Applying the Theory of Access to Food Security among Smallholder Family Farmers around North-West Mount Kenya

Mutea, Emily; Rist, Stephan; Jacobi, Johanna (2020). Applying the Theory of Access to Food Security among Smallholder Family Farmers around North-West Mount Kenya. Sustainability, 12(5), p. 1751. MDPI 10.3390/su12051751

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Access to productive resources such as land and water is fundamental for households that rely on crop and livestock production for their livelihoods. Research often assumes that agricultural production—and thus, food security—are favoured by tenure security of resources (as represented by a “bundle of property rights”). However, research has not yet elucidated how food security is influenced by additional factors, represented within a “bundle of powers”. Guided by the Theory of Access developed by Ribot and Peluso, we explore the main factors in the respective bundles of rights and powers that influence household food security around north-west Mount Kenya. We interviewed 76 households—38 food secure and 38 food insecure—who were subsampled from a previous foodsecurity survey of 380 households. Results show that household food insecurity was not exclusively the result of a lack of private property rights as many farmers had retained their property rights. Instead, a major factor preventing access to productive resources was the difficulty faced by food insecure households in accessing farm technology (i.e. hand tools and implements). Access to authority and via social relations were significantly correlated with access to technology, so improving the latter must take into account the former.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability > Unit Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management (LS-SLM)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography
10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)

UniBE Contributor:

Mutea, Emily Ngutah, Rist, Stephan, Jacobi, Johanna

ISSN:

2071-1050

Publisher:

MDPI

Projects:

[437] Towards food sustainability Official URL
[805] Sustainability Governance

Language:

English

Submitter:

Evi Nina Rothenbühler

Date Deposited:

21 Apr 2020 07:49

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:37

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/su12051751

Uncontrolled Keywords:

access; food security; smallholders; Kenya; Mount Kenya; farm technology; theory of access

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.141468

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/141468

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