Food Security and Nutritional Outcomes of Households Producing Selected Fruits and Vegetables in Kenya

Fruits and vegetables play very important roles in the livelihoods of both producers and consumers. However, commercialization of these horticultural value chains could result in farmers selling all their produce and using their economic benefits on other things other than nutrition of their households. This study investigated the food security and nutritional impacts of producers of select horticultural value chains of mango, tomato, and vegetable cowpeas. The study was conducted through household survey using a pretested questionnaire. The study areas were purposively selected based on predominance of the selected value chains. For mangoes, Makueni and Kilifi counties were selected. For tomatoes, Kajiado and Homabay counties were selected; while for cowpeas, Makueni and Kisumu counties were selected. The key nutritional indicator variables were analyzed including food expenditure, food security using Household Food Insecurity Access Scale tool and dietary quality using Dietary Quality Questionnaire for Kenya. The overall results showed that about 53.3% of all surveyed households were food secure, while 24.7% of the households were either moderately or severely food insecure. The dietary quality was quite similar across the various value chains except in Kilifi County where lower scores for the dietary quality indicators were realized. The multiple regression analysis indicated that the factors which significantly resulted to food insecurity and diet quality include the number of years spent in school by the household head, size of agricultural land, age of the household head and number of household members. Even though mango, tomatoes, and cowpeas, which are all commercial crops, presents a great advantage of nutrition and economic power to the farmers, the nutrition status of these farmers is still of concern. Factors, such as income, seasonal variation, limited nutrition knowledge, gender inequities, and environmental constraints, could be hindering the ability of farming households to achieve diverse and balanced diets. This points to a great need for interventions that enhance household food security among farming households such as promotion of nutrition sensitive agriculture, nutrition education and gender equity in household decision making.