Food Insecurity Leads to Lower Dietary Diversity Among Smallholder Farmers in Haiti

Abstract

Food insecurity (FI) (mild to severe) is highly prevalent amongst smallholder farmers in Haiti. This study is based on 500 surveys nationally distributed where FI was measured using the Latin American and Caribbean Household Food Security Scale which categorizes the households (HH) in food secure (FS=2.6%), mildly (7.2%), moderately (28.3%) and severely (62.0%) FI. Dietary Diversity Scores (DDS) were generated using the FAO's Household Dietary Diversity Index Guidelines. Results show that the DDS decreased significantly from mild (11.0) to moderate (10.0) to severe (9.4) FI levels, after controlling for number of children, gender of head of HH, daily per capita income, education, number of animals and land size. Furthermore, the number of total food items consumed decreased significantly from the mildly (34.3) to the moderately (25.9) and severely (22.5) FI households after controlling for the same variables. The decrease affected staple foods, eggs, dairy, meat/fish, fruits and vegetables. Sugar consumption remained the same in all groups. When compared to all foods consumed, the proportion of animal source foods decreased from FS HH (18.6%) to severely FI HH (11.6%) while the proportion of sugars and oils increased from FS HH (14.0%) to severely FI HH (18.6%). These results show that more severe FI in a HH, the lower the dietary diversity, as well as the intake of nutrient dense foods. Dietary diversity has been shown to imply nutrient adequacy and when compromised, results in poor health status. Furthermore, higher intakes of low nutrient dense foods like sugars and oils imply a need for appropriate interventions to improve access to a greater variety of nutrient dense foods in all FI groups.