Food security in the semi-arid Machakos county: a case study of Mwala sub-county

Abstract

Ensuring food security is a global significant challenge despite struggles to increase agricultural productivity, food distribution and identify appropriate policy interventions to cub food shortage. The recent recurrent incidences of food deficit in Kenya have placed the nation among the 20 most food insecure countries in the world. Food insecurity in the country is a prevalent issue since approximately 84% the country’s landmass is covered by arid and semi-arid land. Achieving sustainable food security in these regions is a major challenge. The sub-county of Mwala is located within the semi-arid marginal agricultural zone of the south-eastern and coastal lowlands. The zone is often drought prone, exposing its households to occasional chronic and recurrent acute food insecurity. To alleviate food insecurity in Mwala Sub-county, the study examined the level and knowledge of food security in Mwala sub-country and the factors that affect availability, access, utilization and stability of food and nutrition. The study examined how socio-economic, natural and physical factors influence food security and their impact on alleviation of food and nutritional deficits. The research approach involved exploratory, descriptive and participatory research designs. Purposive and simple random sampling methods were used to select four locations and a sample size of 84 farmers groups. The data was subjected to descriptive analysis using SPPS Version 21 and the relationship between variables determined using Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. A binomial logit model was employed to assess the factors affecting awareness of food security. The study showed that gender, education, and income of the households were the main determinants of food security awareness. The status of food security amongst residents of Mwala sub-county is very low as depicted by a 98% response. Only 2% of the respondents evaluated food security status in their households as food secure. Additionally, the model summary shows that 76.3% of variation in food security can be explained by the three predictors namely; natural factors, socio- economic factors and physical factors. This implies that the remaining 23.7% of the variation in food security could be accounted for by other factors not included in this study. These findings provide policy insights on key areas of intervention with respect to uptake of food security in the Sub-county, County and ultimately the country at large.