Abstract:
Background: What are the key factors that contribute to household-level food security? What lessons can we learn
from food secure households? What agricultural options and management strategies are likely to benefit femaleheaded
households in particular? This paper addresses these questions using a unique dataset of 600 households that
allows us to explore a wide range of indicators capturing different aspects of performance and well-being for different
types of households—female-headed, male-headed, food secure, food insecure—and assess livelihoods options and
strategies and how they influence food security. The analysis is based on a detailed farm household survey carried out
in three sites in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Results: Our results suggest that food insecurity may not be more severe for female-headed households than maleheaded
households. We found that food secure farming households have a wider variety of crops on their farms and
are more market oriented than are the food insecure. More domestic assets do not make female-headed households
more food secure. For the other categories of assets (livestock, transport, and productive), we did not find evidence
of a correlation with food security. Different livelihood portfolios are being pursued by male versus female-headed
households, with female-headed households less likely to grow high-value crops and more likely to have a less diversified
crop portfolio.
Conclusions: These findings help identify local, national and regional policies and actions for enhancing food
security of female-headed as well as male-headed households. These include interventions that improve households’
access to information, e.g., though innovative communication and knowledge-sharing efforts and support aimed at
enhancing women’s and men’s agricultural market opportunities.
