Households and food security: lessons from food secure households in East Africa

Abstract

Background:What are the key factors that contribute to household-level food security? What lessons can we learn from food secure households? What agricultural options and management strategies are likely to benefit femaleheaded households in particular? This paper addresses these questions using a unique dataset of 600 households that allows us to explore a wide range of indicators capturing different aspects of performance and well-being for different types of households-female-headed, male-headed, food secure, food insecure-and assess livelihoods options and strategies and how they influence food security. The analysis is based on a detailed farm household survey carried out in three sites in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.Results: Our results suggest that food insecurity may not be more severe for female-headed households than maleheaded households. We found that food secure farming households have a wider variety of crops on their farms and are more market oriented than are the food insecure. More domestic assets do not make female-headed households more food secure. For the other categories of assets (livestock, transport, and productive), we did not find evidence of a correlation with food security. Different livelihood portfolios are being pursued by male versus female-headed households, with female-headed households less likely to grow high-value crops and more likely to have a less diversified crop portfolio. Conclusions:These findings help identify local, national and regional policies and actions for enhancing food security of female-headed as well as male-headed households. These include interventions that improve households' access to information, e.g., though innovative communication and knowledge-sharing efforts and support aimed at enhancing women's and men's agricultural market opportunities.

Spatial variations of household food insecurity in East Gojjam Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: implications for agroecosystem-based interventions

“…This condition affects not only household members nutritional status [23], but also their mental health status [37]. The problem is more severe among women who are responsible to feed the family which leads to maternal anxiety, depression and other related mental illness [5,37]. This might exert negative influence on parent to child interaction and care practices [37].…”

“…This situation leads to protein energy malnutrition to the household members [32]. The effect of food shortage at household level is more severe to women [5] and children due to biased food distribution within household members [23]. Agroecosystems type has an important role in determining food insecurity status, especially for farmers with subsistence farming [38].…”

“…Household food insecurity is recognized as a major public health problem in both developing and developed nations since it leads to poor health outcomes through a complex networking of factors [3,4]. Food security remains a serious challenge for many households in East Africa [5], and Ethiopia is one of the most food…”

Food availability and livelihood strategies among rural households across Uganda

“…Yet our understanding of what affects household food security in East Africa remains rudimentary (Silvia et al 2015) and strategies to achieve household food security vary widely across regions and among households. One challenge lies in the complexity of the food security concept itself, which consists of four pillars: Availability, access, utilisation, and stability (FAO 2009).…”

“…Several studies have analysed the relationships between household food security and underlying (household level) drivers: larger cultivated land per capita, better education of the household head, a wider variety of crops, and access to market information are all positively related to food security (Fisher and Lewin 2013;Mango et al 2014;Silvia et al 2015). Yet our understanding of what affects household food security in East Africa remains rudimentary (Silvia et al 2015) and strategies to achieve household food security vary widely across regions and among households.…”