Determinants of household food access among small farmers in the Andes : examining the path
Date
2012
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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
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 (P50?05),
participation in agricultural associations (P50?09), church membership (P50?08),
area of irrigated land (P50?08), housing material (P50?06), space within the
household residence (P50?02) and satisfaction with health status (P50?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 (P50?01), more space within the household residence (P50?001) and
greater satisfaction with health status (P50?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.
Description
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Journal Article (peer-reviewed)
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Keywords
HOUSEHOLD FOOD ACCESS, FOOD AVAILABILITY, PERI-URBAN FARMERS, LIVELIHOODS, ECUADOR, BOLIVIA, PERU, NUTRITION, HEALTH, FOOD SECURITY, PERI-URBAN HOUSEHOLDS, LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME FARMERS, HEALTH STATUS, URBAN FARMING