Impact of CSA Innovations on Household Food and Nutrition Security: Evidence From the Upper Blue Nile Highland of Ethiopia

Background: Food insecurity remains a major challenge to smallholder farmers in the face of changing climate in the Upper Blue Nile Highlands of Ethiopia. To improve food and nutrition security of climate change vulnerable smallholder farmers in eastern Ethiopia, several climate-smart agriculture (CSA) innovations have been adopted and scaled-up. However, the impact of these innovations on household food and nutritional security was not systematically studied. This study examined the impact of selected CSA technologies on household food and nutrition security. Cross-sectional data were generated from 424 randomly selected rural smallholder agriculture households in the five selected agroecosystems of the Upper Blue Nile Highlands of Ethiopia. The study employed propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression estimation models. Results: Households that practiced crop residue management had an 8.46 higher Food Consumption Score (FCS) and a 0.4 higher Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) than non-adopters. Similarly, households who adopted compost and agroforestry had a 0.462 and 0.446 higher Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) than non-adopters, respectively. The endogenous switching regression analysis result showed that households that practiced crop residue management had an 22.6 higher Food Consumption Score (FCS) and a 2.2 higher Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) than non-adopters. Similarly, households who adopted physical SWC had a 2.3 higher Food Consumption Score (FCS) than non-adopters. Whereas, compost and agroforestry had a 0.28 and 2.12 higher Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) than non-adopters, respectively. Conclusions: This shows that households adopting CSA innovations are more likely to have higher food security compared to non-adopters. This suggests that promotion and scale-up of CSA innovations in the study area can enhance household food and nutrition security.

Agricultural seasonality, market access, and food security in Sierra Leone

Seasonal variations in agriculture is a major contributor to undernutrition in many agrarian economies. While recent studies have highlighted the role of markets in improving nutrition, the relative importance of markets in smoothing food consumption across seasons remains largely unexamined. Using data from Sierra Leone, this paper analyses whether access to local food markets mitigates seasonal fluctuations in household dietary diversity and food security. Our results confirm that agricultural seasonality imposes significant fluctuations on household dietary diversity and food security. Households, especially those in rural areas, are found to experience significant deteriorations in dietary diversity and food security during the lean season. Most importantly, the results also show that households with better market access consume more diverse diets and are more food secure in both lean and non-lean seasons than remoter households. An important policy implication of these results is that market-based interventions aimed at strengthening market access through improved market infrastructure and roads can significantly contribute to year-long food consumption smoothing, improved dietary diversity and overall food and nutrition security.

The Effect of Productive Safety Net Programme on Household Food Consumption and Dietary Diversity in Ethiopia

This study empirically investigates the effect of productive safety net programme (PSNP) on household food consumption and dietary diversity in Ethiopia. The study applied random effects with instrumental variable to estimate the effect of PSNP membership. The result of the study indicates that though PSNP membership improves household food consumption, it reduces household dietary diversity score. Household food consumption and dietary diversity are also significantly influenced by sex, age, education status of household head, household size, livestock ownership, distance to the nearest market and participation in non-farm activities. The findings of this study suggest that PSNP membership should be reinforced by building household awareness of the benefits of consuming a variety of foods. In addition, PSNP membership should be designed to endow the households to accumulate essential assets, especially livestock.

Analyzing the Drivers of Household Dietary Diversity: Evidence from Burkina Faso

Background: The diets of millions of poor individuals lack adequate amount of essential nutrients. Objective: To examine the determinants of household dietary diversity in Burkina Faso and assess whether the choice of a diversity metric matters. Methods: Using survey data from 2014, we construct 3 metrics—Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), Berry Index (BI), and Healthy Food Diversity Index (HFDI). Unlike the oft-used HDDS, the BI captures the quantity distribution of food items while the HFDI captures all 3 aspects of a healthy diet—count, quantity distribution, and health value. We fit linear (for BI and HFDI) and Poisson (for HDDS) models controlling for several socioeconomic and climatic covariates. Results: Some parameter estimates are sensitive to the diversity metric with fewer significant covariates observed in the HFDI model. Overall, diets are more diverse for households in urban areas, with female or better educated heads, with higher asset-based wealth and with more diverse on-farm production, while remoteness reduces dietary diversity. Higher precipitation seems to reduce diversity, potentially driven by the spatial heterogeneity in precipitation and on-farm production diversity. Conclusions: The sensitivity of estimates to the metric used underscores potentially more complex interactions that determine the quantity distribution of food items consumed. Policies that enhance on-farm production diversity, market access, and women’s empowerment may help improve dietary diversity and subsequent nutritional benefits. Efforts should be made to compile health value data that are relevant to developing countries facing nutrition transition.

Women empowerment, Land Tenure and Property Rights, and household food security among smallholders in Nigeria

Background Empowering women, land tilting to enhance the security of Land Tenure and Property Rights (LTPRs) in agriculture vis-a-vis food and nutrition security are crucial in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. The main goal of this paper is to examine the crucial roles of women’s empowerment and LTPRs as they affect household food security among smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Methodology Cross-sectional data were obtained from 1152 maize and rice farmers, selected by multistage random sampling across 192 communities, 16 States and the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. The data were collected on households’ socio-economics, food security situations, empowerment and LTPRs on parcels cultivated during the 2016/17 farming season by interviewing the adult members of the farmers’ households. HFS was assessed using the United States Department of Agriculture’ HFS Survey Module and Food and Agriculture Organization guidelines for measuring Household Dietary Diversity Score. LTPRs were measured in terms of tenure type and title registration to farmlands. HFS modelling was within the framework of Poisson, Instrumental Variable Poisson (IVP) and Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression methods, with endogeneity concerns and choice of specification addressed within Hausman specification tests. Results The results of the study show that households that have a share of farmland on purchase and also participate in off-farm activities are likely to be certainly food-secure in all regards. Crop diversity, households that cultivate maize only, the share of farmland on purchase and access to extension contact significantly reduce the severity of food insecurity while an increase in farm size increases the severity of food insecurity. Similarly, IV Poisson and ZIP Count results show that increase in the farm size results in the severity of food insecurity. The evidence with respect to women’s empowerment reveals that gender parity and female achievement in group membership, income control, as well as workload; reduce the extent of food insecurity among the farming households in Nigeria. We, however, discover that the female achievement in the productive decision and credit increases the severity of food insecurity among the smallholder farmers. The analyses also reveal that education of the household head, female achievement in the asset; group membership and workload are the major factors that positively influenced household dietary diversity. Conclusion The study suggests the adoption of climate-smart practices to overcome the issue of marginal farmlands, promotion of crop and livelihood diversification among the smallholder farmers, effective extension services delivery, and improving women’s access to productive resources to enhance household food security status in Nigeria.

Does adoption of agroforestry increase farm production and dietary diversity in the hills of Nepal?

There are few studies on the influence of agroforestry intervention in the farming and food system. We thus conducted this study to assess farm production diversity and household dietary diversity in the coffee-based agroforestry in Deusa village, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. This study collected data through questionnaire survey, food diary checklist for 24 hours diet recall, transect walk, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. We compared farm production diversity and household dietary diversity scores between two agroforestry types - traditional and coffee-based. We used Pearson’s Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact tests to assess the association between agroforestry type and 16 food groups wise consumption. Results showed that the farm production diversity is positively associated with the household dietary diversity. Among 16 food groups, households under coffee-based agroforestry system were more likely to consume dark green leafy vegetables (Chi square- 5.385; df=1; p<0.05), and descriptive statistics showed relatively higher consumption for most of the other food groups. It indicates that agroforestry intervention can be beneficial to improve farm production diversity and household dietary diversity in the longer run. Thus, agroforestry promotion is not only important in enhancing biodiversity and farm income but also equally vital in improving food and nutrition security for smallholders.

Impact of Farm and Non-Farm Micro-Enterprise Diversifications on Household Dietary Diversity in Malawi

Micro-enterprising is crucial for improving rural households’ food and nutrition status in subsistence agrarian economy like Malawi. There are no studies that have concurrently analyzed the roles of farm and non-farm micro-enterprise diversity on household dietary diversity (proxy measure of household food access) in Malawi. With the following objectives, the study jointly (1) analyzed the effects of farm and non-farm micro-enterprises diversifications on rural household food access, and (2) analyzed relevant socio-economic and institutional factors on household dietary diversity in selected districts of Malawi. Data were collected from 1827 households; whereby 779 households were engaged in some kind of farm and non-farm micro-enterprises in six districts with high concentration of micro-businesses and population densities. Both parametric and parametric descriptive statistics, Poisson and Negative Binomial regressions were used for estimations. Of all the factors associated with household dietary diversity, farm and non-farm enterprise diversity, as well as expenditure on food items had played major roles in influencing household dietary diversity. Increasing farm and non-farm micro-enterprise diversity by one micro-business group is associated with the possibility of consuming or having access to all 12 groups of food by the households. Holding other things constant, it is surprisingly found that nutrition education (34.2%, ρ=0.000<0.001) influenced household food dietary diversity more than household heads with formal education (average 5 years of schooling); suggesting that nutrition education, if directly delivered to the household heads regardless of their formal education level, is one of the major factors that can positively and significantly affect household dietary diversity in Malawi. These results also resonate to the Government of Malawi’s overarching policy goal of furthering income-generating social and economic activities in order to become less reliant on hand-outs and donors at large. Besides increasing only starchy staple food or monotonous cereal-based diet through various agricultural subsidy programmes, such micro-enterprising programs are also needed to enhance by targeting energy and nutritious food supply that are essential if the country is aiming to expand its industry and service sector with healthy population.

Household Food Insecurity and Dietary Diversity Among Kenyan Households During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objectives This study compares 1) household food insecurity and 2) household dietary diversity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 3) examines self-reported coping strategies among three communities around Lake Victoria, Kenya. Methods We conducted in-person home interviews with 90 randomly selected households in March 2020 prior to the first reported case of COVID-19 in Kenya and followed up with 88 of these same households by phone in June 2020 during COVID-19. We assessed household food insecurity status using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and assessed dietary diversity using the Household Dietary Diversity Score. We compared differences in household food insecurity scores and prevalence across time using the paired T-test and McNemar's test, respectively. We compared household dietary diversity scores and the proportion of households consuming each food group across time using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and McNemar's test for paired samples, respectively. Results The prevalence of severe food insecurity increased from 82% before COVID-19 to 91% during COVID-19 (P = 0.03) and household dietary diversity scores fell from 9.5 ± 1.5 to 8.6 ± 1.5 (P &lt; 0.001). Households coped by reducing their food intake at mealtimes, borrowing money from family and friends, and purchasing food on credit. Conclusions These findings demonstrate a high and growing level of vulnerability faced by these communities. Strategies to address food insecurity and access to diverse foods during the COVID-19 pandemic are urgently needed. Funding Sources Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability