Can smallholder fruit and vegetable production systems improve household food security and nutritional status of women?
Author | : Kabunga, Nassul |
Publisher | : Intl Food Policy Res Inst |
Total Pages | : 40 |
Release | : 2014-05-01 |
ISBN-10 | : |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 ( Downloads) |
Book excerpt: This paper aims to empirically infer potential causal linkages between fruit and vegetable (F&V) production, individual F&V intake, household food security, and anemia levels for individual women caregivers of childbearing age. Using a unique and rich dataset recently collected from rural smallholder Ugandan households, we show that the use of a qualitative tool to measure household food insecurity is robust and applicable in other contexts. We also show, using robust econometric methods, that women living in F&V-producer households have a significantly higher intake of F&Vs than those living in nonproducer households. Furthermore, F&V-producer households are potentially more food secure, and women caregivers in producer households have significantly higher levels of hemoglobin, rendering the prevalence rates of anemia lower among F&V-producer households. We argue that these effects, modest as they are, could be further improved if there were deliberate efforts to promote the intensification of smallholder F&V production.