Social Self-Organization and Social-Ecological Resilience in Food Systems: Lessons from Smallholder Agriculture in Kenya and Indigenous Guaraní Communities in Bolivia

Mukhovi, Stellah; Jacobi, Johanna; Llanque, Aymara; Rist, Stephan; Delgado, Freddy; Kiteme, Boniface; Speranza, Chinwe Ifejika

doi:10.18848/2160-1933/cgp/v10i01/19-42

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…Membership to farmer groups was significant for food security, underpinning the important role of social capital. This confirms the results of earlier studies [20,39,40] that found that membership to farmer groups matters regarding food security. Farmer groups and associations, particularly among smallholder farmers, have been found to be providers or enablers of marketing and access to financial and extension services [41].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Linking Household Food Security and Food Value Chains in North West Mt. Kenya

et al. 2020

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Smallholder farmers and pastoralists produce the largest proportion of food consumed in sub-Saharan Africa. However, they remain among the food insecure populations. This paper explores the food (in)security among smallholder farmers and pastoralists using a sample of 175 households in three agro-food value chains of wheat, dairy, and beef in the north-west Mt. Kenya region. The study seeks to answer if a farmer’s participation in a particular agro-food value chain determines his/her food security situation. We use the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and two Poisson regression models, parsimonious and full, to assess the household food security status and determinants of food security among the smallholder farmers and pastoralists. The results show that 61% of the households were either mildly, moderately, or severely food insecure. Households in the beef value chain experienced relatively higher incidences of food insecurity compared to households in the wheat and dairy value chains. The HFIAS scores revealed a wide gap between households with minimum and maximum score. Household size, income and income-related variables (ability to save and borrow to meet family needs), transport assets, membership in farmers’ associations, and household energy were significant in determining household food security, while access to credit and to extension services was not. Strategies that focus on boosting smallholder farmers’ incomes, building strong and resilient farmers associations to improve inclusive and equitable value chains have the potential to get smallholder farmers out of recurrent food insecurity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Linking Household Food Security and Food Value Chains in North West Mt. Kenya

et al. 2020

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“…This is an indication that smallholders may have the possibility to benefit as such from economies of scale by being organized in groups. Studies (Thomas et al, 2011;Fischer and Qaim, 2014;Mukhovi et al, 2020;Mwangi et al, 2020) have shown that smallholder farmers in developing countries like Kenya obtain economic and social benefits such as improved access to markets and market-related services, credit, information and training from group membership. With the devolution of agriculture in Kenya, we advocate for county-level government support to strengthen farmer groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Smallholder Farmer's Participation in the Wheat Value Chain in North-West Mt. Kenya

Mwangi¹,

Owuor²,

Kiteme³

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Wheat is the second most important carbohydrate staple in Kenya and is produced by both smallholder and large-scale farmers. Smallholders are the majority, but produce <20% of the total national production. Compared to large-scale farmers, they have been considered to be less efficient producers and thus fail to benefit fully from their participation in the wheat value chain. This study aims at establishing the value accruing to smallholder and large-scale farmers participating in wheat production in north-west Mt. Kenya. For comparative purposes and to explore the potential of smallholder farmers, a sample of 58 smallholder and seven large-scale farmers was selected for the study. We use budget analysis to determine the gross output, cost of production and gross margins attained by the smallholder and large-scale farmers. Further, an analysis of constraints to productivity is done to establish the factors hindering farmers from reaching high yield potential. Results of the study show that smallholder farmers obtain lower yields, have higher costs of production per bag of wheat and lower gross margins compared to large-scale farmers. High cost of inputs, low market prices, low bargaining power, high cost of machinery services, diseases and weeds were among factors excluding smallholder farmers from benefitting from their participation in the value chain. However, results also show that smallholder farmers can produce wheat profitably albeit with necessary support. Thus, interventions should consider these constraints and aim at improving smallholder farmers' horizontal and vertical integration in the value chain. We recommend continued investment in research and development on wheat, adoption of climate resilient agricultural practices, improvements in the fertilizer subsidy programme and creating or increasing participation in producer groups that will provide possibilities of increased bargaining power and reduction of costs through improved access to machinery services, markets and credit.

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“…Social-ecological resilience 23,24,[33][34][35] Resilience of the food system in terms of buffer capacity, self-organization, and the capacity for learning and adaptation…”

Section: Description Indicators Food System Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participatory land use mapping was conducted on nine farms providing data on landscape heterogeneity 23 . The other resilience indicators were covered through 77 interviews in total: 25 smallholders; 20 pastoralists, five managers of horticultural companies; five retailers/middlemen, three wholesalers, and five restaurants; 14 organizations that deal with resilience building and risk mitigation (NGOs, a nutritional health expert, representatives of the national and county governments of Laikipia and Meru, relevant ministries, and research organizations) 24,33 . As in the case of the indicator for environmental performance, as the 100% value we took the highest value found in the sample each for Kenya and Bolivia.…”

Section: Right To Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The greatest contributor to these high scores was environmental performance: both food systems demonstrated a high capacity to provide agroecosystem services (e.g. through crop diversity or combining livestock with trees 29,33 ); low external inputs and recycling of organic materials; a low carbon footprint; and perceived positive health impacts by producers, workers and consumers. The food system that scored highest (4.0) in environmental performance is the Domestic-indigenous food system (B2).…”

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A new understanding and evaluation of food sustainability in six different food systems in Kenya and Bolivia

Jacobi

Mukhovi

Llanque

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Food systems must become more sustainable and equitable, a transformation which requires the transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. We present a framework of food sustainability that was co-created by academic and non-academic actors and comprises five dimensions: food security, right to food, environmental performance, poverty and inequality, and social-ecological resilience. For each dimension, an interdisciplinary research team—together with actors from different food systems—defined key indicators and empirically applied them to six case studies in Kenya and Bolivia. Food sustainability scores were analysed for the food systems as a whole, for the five dimensions, and for food system activities. We then identified the indicators with the greatest influence on sustainability scores. While all food systems displayed strengths and weaknesses, local and agroecological food systems scored comparatively highly across all dimensions. Agro-industrial food systems scored lowest in environmental performance and food security, while their resilience scores were medium to high. The lowest-scoring dimensions were right to food, poverty and inequality, with particularly low scores obtained for the indicators women’s access to land and credit, agrobiodiversity, local food traditions, social protection, and remedies for violations of the right to food. This qualifies them as key levers for policy interventions towards food sustainability.

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Social Self-Organization and Social-Ecological Resilience in Food Systems: Lessons from Smallholder Agriculture in Kenya and Indigenous Guaraní Communities in Bolivia

Cited by 12 publications

References 37 publications

Linking Household Food Security and Food Value Chains in North West Mt. Kenya

Linking Household Food Security and Food Value Chains in North West Mt. Kenya

Assessing Smallholder Farmer's Participation in the Wheat Value Chain in North-West Mt. Kenya

A new understanding and evaluation of food sustainability in six different food systems in Kenya and Bolivia

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