IMPLICATION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INTERVENTIONS ON HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN ILCHAMUS WARD, MARIGAT SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Widespread hunger and malnutrition persist today despite considerable growth in per capita food availability. Government and Non-governmental organization are shifting from food relief provisions to diversification intervention strategies at the household level. However, there has been limited literature, especially from a sociological perspective on the implication of socio- economic interventions on household food security. The study sought to fill this knowledge gap by addressing the problem and findings to the interventions. The broad objective of the study was to assess the implication of socio-economic interventions on household food security. The specific objectives include; establishing the types of intervention to support households attain food Security, examine effects of social interventions to households attain food security, determine the effects of income diversification interventions to support on household attain food security in Ilchamus ward of Marigat Sub-County. The study was guided by Theory of Change complemented by Food Availability Decline Approach Framework. It adopted the descriptive research design where household experiences were documented using structured questionnaire. Proportionate stratified sampling method was used in dividing the sample of 170 households into the 4 locations found in the study area. The data collected were tallied and analysed to produce frequency distribution, percentages and mean. The results found out that there are interventions are on nutrition, health, sanitation, education and local knowledge as ways of improving household food security. The main social support access identified was reduction in size of meals and reduction in the number of meals per day. The study noted that that crop production and wage labour are the major sources of income in the ward. Further, the findings indicated that income from common property resources keeps on decreasing due to over exploitation. The study concluded that that household food insecurity was high. The study recommended need for crop diversification which will include use of drought resistant crops and adoption of strategies that conserve natural resources base. There is need for knowledge dissemination to farmers on the four pillars underpinning food security: food availability, food accessibility, utilization and stability in form of extension services which can offer great opportunities of increasing the capacity of residents awareness that could help fight food insecurity.