the households were food secure and 68% were food insecure. Households' ownership of productive hand tools, followed by off-farm income, consumption of own produced food, type of agro-ecological zone, farm income and number of main crops infested by pests had a significant effect on household food security. All these factors, except the number of main crops infested by pests, were found to positively influence household food security. Households in humid agro-ecological zone were less food secure than households in semi-humid and semi-arid zones. Household size, the size of accessible land and households' members' participation to large agricultural investments (as wage workers or subcontract farmer) were not significantly influencing food security. Households of the Mount Kenya region need alternative off-farm income sources combined with further support to improve sustainable agriculture management with appropriate hand tools.
Access to productive resources such as land and water is fundamental for households that rely on crop and livestock production for their livelihoods. Research often assumes that agricultural production—and thus, food security—are favoured by tenure security of resources (as represented by a “bundle of property rights”). However, research has not yet elucidated how food security is influenced by additional factors, represented within a “bundle of powers”. Guided by the Theory of Access developed by Ribot and Peluso, we explore the main factors in the respective bundles of rights and powers that influence household food security around north-west Mount Kenya. We interviewed 76 households—38 food secure and 38 food insecure—who were subsampled from a previous food security survey of 380 households. Results show that household food insecurity was not exclusively the result of a lack of private property rights as many farmers had retained their property rights. Instead, a major factor preventing access to productive resources was the difficulty faced by food insecure households in accessing farm technology (i.e. hand tools and implements). Access to authority and via social relations were significantly correlated with access to technology, so improving the latter must take into account the former.
This study assessed the association between shocks, socio-economic factors, and household food security across Kenya, and provided policy implications for achieving the Zero Hunger goal at national and local levels in Kenya. We analysed the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey 2015-16 data for 24,000 households by employing regression models. Our multiple findings show that: (1) half of the surveyed population across Kenya were food insecure; (2) large disparities in food security status exist across the country; (3) demographics (e.g. gender, urban areas,), and other socio-economic aspects (e.g. education, income, remittances), positively influence food security; (4) social and economic shocks negatively influence food security, and (5) that food security has no significant relationships with environmental shocks (e.g. floods and drought). In summary, the food security status in Kenya is not satisfactory. Our findings suggest that, in general, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Zero Hunger goal by 2030 will likely remain challenging for Kenya. Ultimately, a redoubling of efforts is required to achieve SDG 10 (reducing inequality) to ensure no one is left behind. Further, the findings could be useful in the formulation and implementation of national and regional policies for achieving the Zero Hunger goal by 2030 in Kenya.
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