Agricultural diversification and food security in low- and middle-income countries: Where is the evidence?

<p>Diversity and diversification in agricultural systems are often presented in the literature as having multiple benefits such as enhancing resilience, increasing food production and decreasing risks in production systems and is often postulated to benefit food and nutrition security in low- and middle-income countries. Our study aims to provide an overview of the potential for agricultural diversification to improve food security status as reported in recently published research articles analysing the diversity-food security relationship. We consider results for different scales, from individual to global and for different food security dimensions: availability, access, stability and utilisation.</p><p>We carried out a literature review that includes exhaustive, comprehensive searching. We search for peer-reviewed publications in the Web of Science core collection (v.5.32) written in English, between 2010 and February 2020 on the association between diversity in agricultural systems and at least one dimension or measure of food security. From the original list of articles we exclude all publications that (1) focus on a study area outside a low- to middle income country; (2) do not include at least one metric of farm-, regional-, or global-level diversity as specified with the search terms; (3) do not explicitly measure at least one food security dimension, or (4) were exclusively focussed on describing drivers and trends in diversity or food security.</p><p>We find that a total number of 87 research articles assessed a total of 328 diversity-food security relationships using one or more statistical modelling approach. About half of them are positive (54%) and mostly refer to the diversity-food access relationship on the individual, household and farm scale as this was the food security dimension and spatial scale most analysed. Of all results for food access 60% were positive relationships and only 4% were negative relationships with the remainder having no or ambiguous relationships. Twenty-nine studies used household dietary diversity as a measure of food access and 10 studies used at least one food access indicator that is a validated proxy for nutrient adequacy. Positive relationships were more often reported for food availability (65%) than for food utilisation (33%) also because for food utilisation there are a lot of mixed findings for different measures of anthropometric and nutritional status. The most common spatial scale assessed was the household and farm scale (58%).</p><p>There is no food security dimension that primarily has a negative relationship with agricultural diversity but there is a considerable number of relationships that are found to be neutral or ambiguous. Diversity can be an important driver of food security, but the magnitude of the contribution depends on the  socio-economic and biophysical characteristics of the local farming system. We conclude that farmers mostly see diversification as a potential strategy to improve livelihoods, agricultural production and/or food and nutrition security where other strategies are more expensive but not as a desirable characteristic of the agricultural systems at all costs especially in the presence of other strategies that can achieve the same outcome.</p>

INFLUENCE OF LIVELIHOODS ON HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN PASTORAL AREAS OF NAROK COUNTY, KENYA

Food security and household livelihoods are tied together in an intricate relationship through the former’s dimensions (availability, accessibility, utilisation, stability) and the latter’s elements (Human, Social and Economic Capital). The problem identified by the study was a lack of information regarding the exact way in which the livelihoods of pastoralists in Narok County influence their food security. The study employed descriptive and correlation research designs. Data was primarily collected using questionnaires administered to a sample population of 385, FGD, observation and KII. The objectives established that household food accessibility was largely influenced by economic capital (or the lack thereof); there was a general lack of money to buy food and or produce own food, against a backdrop of, slow onset drought disaster(four year long drought periods in the last 20years) unfavorable livestock prices, and physical access in pastoralist undeveloped land was hampered by poor road communication links. The low education levels (63.8% were found to have never attained any formal education) implied limited economic opportunities for the household. Thirdly it was found that household food utilisation,(operationalised in the study as being access to potable water, latrine use uptake and household food storage practices) was influenced largely by social capital; based on the food module and other indicators of food utilisation as defined by the study, it was seen that the mean percentage status of food utilisation in Narok County stood at 49%.The study concluded that livelihoods have a strong influence on food security, primarily through the social capital (traditional practices, extended family networks and support from formal institutions). The study findings will help enhance policy implementation, in areas of vulnerability to food insecurity for pastoralist households.

The Perception of Respondents of Intelligent Packaging in Slovakia as Ecological Innovations

The research of new active and intelligent features has shown huge potential to optimise the supply chain and enhance consumer consciousness of food utilisation. The paper deals with the evaluation of the perception of intelligent packaging in Slovakia as ecological innovations through the Kano model. It focuses on to analysis the perception of different intelligent packaging features. The results indicate that customers‟ awareness of intelligent packaging is still at a very low level in Slovakia.

Age-dependent food utilisation of Acheta domesticus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) in small groups at two temperatures

Insects hold potential as a sustainable source of animal protein. In recent years a new and rapidly growing industry of insect-based foods has emerged. The house cricket, Acheta domesticus (L.) (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), is one of the most important insect species being produced commercially in the USA for feed and food. However, the price of cricket powder remains much higher in comparison with other animal sources of protein. This study seeks to contribute to reduce cricket production costs by determining food conversion efficiency at different ages as a mean of establishing an optimal harvesting age. Two temperature treatments of 27 and 29 °C consisting of 27 groups of five crickets each were monitored weekly to measure food consumption and growth for a period of 10 and 9 weeks respectively. Data were used to calculate efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) for each week and treatment. Crickets at 27 °C produced more biomass and adults were significantly larger than those developing at 29 °C. The peak individual weekly biomass gain was observed at the end of 8 weeks at 27 °C (87.9±8.1 mg) (mean ± SEM) and at the end of 6 weeks at 29 °C (51.4±7.1 mg). Mean ECI values during weeks 1 to 8 at 27 °C (20.7, 22.6, 22, 20.8, 21.6, 20.9, 20, and 16.5%) and weeks 1 to 6 at 29 °C (18, 24.4, 19.9, 18.9, 21.1, and 16.4%) did not differ significantly. Decline of ECI values was better explained by the increase in adult proportions than by mortality. The optimal age to harvest based on food consumption and cricket biomass gain ratios was at the end of 8 weeks at 27 °C and at the end of 6 weeks at 29 °C. An economic analysis resulted in slightly higher profits ($ 1.04 USD) per g of hatchling/year at 27 °C.