Levels and causes of household food and nutrition insecurity in dryland Kenya

Abstract

Ensuring food and nutrition security in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa is a critical challenge. Often, information on the level of insecurity is either scanty or unavailable. This paper looks at food and nutrition access at the household level and its determinants in two cases in one of the sub-Saharan African countries: Kenya. Data were collected from a repeat-visit survey of 50 households in two areas of Makueni District, located in the southern part of the country, during 1994-1996, a period that included 'normal' and drought seasons. Even in a season of normal rains, 32 to 42 per cent of households were food insecure, percentages that rose to 40 and 52 during drought. The annual incidence of food poverty was higher (46%) in the drier area than in the wetter area (36%). Food distribution among households, however, showed a reverse trend with the drier area having a Gini coefficient of 0.32 compared to 0.34 in the wetter area. Regressions were used to examine the causes of food and nutrition insecurity. Amongst the main factors improving food and nutrition security was earnings from off the farm. Households headed by women were more food secure than those headed by men, all other things being equal. These findings provide support for prioritising entitlements in terms of earnings and food prices in policy-making, rather than focusing on food production alone. They also indicate that there may be higher social returns to addressing issues of livelihoods associated with women rather than men.

Using panel data to estimate the effect of rainfall shocks on smallholders food security and vulnerability in rural Ethiopia

“…A study by Toulmin (1986) in rural Mali also suggests that larger sized households tend to have diverse income sources and have the advantages of economies of scale that can be realized by higher family assets such as oxen and labour income sources. However, this result is contradicted by other studies done in Ethiopia (Feleke and Gladwin 2003;Ramakrishna and Demeke 2002;Muluken et al 2008;Kidane et al 2005) and elsewhere (Nyariki et al 2002;Wilde and Nord 2005).…”

“…As a result, households are forced to sell off their scarce holdings such as livestock and stored grains. Participation in off-farm activities was found to be significantly and positively associated with food security, a finding similar with Nyariki et al (2002) Finally, to identify the factors that affect the likelihood of becoming always-less-secure, vulnerable and always-more-secured, multinomial logit model estimation was done on the explanatory variables of the 1999 observations and results are shown in Table 9. The results reinforce the above fixed effects regression results by showing the strong association of persistent food insecurity and vulnerability with adverse rainfall shock.…”

Rural livelihoods in the arid and semi-arid environments of Kenya: Sustainable alternatives and challenges

“…Certain alternative livelihoods, therefore, may give women options in which they possess greater self-determination. It is possible for diversification to improve the independent, income-generating capabilities of women and in so doing, also improve the care and nutritional status of children, since a high proportion of cash income in the hands of women tends to be spent on family welfare (Kennedy and Haddad, 1994;Carter, 1997;Nyariki et al, 2004). For this to occur, income-generating activities that are more appropriate for women (e.g., basketry) need to be promoted in the rural areas.…”

Intervention Designs for Household Food Security: Lessons from Kenya

“…Food insecurity is defined as ‘limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods’ (FAO, ). The discourse distinguishes two core aspects: food availability and access (Nyariki and Wiggins, ; European Commission, ; Nyariki et al ., ; FANTA, ). Availability is the amount of food in the immediate reach of households and largely depends on domestic production.…”

“…Already, the Kenyan government identified food insecurity as one of its development challenges (GoK, ). Food insecurity affects over 50 per cent of the population (Nyangito et al ., ; FAO, ), and is concentrated in the drylands (Nyariki et al ., ; Muyanga, ; Nyangito et al ., ), where it is linked to droughts and general poverty. Droughts limit adequate harvests for most households (Nyariki et al ., ; Tiffens, ); and even when production is sufficient, lack of adequate cash‐crop and non‐farm income oblige households to trade food for immediate cash needs, making them net‐buyers of food (Muyanga, ; Nyangito et al ., ).…”