Seasonality and Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture in Kenya: Evidence from Mixed-Methods Research in Rural Lake Naivasha Basin

Maria Sassi
Additional contact information
Maria Sassi: Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia, Via S. Felice 5, 27100 Pavia, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 22, 1-19

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of seasonality within the debate on nutrition-sensitive agriculture focusing on rural Lake Naivasha Basin in Kenya, which presents an interesting case study of the food system in East Africa. Seasonality shapes food and nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa, dominated by a rain-fed system; however, lack of monthly data hampers understanding. Using mixed methods, this study constructs a monthly dataset of a representative sample of households from February 2018 to January 2019. A fixed-effects analysis highlights the association between three pathways from agriculture to nutrition while controlling for the hunger and harvesting seasons by crop. Supported by qualitative information from focus groups, the results suggest that seasonality is an important dimension of the agriculture–nutrition link and promote understanding of the complexity of the pathways suggested by the literature, including the association between crops and dietary diversity, with relevant policy implications.

Keywords: seasonality; nutrition-sensitive agriculture; mixed methods; Lake Naivasha basin; Kenya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6223/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6223/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:22:p:6223-:d:284353

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().