Choice of Crops and its Impact on Food Security in the Western Kenya Sugar Belt

Abstract

Available statistics show that Kenya is currently having over 15.4 million people experiencing chronic food shortages, due to the declining yields of staple food (Maize) in the country and according to the Ministry of Agriculture, the supply of staple foods in 2012 was not sufficient to meet the demand as the country produced 2.6 million tons of maize against a demand of 3.2 million tons. Sugarcane is a labour intensive crop mainly grown by small-scale farmers who supply up to 90% to the eleven currently operating sugar factories for crushing, while the remaining 10% is supplied by large scale farmers and the factory nucleus estates (Kenya Sugar Research Foundation - KESREF, 2011).

The study was undertaken in the Western Kenya's eleven operating sugar zones in May and June 2013. The Western Kenya's sugar belt was divided in to four clusters, within which simple random sampling method was used to select a total of 390 farmer's household, with an average of25% from each cluster. The objective of the study was to determine the choice of crop, food security challenges and interventions in the Western Kenya's sugar belt and specifically to characterize the agriculture households, assess the factors associated with choice of crops and to determine the level of household food security in the sugar belt.

Findings from the household survey revealed that majority (91.9%) of the respondents reportedly consumed foods rich in carbohydrates and starches; followed by sugars at 40.8 %; fats and oils at 39.1 %; beans and legumes at 25.6% and roots and tubers at 15%. The foods least consumed by the households include; vegetables (14.8%), meats (13%), fresh/fried fish (12.6%), eggs (6.6%) and fruits (5.6%). The average Household dietary diversity score (HDDS) for the survey was 4.24 as compared to a possible high of 12 scores. This was below average and is a sign of food insecurity in the households.

The survey revealed that only 4.5% of the households in the sugar zones are food secure as the rest (95.5%) reportedly had difficulty accessing food during most parts of the year. The month of April, May and June were reported by most of the households as the most difficult in terms of accessing food. Narok County was relatively better in the sugar belt in terms of food security.