Custodio Matavel, Harry Hoffmann, Constance Rybak, Jonathan Steinke, Stefan Sieber, Klaus Müller
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The prevalence of food insecurity in Mozambique is alarming, despite progress made during the 2010s. Several studies apply different proxy indicators of food security (FS) to assess the FS situation. However, these studies overlook the factors affecting FS, using only a single data point that results in an incomplete picture of FS. Food security is expected to fluctuate, being better and worse than what studies suggest. Using a sample of 296 households to assess FS, key drivers conditioning households' capacity to achieve FS in Gurué District, Central Mozambique, are identified. Data were collected in the pre-harvest period and during the harvest period to capture relevant interseasonal variation of FS. Household FS is assessed using three standard indicators: Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS), and Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP).
Results: Each household was classified into a specific FS status depending on the indicator applied. Generally, most households were classified as being severely or moderately food insecure during the pre-harvest season, while during the harvest season, medium and high levels of FS predominated. Nevertheless, varying outcomes were found depending on the indicator used to assess FS. MAHFP and HDDS are more related to the consumption of farm-sourced food, while HFCS responds more strongly to purchased food. Gender and age of the household head, geographic location, size and quality of land, staples production (especially cassava), livestock and crop diversity, as well as cash crops had a statistically significant effect on FS indicators.
Conclusions: The study concludes that the decision whether farmers should rely on staple foods production for increasing their FS status or specialize on cash crops production to generate income and buy food depends on the indicator used to assess FS, since each indicator captures a specific domain of food security. Thus, one central recommendation derived from our results is that policy makers should promote a balance between market-oriented agriculture and subsistence production to achieve FS.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40066-021-00344-3.
期刊介绍：
Agriculture & Food Security is a peer-reviewed open access journal that addresses the challenge of global food security. It publishes articles within the field of food security research, with a particular focus on research that may inform more sustainable agriculture and food systems that better address local, regional, national and/or global food and nutritional insecurity. The journal considers cutting-edge contributions across the breadth of relevant academic disciplines, including agricultural, ecological, environmental, nutritional, and socio-economic sciences, public health and policy. The scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to: -Agricultural and environmental sciences, including genetics and systems ecology- Animal husbandry, fisheries science and plant science- Global change, biodiversity, climatology and abiotic stresses- Food technology and balancing agricultural outputs across food, feed, fibre and fuel- Economics, information sciences and decision theory- Strategies for the implementation of new policies and practices- Public health in relation to the condition of food and nutritional security. The pioneering advances in research reported in Agriculture & Food Security have far reaching implications both for the developing world and for sustainability in the developed world. The published articles are accessible not only to researchers, but are also of special interest to the wider community of farmers, development and public health workers, policy makers and the general public.
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