ABSTRACT GAINING WOMEN’S VIEWS ON HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN WOTE SUBLOCATION, KENYA By Bernice Mulandi In Sub-Saharan Africa, food production is declining and many people are malnourished. My study asks: (1) what are women doing to meet their household food needs; and (2) how do they perceive opportunities and challenges towards achieving food security. I worked with two women’s groups in a semiarid region that is at risk because of low incomes and agricultural potential. Activity schedules and seasonal calendars show how these women rely equally on their farms and purchases. They photographed enterprises that provide food for their homes and small incomes. Venn diagrams show how the role of outside institutions increases during “bad years” but the women emphasize that their security cannot rely on this support. Food security agencies need to focus on women’s triple role by working with women’s groups to increase the production of crops that can also be sold, and to plan for the distribution of food aid. GAINING WOMEN’S VIEWS ON HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN WOTE SUB LOCATION, KENYA A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Department of Geography By Bernice N. Mulandi Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2007 Advisor_____________________________ (Dr. Kimberly E. Medley) Reader_____________________________ (Dr. John K. Maingi) Reader_____________________________ (Dr. Ian Yeboah) Table of Contents Appendices……………………………………………………………………………..iii List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………...iv List of Figures………………………………………………………….………….….....v Acknowledgements…………………………………………….……………….............vi Chapter One INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………….…….....1 · Statement of Purpose and Research Questions…………………………….…....2 · Presentation of the Study………………………………………………….…….5 Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW...……........……….……………………………….……....6 · Food Availability and Accessibility……………………………………….….......6 · Livelihood strategies……………………………………………………………...8 · Coping and Adaptive Strategies……………………….……….……………........8 · Women in Household Food Security…………………………………….……...10 Chapter Three STUDY AREA……………………………………………………………….........12 · Subject Population……………………………………………………….….…16 · Selection of the Study Population………….…………………………….….....19 Chapter Four DATA AND METHODS…………………………………………………….........21 · Participatory Research for Gaining Local Knowledge………………………...22 · Livelihood Strategies for Household Food Security…………………………..25 · Women’s Perceptions of the Challenges and Opportunities for Household Food Security ………………………………………………………………….…….28 Chapter Five RESULTS…………………………………………………………………….…....30 · Livelihood Strategies for Household Food Security…………………….……..30 · Women’s Perceptions of the Challenges and Opportunities for Household Food Security ………………………………………………………………………..44 Chapter Six DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION……………………………………………..51 · Livelihood diversification.……………………………….…..……….…….….51 · A critical Assessment………………………………………………….………52 · Gender Planning for household food security.………………………………...53 · Conclusion……………………………………………………………….…….54 · References……………………………………………………………………..56 ii Appendices Appendix I: Research protocol approved by the human subjects committee at Miami University…………………………………………………………………………..….61 Appendix II: Research permit obtained from the Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Kenya prior to the research……………………………………………...65 Appendix III: Daily activities for women observed and interviewed for a whole day.66 Appendix IV: A free list of food items produced, collected, bought, donated as food aid to women………………………………………………………………………………67 iii List of Tables Table 1: PRA tools for participatory research on household food security ………….....24 Table 2: Households characteristics for women who participated in the record of daily activities for food compiled from the women……………………….………………......32 Table 3: A free list of income sources for food compiled from the women participants .33 Table 4: Food items observed during the participant observations of daily activities......36 Table 5: Focus-group responses to factors affecting the ability of women to get food for their households...…………………………………………………………………..……45 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Schematic diagram that shows the study’s focus on women’s household management, and research questions for gaining women’s views on household food security……………………………………………………………………………….……4 Figure 2: Study area map showing the sub location center at Wote and the villages where the women lived for the two women’s groups....………………………………………...14 Figure 3: Rainfall distribution data for Makueni District extrapolated from satellite images for the region…………………………………………………………………….15 Figure 4: Subsistence strategies practiced in the study area. The photographs show mixed cropping (pigeon peas, corn, and cotton) and the production of small livestock (sheep)..18 Figure 5: The Mutethya Joint and Woni wa Wote women groups selected for the study.20 Figure 6: Women’s photos and captions on projects that help them secure food for their households…………………………………………………………………………....37-38 Figure 7: Household diagram showing the total number of women who acquire food items through food production, collection, purchases and donations …...………………40 Figure 8: Mean number of food items obtained through production, collection, purchases, and donation, compiled from the participants in the two women’s groups ………….….41 Figure 9: A seasonal calendar for 2004- 2005 compiled by women from Woni wa Wote and Mutethya Joint …………………………………………………………………..…..43 Figure 10: Venn Diagrams for Woni wa Wote and Muthethya Joint Women’s groups....47 Figure 11: Historical time-lines compiled by participants from Woni wa Wote and Muthethya Joint women’s groups ……………………………………………………….50 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Successful completion of this thesis is due to lot of efforts and contribution from many different persons and institutions. My special thanks and appreciations go to my advisor Prof. Kimberly Medley for her consistent availability, great ideas, encouragement, time and patience even during the hardest time of the writing process. Her readiness to review my numerous drafts was an encouragement to me. May God reward her abundantly exceedingly above what she may need in the success of her life. Again, I would like to thank Dr. Maingi and Dr. Yeboah for reading my thesis and other members of the Geography Department. They also gave me great ideas and comments during the writing process. I would especially also like to thank Ministry of Education Science and Technology for authorizing me to do a research in Kenya. Also I thank all the women from Woni wa Wote and Mutethya Joint women group who accepted me into their homes, offered me food and made me comfortable during the period I was collecting data at Wote sub location. I would also like to thank the two research assistants David Mutuku and Nzisa Wambua for their support and help in the field. I greatly appreciate the financial help from the Geography and Botany departments for providing funds to enable me to do my research in Kenya. My sincere gratitude also goes to my fellow students with whom we encouraged and helped one another with insightful ideas. Above all I would like to give many thanks to my family Caleb and Peter Kimeu for their support and help. They always encouraged me and had faith in me. I would also like to thank my Pastor Larry Stevenson (Oxford Church of God) and Pastor Damian Emetuche for their many prayers and support. Finally but not least I would like to thank Sam Mutiti’s family for their support. May God bless you all. vi Chapter One INTRODUCTION Food, particularly the intake of food, is one of the big ironies in comparative global studies (Nyariki and Wiggins, 1997). People in more developed countries suffer from diseases caused by excessive intake of food, while in Sub-Saharan Africa people have insufficient food for healthy livelihoods. In Africa, hunger prevalence is estimated at 30% (Sanchez and Swaminathan, 2005) and 90% of the population is chronically malnourished (Conway and Tonniessen, 2003). Conway and Toenniessen (2003) estimate that two-thirds of Sub-Saharan Africans relies on agriculture, and that agricultural production takes place on small-scale family farms. Rural people, who produce and mostly rely on this local production to meet their food needs, are also the most food insecure (Nyariki and Wiggins, 1997). Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region worldwide where food production per capita decreased over the last two decades (Nyariki and Wiggins, 1997; Atkins and Bowler, 2001; Conway and Toenniessen, 2003; Tibaijuka, 2004). Hence, “food security is one of the challenging issues in Sub-Saharan Africa which has continued to generate debate” (Nyariki and Wiggins, 1997, 1). Food security is “[a] ccess by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life” (Reutlinger, 1986: 1). Food security includes two elements: (1) food availability through local production or gathering; and, (2) food accessibility through direct market purchases, financial outlays for improved production, or donations toward home supplies (Nyariki and Wiggins, 1997). Food insecurity, in contrast, is insufficient food that may result from a lack of availability through local production or accessibility through lack of incomes and donations. Food security was historically measured by overall global-to-national production levels and the sufficiency of that supply to meet