Social-economic Determinants of Food Security among Smallholder Mixed Farmers in Burera District, Rwanda

Abstract

The agricultural sector production is the backbone of the Rwandan economy and has recorded steady increases in the last decade. While Rwanda is classified as food secure at macro level, about half of the households in Rwanda still face seasonal difficulties in accessing adequate food, being at high risk of becoming food insecure in terms of food availability and accessibility. Most of those households at risk are typically rural households who mainly depend on agricultural daily labor for their livelihoods and mostly live on their own farm production. The objective of this study was to investigate the Socio-economic determinants of food security among the mixed smallholder farmers in Burera district of Rwanda. Data were collected from 378 smallholder farmers 'households selected by using a Multi-Stage Random Sampling technique. To collect data, a questionnaire was used through face-to-face interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Household food security status was assessed and categorized using internationally validated HFIAS tool. Results revealed that only 6.3% of the sampled smallholder farmers' households could be classified as food secure, 15.6% mildly food insecure, 34.7% moderately food insecure and 43.4% severely food insecure. The study also revealed that 77.7% of the respondents were operating on farm size less than one hectare, the half (50.5%) owning between 0.5ha-1ha.  About 54.2% had at least one livestock that helps to produce organic manure, with only 15.87% having cows in their households.  42.9% of the respondents earned on farm income range of 200,000-300,000Frw. Regarding availability of on farm labour, 75.1% had less than three active members in their households.  About 72% of the respondents did not have access to financial facility and 92% of the respondents did not receive any training in agricultural practices or a home visit of any extension agent within the previous one-year period. Only 25% of the respondents had ever used mineral fertilizers in the previous two agricultural seasons.  To analyze the effect of socio-economic determinants of household food security status of the sampled smallholder farmers, Multinomial Logit Model was performed and a prior expectation of signs was made. The results from the model revealed that farm size, on-farm income and gender (women headed households) influenced positively the probability of a household to be in the category of food secure or better off food insecurity level (mild or moderate) when compared to severe food insecurity status. On the hand, family size, not accessing to financial facility, not accessing to agricultural trainings and extension services, as well as education level of the household head had coefficients with negative sign meaning that they negatively influenced the probability of a household to be in better off category of food security status when compared to the severe food insecurity. All these predictors performed according to the prior expected signs except education level of the household head, which might be associated with the fact that more educated members of the household tend to abandon the farming activities while alternative off-farm employment is still limited in the rural areas of Rwanda.  Based on the findings that the majority of the smallholder farmers in the study area are experiencing severe food insecurity situation, immediate government and NGOs interventions are deemed imperative to boost agricultural production on small-scale farming. Targeted interventions could include boosting provision of agricultural extension services in the area with more home visits and demonstration of improved farming techniques on small-scale; intensifying highly producing and rapid income generating crops like vegetables coupled with improved value chain to ease access to markets in towns and secondary cities. Given the negative effect of education level, including agricultural training in the curriculum of 12-year basic education could attract more youngsters to farming with improved techniques. However, efforts should be multiplied to create more off-farm employment in rural settings in order to diversify the livelihoods activities as farming land becomes scarcer and more young generation becomes idle after completing the 12-year basic education.