Discussion Paper No. 248 of 2020 on Implications of Drought and Floods on Household Food and Nutrition Security in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands in Kenya

Abstract

The cycles of drought and floods in Kenya have become shorter and are now 2- 3 years, which has resulted in unprecedented challenges regarding household food and nutrition security, especially in the arid and semi-arid areas. Data for this study were collected from both secondary (national statistics) and primary sources, where interviews were carried out with 1,370 randomly selected households based on NASSEP V (KNBS) using a structured questionnaire. The survey covered 27 counties, specifically 23 arid and semi-arid counties plus 4 counties that were prone to floods, and was conducted between February and March 2018. The analytical techniques used included descriptive statistics of respondents’ characteristics and linear regression analysis to identify factors influencing their household food security. The results show that the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya are vulnerable to food insecurity especially during incidence of drought and floods. The situation in the country is not getting better, which is evident by the increasing number of undernourished citizens. There is need to diversify the food groups that Kenyans consume. Three food groups constitute half of the household food basket: milk, maize, wheat, and their respective products. Households in the sampled counties are net food buyers due to their reliance on rainfed agriculture - mainly livestock production systems. Regarding factors influencing household food and nutrition security, the household head’s age, gender, and education level contributed positively to the status of the household. While the presence of assets, access to credit and remittance also contribute positively to household food and nutrition security. The study recommends that production systems need to be transformed by introducing technology such as irrigation to reduce dependence on rainfall, and at the same time introduce insurance mechanisms against the impact of weatherrelated shocks. Finally, there is need to strengthen markets to minimize supply failures, thus reducing chronic poverty, by introducing a range of pre-emptive measures, including building transport infrastructure to integrate markets and build asset buffers at the household level to reduce their vulnerability.