Agricultural commercialization and household food security: The case of smallholders in Great Lakes Region of Central Africa

Ochieng Justus, Beatrice Knerr, George Owuor and Emily Ouma

No 212588, 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces the challenge of low food production and high incidences of poverty. Several programs initiated in the region to improve food security and market access have had limited success. Many households mainly grow bananas and legumes as staple crops. Using propensity score matching, this paper evaluates the impact of bananas and legumes commercialization on household food security. Commercial oriented farmers have more diverse diets than non-commercial oriented ones because they can easily purchase other foods to supplement own production. Commercialization has a robust and positive effect on household food security. It significantly increases household dietary diversity and reduces the number of coping strategies adopted during food shortage. Programs that promote commercialization of smallholder agriculture coupled with improved infrastructure in terms of roads and market information systems are continuously needed to facilitate commercialization of farm produce.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Food Security and Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae15:212588

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.212588

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