by Jasim Uddin Ahmed, Shankar Kumar Raha, Md. Habibur Rahman and Md. Golam Shahi Alam
Original Research
The study was conducted to determine of food security status of dairy households in char areas of Bangladesh and to identify the major constraints faced by the dairy farmers. A total of 600 poorest households with dairying were selected out of 1323 households from each upazila of Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi of Bogra, Jamalpur and Sirajganj districts, respectively using simple random sampling technique. To identify the factors influencing the food security status of farming households, food security index (Z), food insecurity gap/surplus index (P) and the head count ratio (H) were calculated. The food security indices before and after intervention of the project were0.87, 0.89, 0.91; and 1.02, 1.02, and 1.04 for Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi upazilas for food secured households, respectively whereas for food insecure households, the figures were 0.63, 0.55, 0.64; and 0.72, 0.64, and 0.74, respectively. Before the project intervention, the values of food surplus indices in the case of food secure households were 0.01, 0.01 and 0.09 which had increased to 0.04, 0.04 and 0.14 after the intervention in Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi upazilas, respectively. On the other hand, the values of food shortfall indices in case of the food insecure households in Sariakandi, Islampur and Belkuchi upazilas had decreased from -0.35, -0.45 and -0.33 to -0.27, -0.36 and -0.26, respectively after the intervention. The problems related to rising of dairy animals were lack of capital with CFI 33 was ranked as 1st, whereas, high cost of milk collection and delivery with CFI 28, poor communication and transport facilities with CFI 26, lack of market information with CFI 26, irregular payment with CFI 26 and scattered milk production with CFI 25 were ranked as 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, respectively. Diversified job opportunities, mobilization of resources and credit allocation are needed for enhancing dairy farming and ensuring food security in the study areas. The problems related to rising of dairy animals were lack of storage facilities with CFI 651 was ranked as 1st, whereas, lack of adequate capital with CFI 626, expensive and inadequate feed supply with CFI 622, low quality feed with CFI 598, and lack of transportation and communication facilities with CFI 550 were ranked as 2nd, 3rd, 4thand 5th, respectively.
Journal of Food Security. 2017, 5(5), 187-196. DOI: 10.12691/jfs-5-5-5
Pub. Date: September 29, 2017
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by Okwero W. Florence, Westendorp Annemarie and Nederlof Suzanne
Case Study
This case study assesses the contribution of a Dairy Cow Commercialisation Project (DCCP) at Gisambai Dairy Commercial Village in Hamisi Sub County, in Vihiga, Kenya on household food security of its beneficiaries using qualitative research strategy. To meet the above objective 20 households in 20 villages were interviewed. One household was randomly selected to represent a village resulting in 10 beneficiary and 10 non beneficiary respondent households. Two Focus Group discussion (FGD) were held; one with the DCCP beneficiary households and the second with non-beneficiary households. The FGD comprised of 20 and 13 stakeholders respectively. In addition four key Informant Interviews (KII), were carried out to gain more insight. The data was collected using a topic list, semi structured interviews and Food Consumption Scores (FCS) and analysed in the context of the Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF). The findings showed that the dairy cow commercialisation project has contributed to improved household food security by strengthening farmers’ productive assets. The social assets were increased too because of belonging to commercial villages and Passing of “gift” calves in DCCP increased trust among beneficiaries and promoted social inclusion of the vulnerable members in the community. Further findings indicated that the use of dairy commercial villages has transformed the rural villages into a business hub through access to markets. The study established that the non-beneficiary households were experiencing food insecurity and lack of productive assets. The knowledge on food utilisation among both beneficiary and non-beneficiary households was low. Based on the findings the study recommends that Vihiga County could upscale the project to households that are yet to benefit. The study further recommends the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries & Cooperatives in Vihiga County to develop and incorporate food utilisation manuals in the farmer training programmes.
Journal of Food Security. 2017, 5(5), 176-186. DOI: 10.12691/jfs-5-5-4
Pub. Date: September 26, 2017
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by I.W. Ofosu, W.O. Ellis, K. Nsiah and I.N. Oduro
Many people usually consume neglected and underutilized legumes (NULs) as stop gap diets, making the legumes a critical food security resource. In order to ensure their sustainability, a survey was designed to study the characteristics of 534 respondents towards NULs processing and consumption. The survey questions covered habitual thermal processing times of NULs seeds, the quantities of NULs dishes consumed and the number of times they were consumed per week. Other questions covered consumer characteristics such as age, body weight, educational background, occupation, marital status and household numbers. The statistical analysis used Palisade @Risk software to fit each study item to the most adequate probabilistic distribution, based on their Akaike information criterion. Subsequently, the central tendency characteristics of the studied items together with their variations and uncertainties were recorded. The results showed quantified exposure assessment of each NUL, obtained as an integration of the product of the amount of NULs dishes consumed and the exposure frequency of each NULs dishes consumed per body weights of consumers. Similarly, the output of consumer characteristics were recorded along the statistical distributions of each specific NUL’s consumption. These were linked to the ages of individuals consuming it, the household numbers of consumers, the educational levels, marital status and the occupation of the respondents.
Journal of Food Security. 2017, 5(5), 169-175. DOI: 10.12691/jfs-5-5-3
Pub. Date: September 01, 2017
10152 Views2287 Downloads
by Ernest Teye, Robert Sarpong Amoah, Michael Osei Adu and Daniel Darko
Original Research
Gari is a major staple food for many West Africans. This study aimed at evaluating the quality parameters of gari, price per quantity in “Olonka” (a local measuring container) and develop a nondestructive simple technique for assessing adulteration. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used with three replications. The samples of gari were collected from seven regions of Ghana (from: processors and retailers in each region). The results showed that the mean price per weight in “Olonka” was 2.12 kg per Gh 6.4 (0.3313 kg/Gh). The physicochemical properties fall within acceptable range; pH was 4.3 to 5.4, moisture content was 4.5- 7.4 %, and ash content was 1.11-1.61 %. Swelling capacity and bulk density were 3.0- 3.2 and 0.52- 0.61 g/cm3, respectively. Particle size distribution was found to be 0.94-1.69 mm. From this study, bulk density and swelling capacity technique could be used to detect adulteration of gari with sawdust above 10 %. The tests showed that gari produced in Ghana meet the world and local standard, and adulteration of gari with sawdust can easily and simply be detected rapidly using low technology even in rural areas by determining their bulk density and swelling capacity using the developed prediction equations: Y = 0.0035X + 0.239 (R2 = 0.9827) where; Y = bulk density and X= percentage pure gari and Y = 0.0207X + 0.9618 (R2 = 0.9811) where; Y = swelling capacity and X= percentage pure gari, respectively.
Journal of Food Security. 2017, 5(5), 162-168. DOI: 10.12691/jfs-5-5-2
Pub. Date: August 26, 2017
9890 Views1715 Downloads
by Aatish Kumar Sahu, Zhopnu Chüzho and Sanjoy Das
Original Research
With limited literature available on food security of tribal people, the study focused on the methodology of measurement on food security index of the tribal people residing in high altitude remote rural villages of Phek district of Nagaland, a state in north eastern part of India. Six indices on household food security developed and elaborated by international agencies were adopted with due modification to suit the study region. A multi-stage sample survey on rural households was conducted with pre tested structured interview schedule in Phek district during November 2016 for getting information on socio-economic aspects, food basket, weekly consumption of food groups, weekly expenditure on food items etc. From the information obtained four components of food security namely Household Diet Diversity Score, Food Consumption Score, Coping Strategy Index, Self Assessed Food Security Scale, and two components of household food insecurity namely Household Hunger Scale and Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale has been developed. Overall Food Security Index (FSIP) was obtained from the algebraic relation on above mentioned six indicators. The result showed that there was high and significant correlation of indicators like HDDSP (r= 0.36), HHSP (r= -0.57), CSIP (r= 0.58), HFIASP (r= -0.43) and SAFSP (r= 0.40) with FSIP. Socio-economic factors especially household income (r=0.226) and family size (r= -0.496) had significant correlation with FSIP. Large family sizes were significantly lower in food security index compared with small family size households. It is concluded from the study that alternative methodology of indicators are useful to study region specific food security rather conventional generalized ones.
Journal of Food Security. 2017, 5(5), 155-161. DOI: 10.12691/jfs-5-5-1
Pub. Date: August 26, 2017
12715 Views3210 Downloads17 Likes