Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4.5 Comparing UA and food security
Category
Food secure
Food insecure
UA
participants
n ¼ 87
Non-
participants
n ¼ 5
UA
participants
n ¼ 244
Non-
participants
n ¼ 32
Energy requirements met (%)
107
107.3
76
65
Food insecure (%)
26.3
13.5
73.7
86.5
Consumption coping
Borrowed food
20.3
79.7
6.7
93.3
Eat less-preferred foods
25
74.4
10.5
89.5
Reduced number of meals
23
77
8.7
91.3
Reduced quantity per meal
24.1
75.9
9.1
90.9
Income coping
Sold clothes
12.5
87.5
0
100
Accessing savings
23.4
76.6
14.3
85.7
More members seeking
employment
17.5
82.5
15.8
84.2
Children in income-generating
activities
16.1
83.9
25
75
Sub-letting assets
31.9
68.1
14.3
85.7
Expenditure coping
Avoided expenditure on healthcare
19.8
80.2
0
100
Reduced expenditure on education
18.8
81.3
0
100
Reduced expenditure on water and
electricity
23.6
76.4
11.1
89.9
Reduced expenditure on transport
21.8
78.2
0
100
Source: Survey data.
32.9 per cent of those households practising UA had enough grain to last one
to three months, while 16.9 per cent of the households had enough grain for
four to six months. Furthermore, close to 9 per cent of the households had
enough grain to last seven to nine months and 14.8 per cent of the households
had enough grain for 10-12 months. Roughly 27 per cent of the households
had no grain at all, either because they did not produce maize that season or
because the small amount they produced was consumed in less than a month.
Across all households surveyed, food is the largest item in the household
budget (49 per cent), followed by transportation (35 per cent). Figure 4.1
shows that more than 70 per cent of total expenditure of households in the
lowest expenditure quartile went to food, compared with less than 20 per cent
in the highest quartile. The poor, who pay a disproportionate part of their
income on food, end up being vulnerable to any unanticipated price changes
or problems. This finding is consistent with the Engelian relationship between
income and the percentage allocated to food (Colman and Young, 1996;
