Food Security In The Semi-Arid Machakos County: A Case Study Of Mwala Sub-County

ABSTRACT

Ensuring food security is a global significant challenge despite struggles to increase

agricultural productivity, food distribution and identify appropriate policy

interventions to cub food shortage. The recent recurrent incidences of food deficit in

Kenya have placed the nation among the 20 most food insecure countries in the

world. Food insecurity in the country is a prevalent issue since approximately 84% the

country’s landmass is covered by arid and semi-arid land. Achieving sustainable food

security in these regions is a major challenge. The sub-county of Mwala is located

within the semi-arid marginal agricultural zone of the south-eastern and coastal

lowlands. The zone is often drought prone, exposing its households to occasional

chronic and recurrent acute food insecurity. To alleviate food insecurity in Mwala

Sub-county, the study examined the level and knowledge of food security in Mwala

sub-country and the factors that affect availability, access, utilization and stability of

food and nutrition. The study examined how socio-economic, natural and physical

factors influence food security and their impact on alleviation of food and nutritional

deficits. The research approach involved exploratory, descriptive and participatory

research designs. Purposive and simple random sampling methods were used to select

four locations and a sample size of 84 farmers groups. The data was subjected to

descriptive analysis using SPPS Version 21 and the relationship between variables

determined using Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. A binomial logit model was

employed to assess the factors affecting awareness of food security. The study

showed that gender, education, and income of the households were the main

determinants of food security awareness. The status of food security amongst

residents of Mwala sub-county is very low as depicted by a 98% response. Only 2%

of the respondents evaluated food security status in their households as food secure.

Additionally, the model summary shows that 76.3% of variation in food security can

be explained by the three predictors namely; natural factors, socio- economic factors

and physical factors. This implies that the remaining 23.7% of the variation in food

security could be accounted for by other factors not included in this study. These

findings provide policy insights on key areas of intervention with respect to uptake of

food security in the Sub-county, County and ultimately the country at large.