Food Surplus Area Research Articles

Paradox of Food and Nutrition Insecurity in Food Surplus Area of Haramaya District, Eastern Ethiopia

Food and nutrition insecurity are inability to access adequate amount of nutritious foods to meet dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. However, food and nutrition insecurity, in some part of Ethiopia, is very high though food is not scarce. Therefore, a survey was conducted to investigate food consumption and dietary habits of the population in the district. A questionnaire and focus group discussions were used for data collection. Data were collected on available food sources and habits of consumption in purposively selected four kebeles in the district. Data were specifically collected on utilization and eating habit of cereal grains, legumes, fruit, vegetables, and animal food sources. A total of 150 representative sample households were interviewed based on the population size of the study area. The result obtained from the survey indicated that cereal grains (34.9%), legumes & pulses (28.5%), fruit & vegetables (16.8%), meat and poultry (19.8%) products are commonly produced in many parts of the study area. The study indicated that the population entirely consumes cereal grains that are mainly sources of carbohydrate, with minimal consumption of other food types. Though there are surplus food items in the study area, there is poor utilization and undiversified consumption habit. This indicates that the area is vulnerable for food and nutrition insecurity. Therefore, knowledge on proper utilization of local existing food sources for enhancing food and nutrition security is essential. Awareness creation on benefits and preparation of balanced diet at household level from local food sources is a vital to improve food and nutrition security in the study area.

EFFECT OF ELEVATION AND SLOPE ON FOOD AVAILABILITY IN THE POVERTY AREA IN LEBAK REGENCY, BANTEN PROVINCE

<p><span lang="IN"><span style="font-size: medium;">The availability of food <span>in</span> a region is the most important thing for human development. Food is a major problem in <span>poor families</span>. Lebak Regency is a pocket of poverty located in Banten Province. The objectives of the study analyzed (1) spatial pattern of food availability level in Lebak Regency; (2) the relationship between elevation and slope to the area of food availability in Lebak Regency; (3) the relationship of food <span>available</span> to <span>poor families</span>. The method of analysis used in this study is spatial analysis <span> </span>and statistical analysis (<span>Chi-Square</span>). The results conclusion that: first, the high availability of food surplus area <span>spread</span> outside the capital of Lebak Regency. <span>Second, the elevation and slope had no effect on food availability; Third, the poor rural families are concentrated in the southern part of Lebak Regency, while urban poor located in the northern part, especially in the capital of Lebak Regency; Fourth, the relationship between food availability and the percentage of poor families is not significant at α = 0.05</span></span></span><span lang="IN">.</span></p>

English

The agro-climatic conditions in western Kenya present the region as a food surplus area yet people are still reliant on food imports, with the region registering high poverty levels. Depletion of soil fertility and the resulting decline in agricultural productivity in Mbale division has led to many attempts to develop and popularize Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) technologies that could restore soil fertility. These technologies bridge the gap between high external inputs and extreme forms of traditional low external input agriculture. Some of the ISFM components used by farmers are organic and inorganic inputs and improved seeds. However, the adoption of these technologies is low. The study aimed to examine the factors that influence the adoption of ISFM technologies by smallholder farmers in Mbale division, Kenya. The study was conducted in 9 sub-locations in Mbale division. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the 80 farmers to get the data based on a farm-household survey. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data on the determinants of the adoption of ISFM technologies from the sampled farmers in the study area. The study sought to answer the research question: What factors influence the uptake of ISFM technologies by farmers in Mbale division? The hypothesis tested was that the adoption of ISFM technologies is not influenced by age, education, extension services, labour, off-farm income and farm size. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Cross tabulation was used for examining the relationship between categorical (nominal or ordinal) variables, and the bivariate correlations procedure was used to compute the pair wise associations between scale or ordinal variables. Probit regression was used to predict the socio-economic factors influencing the adoption of ISFM technologies among smallholder farmers. Results of the study indicated that education of household head, membership in social groups, age of the household head, off-farm income and farm size were the variables that significantly influenced the adoption of ISFM technologies. The findings show that there is need for a more pro-poor focused approach to achieve sustainable soil fertility management among smallholder farmers. The findings will help farmers, extension officers, researchers and donors in identifying region-specific entry points that can help in developing innovative ISFM technologies. Keywords: Soil fertility, adoption, smallholder farmer, integrated soil fertility management

Magnitude and determinants of stunting in children underfive years of age in food surplus region of Ethiopia: The case of West Gojam Zone

Background: Child malnutrition is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. Surprisingly, the highest level of stunting is found in food surplus areas of the country. Objective: To identify the determinants of stunting in food surplus areas of West Gojam Zone. Method: A community based cross-sectional survey was conducted on 622 mother-child pairs of 0-59 month old children in Mecha and Wenberma Woredas of West Gojam Zone, Northern Ethiopia between May and June 2006. The study investigated the differential impact of demographic and socio-economic factors, health related factors and dietary factors on stunting among under-five children. Both bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis (logistic regression model) were used to identify the determinants of under-five stunting. Results: The analyses revealed that 43.2 (12.0-17.6) 95% CI percent of the children under age five were suffering from chronic malnutrition, 14.8 (39.3-47.1) 95% CI percent were acutely malnourished and 49.2 (45.3-53.1) 95% CI percent were found to be under-weight. The main contributing factors for under-five stunting were found to be sex of the child, child’s age, diarrhea episode, deprivation of colostrum, duration of breastfeeding, pre-lacteal feeds, type of food, age of introduction of complementary feeding and method of feeding. Conclusion: The findings of this study led to the realization that inappropriate feeding practice is the principal risk factor which brought about nutritional deprivation among under-five children in food surplus areas of Ethiopia. Thus, the importance of appropriate feeding during infancy and childhood cannot be overstated even in food surplus areas. The high prevalence of malnutrition in the study area points out the need to revisit the impression held by many people that malnutrition is not a problem in food surplus areas. Development and implementation of preventive policies aimed at addressing child malnutrition should also consider food surplus areas of the country. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2009;23(2):98-106]

Effect of unusual weather on cereal crop production and household food security

For the third consecutive year, drought conditions have been severely affecting agricultural production in Nepal and in some cases turning traditionally surplus production areas into deficit ones. In addition to the heavily drought affected Mid- and Far-Western Regions, flood exacerbated by hailstones and
 crop diseases in various VDCs caused extensive crop loss. Drought particularly affected the traditionally food surplus areas of the Eastern Terai, particularly Siraha, Saptari and Dhanusha which reported a decline in paddy production of about 30%. A total of 109,855 hectares of paddy land (7.09%) remained fallow in 2006/07 as farmers were unable to plant due to drought. In addition, yields were lower by
 almost 6%. Paddy crop production consequently declined by 12.5 % compared to last year. The total food grain shortfall for the year 2006/07 has been calculated at 187,748 Mt assuming favorable weather conditions for the winter crop wheat and barley. 
 
 The Journal of AGRICLUTURE AND ENVIRONMENT Vol. 8, 2007, pp. 20-29

Malnutrition in food-surplus areas: experience from nutritional surveillance for decentralized planning in Haiti.

In Haiti, a novel approach to nutritional surveillance was developed on the basis of a low-cost, simple-to-repeat set of household surveys in all nine administrative departments using sentinel community sites. This system allows each department to independently conduct follow-up surveys as needed. The results of the first round of surveys conducted in 1995 show lower malnutrition rates in typical food-deficient departments and high levels of malnutrition in several food-surplus areas. Further analyses underscore the importance of variables related to child-care practices and of care-enabling factors such as household food security, health environment, and caregivers' time and education. These findings challenge the traditional thinking among a majority of Haitian policy makers who look at the malnutrition problem solely from the perspective of local food production.

Benefit‐Cost Analysis of Surfaced Roads in the Eastern Rice Region of India

In a recent study, Easter, Abel, and Norton attempted to measure the contribution of various inputs to total output in the eastern rice region (ERR) of India.1 They included both the traditional inputs such as land, labor, and fertilizer as well as nontraditional inputs such as irrigation, technology, environmental factors, and infrastructure. They estimated production functions in log form using district level data and found that the production elasticity on surfaced roads was highly significant and very stable under alternative equation specifications. The present research note uses their estimated production elasticity on surfaced roads (0.208) in estimating a benefit-cost measure of public investment in surfaced roads in the ERR. In this paper, a model is set up to estimate the benefits, then costs are estimated, and, finally, the estimated benefits and costs are joined together in a benefitcost ratio. According to the Easter-Abel-Norton (EAN) study: Surfaced roads appear to be important in explaining productivity differences among districts. . . The absence of roads in a heavy rainfall area such as the rice region has the effect of raising input prices paid by farmers and lowering output prices received by them due to higher transportation costs. Following this, the benefits of public investment in surfaced roads may be assessed as follows. Consider figure 1, which depicts the basic economic interrelationships between the rural producing and consuming sector, the marketing sector, and the nonrural consuming sector. Figure 1(a) describes the supply (S) and demand (D) curves for the rural or food surplus area. Figure 1(b) describes the excess supply (ES) curve from this area and a demand (DU) curve for the urban or food deficit area. Figure 1(c) describes the supply (SM) and demand (DM) curves for marketing services, where the supply of marketing services are assumed to be perfectly elastic over the observed range of services supplied. This is thought to be reasonable, in the absence of congestion costs, following some earlier research (for example, Ruttan).2 Using a perfectly competitive model, the last mentioned curve is a vertical subtraction of the ES from the DU curve.