Determinants of household food access among small farmers in the Andes: examining the path

Abstract

Objective: Household food access remains a concern among primarily agricultural households in lower-and middle-income countries. We examined the associations among domains representing livelihood assets (human capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and financial capital) and household food access. Design: Cross-sectional survey (two questionnaires) on livelihood assets. Setting: Metropolitan Pillaro, Ecuador; Cochabamba, Bolivia; and Huancayo, Peru. Subjects: Households (n 570) involved in small-scale agricultural production in 2008. Results: Food access, defined as the number of months of adequate food provisioning in the previous year, was relatively good; 41 % of the respondents indicated to have had no difficulty in obtaining food for their household in the past year. Using bivariate analysis, key livelihood assets indicators associated with better household food access were identified as: age of household survey respondent (P 5 0?05), participation in agricultural associations (P 5 0?09), church membership (P 5 0?08), area of irrigated land (P 5 0?08), housing material (P 5 0?06), space within the household residence (P 5 0?02) and satisfaction with health status (P 5 0?02). In path models both direct and indirect effects were observed, underscoring the complexity of the relationships between livelihood assets and household food access. Paths significantly associated with better household food access included: better housing conditions (P 5 0?01), more space within the household residence (P 5 0?001) and greater satisfaction with health status (P 5 0?001). Conclusions: Multiple factors were associated with household food access in these peri-urban agricultural households. Food security intervention programmes focusing on food access need to deal with both agricultural factors and determinants of health to bolster household food security in challenging lower-and middle-income country contexts.

Food Access and Coping Strategies Adopted by Households to Fight Hunger among Indigenous Communities of Sierra Tarahumara in Mexico

“…Third, we considered a logical categorization of low, moderate and high food access to be ≤9, 10-11, and 12 respectively (12: a higher score represents a household that has more consistent food access all year round, and ≤9: low food access, implying at least a quarter of the year with food access problems) [16,19].…”

“…This tool captures changes in the capacity of the household to address vulnerability in such a way, that guarantees a supply above a minimum level throughout the year as well as, to identify the population's food deficiencies or excesses. It also provides the baseline for interventions that improve the food consumption in households [17][18][19].…”

Food security measurement in rural households: the case of indigenous communities in Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico

“…This index is administered to one household member who answers on behalf of the rest of the household (preferably the woman that cook food or household head). The stability of household food access is operationalized in the MAHFP as the adequacy of food provisions over a 12 month period (Swindale and Bilinsky, 2010;Leah et al 2012;Frayne and McCordic, 2015).…”

“…Third, we considered a logical categorization of low, moderate and high food access to be ≤ 9, 10-11, and 12 respectively (12: a higher score represents a household that has more consistent food access all year round, and ≤ 9: low food access, implying at least a quarter of the year with food access problems) (Swindale and Bilinsky, 2010;Leah et al 2012).…”

“…This tool captures changes in the capacity of the household to address vulnerability in such a way, that guarantees a supply above a minimum level throughout the year as well as, to identify the population's food deficiencies or excesses. It also provides the baseline for interventions that improve the food consumption in households (Leah et al 2012;De Cock et al 2013;Frayne and McCordic, 2015).…”