Impact of policies, strategies and agricultural institutions on food security and poverty status of vegetable farmers along the blue nile banks, Gezira State, Sudan (2017)

Abstract

Having clear picture on food security status and its major determinants helps policy makers and planners to introduce new policies that enhance food security. The study was aimed to evaluate the impact of policies, strategies and institution on food security and poverty status of the vegetables farmers in Gezira State with reference to the Blue Nile farmers. To achieve these objectives stratified random sampling technique was used to select the respondents from five localities lays along Blue Nile, so 150 farming households were interviewed. Food security Policy and strategy were collected by the mean of questionnaire targeting key line institutions. Poverty indices were calculated using expenditure as welfare indicator,Gini coefficient was applied. The results showed that the majority 75% of the respondents were above expenditure poverty line (7196)SDG. Moreover, the results showed that the poverty gap index was equal to five percent. Kamlin, Medani, East Gezira reported the higher expenditure distance from the poverty line (6 percent). The severity of poverty in the state is estimated to be two percent, likewise the severity of poverty in East Gezira was found to have a higher percentage (three percent). According to Gini coefficient the income distribution estimated at 0.46 while that for expenditure distribution is estimated at 0.31, these results showed a higher degree of inequality. The results showed that the poorest 20% of the population earned 0.06% of the total income while the richest 20% earned 45% of the total income. About 50.7% from the respondents use borrowing from others as one of their coping strategies. About 78%of policy makers said that there was organized team from all institutions dealing with food security and nutrition issue, all policy makers in the state said there was strategy concerning the food security and nutrition issues. The study recommended that the cash transfer needed to lift the poor out of poverty that each poor person needs five percent of the value of the poverty line.