Role of nutrition-sensitive agriculture in enhancing sustainable humanitarian assistance: Evidence from orange-fleshed sweetpotato interventions in Kenya

IF 6.8 1区经济学 Q1 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY

Food Policy Pub Date : 2025-03-09 DOI:10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102834

Chalmers K. Mulwa , Fredrick Grant , Marcel Gatto , Mukani Moyo , Dorcas Amunga , Norman Kwikiriza , Jack Malit , Julius J. Okello , Joyce Maru , Hugo Campos , Simon Heck

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The increasing frequency of climate-related shocks in arid and semi-arid regions has subjected local populations to cyclical livelihood disruptions and poverty traps. Humanitarian assistance is key to sustainable livelihoods in such regions, but this has largely been in the form of emergency aid. Sustainability concerns and public fiscal burden have necessitated a shift towards resilience building. Such interventions include biofortification, an important nutrition-sensitive agricultural approach that can sustainably improve food and nutrition security among vulnerable populations. However, there is limited evidence of success and lessons for scaling this approach. Using a sample of 636 households drawn from three arid and semi-arid counties in Kenya, this study uses a doubly robust estimator and non-parametric methods to investigate the effect of promoting vitamin-A-biofortified sweet potato as a nutrition-sensitive, climate-smart agricultural intervention to improve nutritional outcomes in humanitarian settings. We find that interventions combining demand-creation strategies and access to biofortified planting material significantly enhance nutrition knowledge and household nutrition indicators such as dietary diversity and food security. Individual interventions that either create demand or provide access to planting material enhance nutrition awareness but do not lead to primary nutrition outcomes such as dietary diversity. Lastly, enhancing access to planting material leads to higher nutritional outcomes compared to demand-creation strategies carried out in isolation.

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营养敏感型农业在加强可持续人道主义援助中的作用：来自肯尼亚橙皮甘薯干预措施的证据

干旱和半干旱地区与气候有关的冲击日益频繁，使当地人口遭受周期性生计中断和贫困陷阱。人道主义援助是这些地区可持续生计的关键，但这主要是紧急援助的形式。对可持续性的担忧和公共财政负担使我们有必要转向韧性建设。这些干预措施包括生物强化，这是一种重要的营养敏感农业方法，可以持续改善弱势群体的粮食和营养安全。然而，扩展这种方法的成功证据和经验是有限的。本研究以肯尼亚三个干旱和半干旱县的636个家庭为样本，采用双稳健估计量和非参数方法，调查了推广维生素a生物强化甘薯作为营养敏感型、气候智能型农业干预措施的效果，以改善人道主义环境下的营养状况。我们发现，结合需求创造战略和获得生物强化种植材料的干预措施显著提高了营养知识和家庭营养指标，如饮食多样性和粮食安全。创造需求或提供种植材料的个人干预措施可提高营养意识，但不能带来饮食多样性等主要营养结果。最后，与孤立地实施创造需求战略相比，增加获得种植材料的机会可带来更高的营养成果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Food Policy 管理科学-农业经济与政策

CiteScore

11.40

自引率

4.60%

发文量

128

审稿时长

62 days

期刊介绍： Food Policy is a multidisciplinary journal publishing original research and novel evidence on issues in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policies for the food sector in developing, transition, and advanced economies. Our main focus is on the economic and social aspect of food policy, and we prioritize empirical studies informing international food policy debates. Provided that articles make a clear and explicit contribution to food policy debates of international interest, we consider papers from any of the social sciences. Papers from other disciplines (e.g., law) will be considered only if they provide a key policy contribution, and are written in a style which is accessible to a social science readership.