No abstract

Food security is a global challenge and threatens mainly smallholder farmers in developing countries. The main aim of this paper is to determine factors that are associated with food security in Zambia. This study utilizes the household questionnaire survey dataset of 400 smallholder farmers in four districts conducted in southern Zambia in 2016. To measure food security, the study employs two food security indicators, namely the food consumption score (FCS) and the household hunger scale (HHS). Two ordered probit models are estimated with the dependent variables FCS and HHS. Both the FCS and HHS models’ findings reveal that higher education levels of household head, increasing livestock income, secure land tenure, increasing land size, and group membership increase the probability of household food and nutrition security. The results imply that policies supporting livestock development programs such as training of farmers in animal husbandry, as well as policies increasing land tenure security and empowerment of farmers groups, have the potential to enhance household food and nutrition security.

Many countries promote food security through agricultural policies to boost agricultural productivity without looking at the effect of such policies on sustainability. This study investigates the effect of agricultural policies and land ownership on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection from a survey of 288 smallholder farmers in November 2018. The results of the Logistic Regression Model revealed that programs affected the adoption of SAP. Farmers that participated in E-wallet were more likely to adopt fertiliser trees and use animal manure and were less likely to adopt planting basins than non-users. Farmers who participated in Fadama were less likely to adopt crop diversification. Participation in Farmers’ Field School (FFS) contributed to a greater likelihood of farmers adopting crop diversification and cover crops. Landowner farmers were found to be more likely to adopt mulching and less likely to adopt fertiliser trees. This study provides practical implications to foster sustainability through effective agricultural policies and land ownership to facilitate sustainable agricultural practice adoption rates.