No abstract

Food insecurity remains a persistent policy issue in many developing countries. While socio-political, epidemiological, climatic, and productivity-related factors have received attention regarding food insecurity, a rarely considered factor is the changing quality of the soil, a natural resource base that has the potential of increasing or reducing vulnerability to food insecurity. The use of organic soil amendments may be socioeconomically and environmentally advantageous. This study examines the inherent relationship between the use of organic soil amendments and food security among smallholder farming households. Using the seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model and the recursive bivariate probit (RBP) model on nationally representative household-level data from Cameroon, we find evidence that the use of organic soil amendments is positively associated with household food security. We also find the use of organic soil amendments to be associated with reduced levels of mild, moderate, and severe food insecurity. Empirical evidence is also suggestive of a positive association between crop diversification and food security. The results further show that households with larger farm sizes tend to use more organic soil amendments than households with smaller farms. Taken together, our findings confirm another pathway of improving food security with implications for the broad path toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 of ending hunger.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between informal risk management strategies, such as
crop and nonfarm diversification, and technical efficiency of food crop producers in Cameroon. The
methodology is based on (a) estimating the efficiency levels from a non parametric Data Envelopment Analysis
(DEA) approach and (b) using statistics tools (Pearson correlation and mean tests) to assess the impact of
diversification on efficiency. Data is obtained from tomatoes, potatoes and banana-plantain producers in 19
villages and peri-urban zones in the Center and West regions of Cameroon. Results indicate low levels of
efficiency and a negative correlation between diversification practices and efficiency.

No abstract

Évaluer les impacts des recherches en agriculture sur la société : outils, méthodes, études de cas.