Abridged of PhD Dissertation: Household Food Insecurity in the Sidama Zone of Southern Ethiopia: Factors, Coping and Adaptation Strategies

Better understanding of major determinants of food security at household level is important to design appropriate interventions in order to ensure food security for food insecure households in Ethiopia. This study was conducted to identify major factors influencing farm household food security and coping strategies employed to cope with food shortfall. Households’ daily calorie availability was measured to determine household food security status. A total of 130 randomly selected households from Mareko Woreda of Guraghe Zone in Southern Region were involved as source of information. The finding of the study shows that 62 % of sample households were food insecure. Despite the food secure households acquisition of adequate kilo calories they faced 2.46 food deficient months indicating the weekly calories availability per adult equivalent may not best describe food security status year round. The inferential analysis revealed that family size, size of cultivated land, number of oxen, contact with development agent, off-farm income, total farm income, livestock holding measured in tropical livestock unit, perception on absence of adequate rainfall and participation in food aid were significantly differ between food secure and insecure households. Logistic regression model resulted eleven significant variables at less than 10% probability level among 17 variables. These were age of household head, level of education, household size, size of cultivated land, use of improved seed, number of contact with development agents, size of credit received, size of livestock owned, and off-farm income per adult equivalent. The model estimate correctly predicted 90.8% of the sample cases, 90% for food secure and 91.3 for food insecure households. Coping strategies which were practiced by sample households at both initial and sever stages of food shortage are reducing number of meal, reducing size of meal, borrowing cash and grain and receiving food aid, sales of animals, participating in food for work programs, off-farm and non-farm jobs, rent out land and mortgage land. The study recommends that proactive policy in family planning, strengthening extension support, incorporating coping strategy in the government regular projects and programs, promoting land intensive and conservation agriculture should be integrated as food security efforts of the government.

Food Insecurity on College and University Campuses: A Context and Rationale for Solutions

A Consideration of the Evaluation of Demonstration Projects to End Childhood Hunger (EDECH)

The obesity epidemic is a major public health concern, where the prevalence rates amongst the American children population have more than doubled since the 1980s. Among overweight children, the risk of becoming an overweight or obese adult is 70% higher than children of normal weight, and obese children are more likely to remain obese into adulthood and face a number of morbidities associated with it, including lower quality of life and increased financial burden. In this research, we examined the relationship between household food security and obesity among children and adolescents between the ages of 2-18 years old. We used data from the NHANES 2005-2006 (n= 3,432). Amongst the children aged 2-18 years, 31.21% were determined to be obese or at-risk for obesity. Children aged 2-18 years were 1.27 times more likely to be obese or at-risk when living in a food insecure household after adjusting for race/ethnicity. Adolescents aged 12-18 years were 1.47 times more likely to be obese or at-risk when living in a food insecure household. No significant association was found for young children aged 2-11 years. After adjusting for race/ethnicity and poverty level status, however, the association between food insecurity and obesity was not significant for either age group. Further investigation of other potential confounders could explain the association for both young children and adolescents. There are other factors, like social and societal, that influence the trends of obesity. Future programming could work to ameliorate the conditions of food insecurity and other infrastructure factors.

Comparing Food Security Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Considerations When Choosing Measures

Climate change is a pervasive global issue that threatens the livelihoods and wellbeing of billions living globally. Climate change is a risk multiplier impacting all ecosystems, society, and sectors of the economy. The agriculture sector is one such sector that is highly vulnerable to changes in climate. In a country like Nepal where rainfed agriculture is a dominant occupation and a key pillar of the country’s economy, climate change brings risks and negative consequences for on-farm production, farmers' livelihoods as well as on the country’s development. The impacts of climate change including rising temperatures, an increase in the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events such as drought, and shifts in the rainfall seasonality, can cause a decline in food production and threaten the quality of food supplies, leading to reduced food security. The rise in the global population will increase global demand for food which implies that agriculture needs to boost production and increase yields, among other things. The unprecedented risks posed by climate change potentially undermine the ability of farms and farm holders to grow adequate and quality food. The severity of these risks varies due to a range of underlying factors including low economic development, their location, existing biophysical and socioeconomic conditions, and institutional arrangements. While the impacts of climate change on food production as well as agricultural practices in Nepal have been documented, there is a dearth in scholarly literature that has assessed the impacts of climate change on household food security in Nepal incorporating farmers’ perspectives and in particular smallholder subsistence farmers. Furthermore, there is only modest literature that has examined geographical variations in those experiences and understandings. This PhD study aimed, therefore, to investigate the effects of climate change on agricultural practices and food security, with a focus on subsistence smallholder farmers in three main agro- ecological zones of Nepal known as The Mountains, Hills, and the Terai. The study aimed to respond to the primary research question: How are Nepalese farming communities being impacted by climate change and how are they responding to ensure their continued food security? To answer this main research, question the study posed the following secondary research questions: Q1. How is climate changing and how is it impacting subsistence agriculture? Q2. What are the farmers experiencing and what is their understanding? a. Are there gender differences in understanding and experiencing? Q3. What is the state of food insecurity among these farmers? a. How is it being impacted by climate change? Q4. What adaptation strategies have been adopted by smallholder farmers to address threats to agricultural practices and food security from climate change and other pressures? Both the qualitative and qualitative data were collected using multiple methods to address the identified research questions. Methods included a narrative literature review, systematic review, face to face interviews with farmers, individual interviews with key informants and focus groups with the women's group. Climate data on temperature between 1971-2013 and rainfall between 1967-2013 were analysed. Additionally, secondary data on crop yield from 1980 to 2016 were also analysed to gain a better empirical understanding of the relations between climate change and yield pattern and to triangulate and validate the findings from the interviews. Quantitative data on cereal crop yields and climate data were systematically tabulated and further statistically analysed using software R. This study employed the Bayesian approach to statistical modelling. Besides, this study undertook an integrated risk assessment of food insecurity using the Bayesian Belief Network model to reflect how the risk of food insecurity is influenced under two scenarios: (1) current climate conditions and (2) the influences of different adaptation strategies employed. NVivo was used for content analysis for qualitative data obtained from the key informant interview and focus group data and analysis of transcripts from farmers' structured interviews. The findings showed that agricultural practices have undergone various changes over the past 30 years. Climate change impacts were experienced by farmers in all three agro-ecological zones of Nepal. However, the impacts varied between these zones in terms of frequency and intensity. The effect of climate change was highly pronounced in the Mountains zone followed by the Hills and the Terai. The results confirmed that rural subsistence smallholder farmers dependent on rainfed agriculture are vulnerable to climate change impacts. Moreover, it disproportionately affects the poor farmers whose income hinges solely on agriculture and associated activities. Boosting agricultural production and empowering these smallholders is key to enhancing their food security. The experiences reported by farmers are well aligned with the trend of the climatic variables obtained from climate data analysis, highlighting the importance of perception-based survey in complementing climate research. The study demonstrated both the climatic and non-climatic factors are affecting agricultural practices as well as household food security of these farming communities. It is, therefore, difficult to isolate the influence of any of these factors. This was supported by the findings from the risk assessment undertaken by Bayesian modelling. Based on Bayesian modelling, the smallholder farmers mainly at the Mountain zone were at the risk of food insecurity. The measures to increase the adaptive capacity of these smallholders were found to help them manage the risk of food insecurity. Addressing the complicated and multifaceted concerns of climate change and food security needs multidisciplinary and multisectoral adaptation interventions acknowledging underlying biophysical, social, economic, geographical and environmental circumstances. Farmers have taken some actions to adapt and reduce the worsening impacts of climate change. Nevertheless, farmers encountered several barriers in effectively adapting to climate change. This study concluded there is an urgent need for a transformative level of intervention that warrants a coordinated action and collaboration between relevant stakeholders working in this field, including governments and non-governmental organizations, to target the most vulnerable and the needy smallholder farmers addressing the constraints and pressures they face. Policy and decision-makers should work extensively and sensitively with smallholders to ensure the maintenance of their livelihood and to guarantee their food security. Combining local and scientific knowledge is needed to help direct research and tailor adaptation solutions that meet local conditions and needs.

Assessing Gender Inequality in Food Security among Small-holder Farm Households in urban and rural South Africa

One of the main development goals of Nepal is to reduce the number of chronically undernourished people all over the country by half by the year 2015. In consonance to this, this study examines food security and its relationship with socio-economic characteristics among rural households in the remote western mountains of Nepal. Accordingly, the relationship between household's resource endowment and food security status was analyzed based on the calorie requirement for all household members according to their sex and age. The food security measures applied in this paper are Head Count Method, Food Insecurity Gap, and Squared Food Insecurity Gap to capture successively more detailed aspects of the food insecurity status of the household. It was found that majority of the households in the region are food insecure and depth and severity of food insecurity varies according to socio-economic characteristics of the households. Resources are disproportionately distributed in favor of higher castes and these groups are more food secure as compared to lower caste people. As compared to food insecure households food secure households have small family size, lower dependency ratio, higher percentage of irrigated land, and more total land and livestock holdings. Hence, it is concluded that food security strategies should consider socio-economic characteristics of households in order to achieve more than a marginal reduction in the number of chronically undernourished people.

The study was conducted to determine of food security status of dairy households in char areas of Bangladesh and to identify the major constraints faced by the dairy farmers. A total of 600 poorest households with dairying were selected out of 1323 households from each upazila of Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi of Bogra, Jamalpur and Sirajganj districts, respectively using simple random sampling technique. To identify the factors influencing the food security status of farming households, food security index (Z), food insecurity gap/surplus index (P) and the head count ratio (H) were calculated. The food security indices before and after intervention of the project were0.87, 0.89, 0.91; and 1.02, 1.02, and 1.04 for Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi upazilas for food secured households, respectively whereas for food insecure households, the figures were 0.63, 0.55, 0.64; and 0.72, 0.64, and 0.74, respectively. Before the project intervention, the values of food surplus indices in the case of food secure households were 0.01, 0.01 and 0.09 which had increased to 0.04, 0.04 and 0.14 after the intervention in Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi upazilas, respectively. On the other hand, the values of food shortfall indices in case of the food insecure households in Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi upazilas had decreased from -0.35, -0.45 and -0.33 to -0.27, -0.36 and -0.26, respectively after the intervention. The problems related to rising of dairy animals were lack of capital with CFI 33 was ranked as 1st, whereas, high cost of milk collection and delivery with CFI 28, poor communication and transport facilities with CFI 26, lack of market information with CFI 26, irregular payment with CFI 26 and scattered milk production with CFI 25 were ranked as 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, respectively. Diversified job opportunities, mobilization of resources and credit allocation are needed for enhancing dairy farming and ensuring food security in the study areas. The problems related to rising of dairy animals were lack of storage facilities with CFI 651 was ranked as 1st, whereas, lack of adequate capital with CFI 626, expensive and inadequate feed supply with CFI 622, low quality feed with CFI 598, and lack of transportation and communication facilities with CFI 550 were ranked as 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively.

The Need for Investment in Rigorous Interventions to Improve Child Food Security

Agriculture production is directly dependent on climate change and weather. Possible changes in temperature, precipitation and CO2 concentration are expected to significantly impact crop growth and ultimately we lose our crop productivity and indirectly affect the sustainable food availability issue. The overall impact of climate change on worldwide food production is considered to be low to moderate with successful adaptation and adequate irrigation. Climate change has a serious impact on the availability of various resources on the earth especially water, which sustains life on this planet. The global food security situation and outlook remains delicately imbalanced amid surplus food production and the prevalence of hunger, due to the complex interplay of social, economic, and ecological factors that mediate food security outcomes at various human and institutional scales. Weather aberration poses complex challenges in terms of increased variability and risk for food producers and the energy and water sectors. Changes in the biosphere, biodiversity and natural resources are adversely affecting human health and quality of life. Throughout the 21st century, India is projected to experience warming above global level. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers. Longevity of heat waves across India has extended in recent years with warmer night temperatures and hotter days, and this trend is expected to continue. Strategic research priorities are outlined for a range of sectors that underpin global food security, including: agriculture, ecosystem services from agriculture, climate change, international trade, water management solutions, the water-energy-food security nexus, service delivery to smallholders and women farmers, and better governance models and regional priority setting. There is a need to look beyond agriculture and invest in affordable and suitable farm technologies if the problem of food insecurity is to be addressed in a sustainable manner. Introduction Globally, agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. This vulnerability is relatively higher in India in view of the large population depending on agriculture and poor coping capabilities of small and marginal farmers. Impacts of climate change pose a serious threat to food security. “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit, 1996). This definition gives rise to four dimensions of food security: availability of food, accessibility (economically and physically), utilization (the way it is used and assimilated by the human body) and stability of these three dimensions. According to the United Nations, in 2015, there are still 836 million people in the world living in extreme poverty (less than USD1.25/day) (UN, 2015). And according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at least 70 percent of the very poor live in rural areas, most of them depending partly (or completely) on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is estimated that 500 million smallholder farms in the developing world are supporting almost 2 billion people, and in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa these small farms produce about 80 percent of the food consumed. Climate change threatens to reverse the progress made so far in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. As highlighted by the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC), climate change augments and intensifies risks to food security for the most vulnerable countries and populations. Few of the major risks induced by climate change, as identified by IPCC have direct consequences for food security (IPCC, 2007). These are mainly to loss of rural livelihoods and income, loss of marine and coastal ecosystems, livelihoods loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems and food insecurity (breakdown of food systems). Rural farmers, whose livelihood depends on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. Most of the crop simulation model runs and experiments under elevated temperature and carbon dioxide indicate that by 2030, a 3-7% decline in the yield of principal cereal crops like rice and wheat is likely in India by adoption of current production technologies. Global warming impacts growth, reproduction and yields of food and horticulture crops, increases crop water requirement, causes more soil erosion, increases thermal stress on animals leading to decreased milk yields and change the distribution and breeding season of fisheries. Fast changing climatic conditions, shrinking land, water and other natural resources with rapid growing population around the globe has put many challenges before us (Mukherjee, 2014). Food is going to be second most challenging issue for mankind in time to come. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers (Christensen et al., 2007). Climate change is posing a great threat to agriculture and food security in India and it's subcontinent. Water is the most critical agricultural input in India, as 55% of the total cultivated areas do not have irrigation facilities. Currently we are able to secure food supplies under these varying conditions. Under the threat of climate variability, our food grain production system becomes quite comfortable and easily accessible for local people. India's food grain production is estimated to rise 2 per cent in 2020-21 crop years to an all-time high of 303.34 million tonnes on better output of rice, wheat, pulse and coarse cereals amid good monsoon rains last year. In the 2019-20 crop year, the country's food grain output (comprising wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals) stood at a record 297.5 million tonnes (MT). Releasing the second advance estimates for 2020-21 crop year, the agriculture ministry said foodgrain production is projected at a record 303.34 MT. As per the data, rice production is pegged at record 120.32 MT as against 118.87 MT in the previous year. Wheat production is estimated to rise to a record 109.24 MT in 2020-21 from 107.86 MT in the previous year, while output of coarse cereals is likely to increase to 49.36 MT from 47.75 MT. Pulses output is seen at 24.42 MT, up from 23.03 MT in 2019-20 crop year. In the non-foodgrain category, the production of oilseeds is estimated at 37.31 MT in 2020-21 as against 33.22 MT in the previous year. Sugarcane production is pegged at 397.66 MT from 370.50 MT in the previous year, while cotton output is expected to be higher at 36.54 million bales (170 kg each) from 36.07. This production figure seem to be sufficient for current population, but we need to improve more and more with vertical farming and advance agronomic and crop improvement tools for future burgeoning population figure under the milieu of climate change issue. Our rural mass and tribal people have very limited resources and they sometime complete depend on forest microhabitat. To order to ensure food and nutritional security for growing population, a new strategy needs to be initiated for growing of crops in changing climatic condition. The country has a large pool of underutilized or underexploited fruit or cereals crops which have enormous potential for contributing to food security, nutrition, health, ecosystem sustainability under the changing climatic conditions, since they require little input, as they have inherent capabilities to withstand biotic and abiotic stress. Apart from the impacts on agronomic conditions of crop productions, climate change also affects the economy, food systems and wellbeing of the consumers (Abbade, 2017). Crop nutritional quality become very challenging, as we noticed that, zinc and iron deficiency is a serious global health problem in humans depending on cereal-diet and is largely prevalent in low-income countries like Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and South-east Asia. We report inefficiency of modern-bred cultivars of rice and wheat to sequester those essential nutrients in grains as the reason for such deficiency and prevalence (Debnath et al., 2021). Keeping in mind the crop yield and nutritional quality become very daunting task to our food security issue and this can overcome with the proper and time bound research in cognizance with the environment. Threat and challenges In recent years, climate change has become a debatable issue worldwide. South Asia will be one of the most adversely affected regions in terms of impacts of climate change on agricultural yield, economic activity and trading policies. Addressing climate change is central for global future food security and poverty alleviation. The approach would need to implement strategies linked with developmental plans to enhance its adaptive capacity in terms of climate resilience and mitigation. Over time, there has been a visible shift in the global climate change initiative towards adaptation. Adaptation can complement mitigation as a cost-effective strategy to reduce climate change risks. The impact of climate change is projected to have different effects across societies and countries. Mitigation and adaptation actions can, if appropriately designed, advance sustainable development and equity both within and across countries and between generations. One approach to balancing the attention on adaptation and mitigation strategies is to compare the costs and benefits of both the strategies. The most imminent change is the increase in the atmospheric temperatures due to increase levels of GHGs (Green House Gases) i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) etc into the atmosphere. The global mean annual temperatures at the end of the 20th

Obesity and Hunger Threaten the Foundations of Child Health

The Mount Bamboutos ecosystem constitutes part of the area with the second highest level of food insecurity in Cameroon. In order to check the diminishing biodiversity, there is an urgent need to develop a 25-year plan for the management of the Mount Bamboutos ecosystem biodiversity. This study seeks to examine the food security status of smallholder farming households, factors affecting household food security and coping strategies in case of food shortages. Households were selected through a simple random process from 11 villages around Mount Bamboutos and questionnaires administered to 261 household heads. The socio economic characteristics of the households were analysed. The main sources of income for farmers in the study area were crop production and animal production. The Household Food (In) Security Access Scale (HFIAS) was used to measure household food security. Forty five percent of the sampled households were food secure. Access to irrigation facility by household was positive and highly significantly (P<0.01) influenced household food security as well as the duration of household head in the village. The main coping strategies in case of food shortages used by the farmers were; eating same food and skipping meals. As a recommendation, irrigation facilities and training opportunities should be provided to smallholder farmers in the study area to ensure better crop production for food security.

Data for this paper were collected in Mbeya and Makete Districts, Tanzania, in 2012 from 233 households with the specific objectives to determine proportions of food secure and food insecure households; rank some indicators of entitlements and those of Malthusians, Anti-Malthusians and Woldemeskel‟s contentions with regard to their relationship with food security; and determine the impact of the above indicators on dietary energy consumed per adult equivalent per day, which was the dependent variable. The independent variables were household size, number of agricultural technologies used, number of cattle owned, income from non-agricultural activities, monetary values of household assets, farmer group membership, years of schooling of household head and kilograms of fertilizer used. The dependent variable was regressed on the eight independent variables to find the impact of each of them on it. Entitlement to food security in terms numbers of cattle owned, farmers‟ group membership and non-agricultural activities were found to be more important factors enhancing food security. Addressing these factors could improve food security in the study area. It is recommended that the government and policy makers should support farmers in other income generating activities besides agriculture to increase their purchasing power for higher food security.

Food and nutrition insecurity occurs when healthy and safe food cannot be obtained by socially acceptable means and arises as a result of complex interactions between socioeconomic and demographic determinants. These factors contribute to discrepancies in health and well-being between men and women and may also explain differential rates of food insecurity. The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to investigate the intersection between gender, education, nutrition knowledge and food security status within a high-income country context. Australian adults over 16years of age who identified as having primary responsibility for food in their household were recruited via social media and a panel. Respondents completed a self-administered survey that included sociodemographic data, nutrition-related knowledge and food security status. Food security was measured using the Australian Household Food and Nutrition Security Scale an adapted version of the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey. Among the 1010 survey respondents, household food insecurity (HFI) was highly prevalent (43% were food insecure, with 26% of these severely food insecure). Gender may affect associations between education, nutrition knowledge and HFI. Education was significantly associated with HFI among women but not among men. Conversely, nutrition knowledge was significantly inversely associated with food security among men but not among women. Differences in determinants of HFI exist between men and women, and programs aimed at addressing food insecurity may be more effective if tailored accordingly to account for the social and demographic factors associated with HFI.