Abstract
We explore the utility of a consumption coping strategy index (CSI) in characterising and assessing the factors influencing household food insecurity. We assessed 53 pastoral and 197 agro-pastoral households in Nakasongola and Nakaseke districts of Uganda, examining the use of 27 consumption coping strategies over a recall time of two 30-day periods, one at the start of a dry season in 2012 and one at the start of a rainy season in 2013. Four categorical food insecurity status measures were established - food secure (CSI 0 to 5) and mildly (CSI 6 to 20), moderately (CSI 21 to 42) and extremely (CSI >42) food insecure. For the dry season, the mean CSI was 29.4 ± 2.59 and 33.6 % of households were food secure, while for the rains, mean CSI was 33.1 ± 2.30 and 14.0 % of households were food secure. The combination of livelihood system, land holdings, number of livestock owned and belonging to a social network explained 9.4 % to 10 % of the variance in household food insecurity for agro-pastoralists, but variance for pastoralists was not explained by these factors. While the only highly significant factor associated with increasing household food insecurity in the dry season was low landholdings, in the rainy season, it was pastoral livelihood, low livestock holdings for agro-pastoralists and non-involvement in social networks. While our model identified a number of factors important in describing household food insecurity, it explained only about 10 % of the variance.
Highlights
The term ‘food insecurity’ is applied to a wide range of phenomena, from famine to periodic hunger to uncertain food supply (FAO 2003)
Climatic season and livelihood system were quite important in relation to the state of food insecurity
Even as pastoralists demonstrated higher movement out of food security to food insecurity between seasons, they manifested a higher percentage of extremely food insecure households than agro-pastoralists
Summary
The term ‘food insecurity’ is applied to a wide range of phenomena, from famine to periodic hunger to uncertain food supply (FAO 2003). It is distinct in that it queries household behaviours directly and factors in the severity of different behaviours (Maxwell et al 2008a) It is an approach factoring in severity of household coping behaviours based on people’s own perceptions and a comparative measure that can monitor changes among households, Based on the poverty and hunger index, as a measure of food insecurity and humanitarian need, Uganda was at one time ranked seventh out of the top 10 worst cases (Maxwell et al 2008b). This study explores utility of the consumption CSI in describing the relative prevalence of household food insecurity and assesses the factors influencing it in pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in two different seasons
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