IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v154y2017icp133-144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Homegardens and the future of food and nutrition security in southwest Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Whitney, Cory W.
  • Tabuti, John R.S.
  • Hensel, Oliver
  • Yeh, Ching-Hua
  • Gebauer, Jens
  • Luedeling, Eike

Abstract

Governments around the world seek to create programs that will support sustainable agriculture and achieve food security, yet they are faced with uncertainty, system complexity and data scarcity when making such choices. We propose decision modeling as an innovative approach to help meet these challenges and offer a case study to show the effectiveness of the tool. We use decision analysis tools to model the possible nutrition-related outcomes of the Ugandan government's long term agricultural development plan termed ‘Vision 2040’. The analysis indicates potential shifts in household nutritional contributions through the comparison of the current small-scale diverse systems and the envisioned industrial agricultural systems that may replace them. A Monte Carlo simulation revealed that Vision 2040 plans outperform homegardens in terms of energy and some macronutrients, yet homegardens are likely to be better at producing key vitamins and micronutrients, such as Vitamin A. Value of information calculations applied to Monte Carlo outputs further revealed that gathering more data on the annual yields and nutrient contents of staples, pulses, vegetables, and fruits could improve certainty about the nutrition contribution of both scenarios. We conclude that the development of Uganda's agricultural sector should consider the role that agrobiodiversity in the current small-scale agricultural systems plays in national food and nutrition security. Any changes according to Vision 2040 should also include farmers' voices and current crop management systems as guides for a sustainable food supply in the region. This modeling approach may be a tool for governments to consider agricultural policy implications, especially given the data scarcity and agricultural variability in regions such as East Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Whitney, Cory W. & Tabuti, John R.S. & Hensel, Oliver & Yeh, Ching-Hua & Gebauer, Jens & Luedeling, Eike, 2017. "Homegardens and the future of food and nutrition security in southwest Uganda," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 133-144.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:154:y:2017:i:c:p:133-144
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.03.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X16302955
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.03.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marta G. Rivera-Ferre & Miguel Ortega-Cerdà & Johann Baumgärtner, 2013. "Rethinking Study and Management of Agricultural Systems for Policy Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(9), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Luedeling, Eike & Smethurst, Philip J. & Baudron, Frédéric & Bayala, Jules & Huth, Neil I. & van Noordwijk, Meine & Ong, Chin K. & Mulia, Rachmat & Lusiana, Betha & Muthuri, Catherine & Sinclair, Ferg, 2016. "Field-scale modeling of tree–crop interactions: Challenges and development needs," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 51-69.
    3. Molly Anderson, 2015. "The role of knowledge in building food security resilience across food system domains," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 543-559, December.
    4. Stephen Devereux, 2001. "Sen's Entitlement Approach: Critiques and Counter-critiques," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 245-263.
    5. Conceição, Pedro & Levine, Sebastian & Lipton, Michael & Warren-Rodríguez, Alex, 2016. "Toward a food secure future: Ensuring food security for sustainable human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-9.
    6. Amartya Sen, 1981. "Ingredients of Famine Analysis: Availability and Entitlements," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(3), pages 433-464.
    7. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    8. Mark Strong & Jeremy E. Oakley & Alan Brennan, 2014. "Estimating Multiparameter Partial Expected Value of Perfect Information from a Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis Sample," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 34(3), pages 311-326, April.
    9. James C. Felli & Gordon B. Hazen, 1999. "A Bayesian approach to sensitivity analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(3), pages 263-268, May.
    10. Pannell, David J. & Glenn, Nicole A., 2000. "A framework for the economic evaluation and selection of sustainability indicators in agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 135-149, April.
    11. Fermont, Anneke & Benson, Todd, 2011. "Estimating yield of food crops grown by smallholder farmers: A review in the Uganda context," IFPRI discussion papers 1097, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Nils B. Weidmann & Jan Ketil Roslashd & Lars-Erik Cederman, 2010. "Representing ethnic groups in space: A new dataset," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 47(4), pages 491-499, July.
    13. Affognon, Hippolyte & Mutungi, Christopher & Sanginga, Pascal & Borgemeister, Christian, 2015. "Unpacking Postharvest Losses in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Meta-Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 49-68.
    14. Collier, Paul & Dercon, Stefan, 2014. "African Agriculture in 50Years: Smallholders in a Rapidly Changing World?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 92-101.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicholson, Charles F. & Stephens, Emma C. & Kopainsky, Birgit & Jones, Andrew D. & Parsons, David & Garrett, James, 2021. "Food security outcomes in agricultural systems models: Current status and recommended improvements," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    2. Cory W. Whitney & Eike Luedeling & John R. S. Tabuti & Antonia Nyamukuru & Oliver Hensel & Jens Gebauer & Katja Kehlenbeck, 2018. "Crop diversity in homegardens of southwest Uganda and its importance for rural livelihoods," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(2), pages 399-424, June.
    3. Leonie Netter & Eike Luedeling & Cory Whitney, 2022. "Agroforestry and reforestation with the Gold Standard-Decision Analysis of a voluntary carbon offset label," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 1-26, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ogunlesi, Ayodeji & Bokana, Koye & Okoye, Chidozie & Loy, Jens-Peter, 2018. "Agricultural Productivity and Food Supply Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: LSDV and SYS-GMM Approach," MPRA Paper 90204, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Biggeri, Mario & Carraro, Alessandro & Ciani, Federico & Romano, Donato, 2022. "Disentangling the impact of a multiple-component project on SDG dimensions: The case of durum wheat value chain development in Oromia (Ethiopia)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    3. Emanuele Borgonovo & Alessandra Cillo & Curtis L. Smith, 2018. "On the Relationship between Safety and Decision Significance," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(8), pages 1541-1558, August.
    4. Emanuele Borgonovo & Alessandra Cillo, 2017. "Deciding with Thresholds: Importance Measures and Value of Information," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(10), pages 1828-1848, October.
    5. Desiere, Sam & Jolliffe, Dean, 2018. "Land productivity and plot size: Is measurement error driving the inverse relationship?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 84-98.
    6. Dörffel, Christoph & Freytag, Andreas, 2023. "The poverty effect of democratization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    7. Cory W. Whitney & Eike Luedeling & John R. S. Tabuti & Antonia Nyamukuru & Oliver Hensel & Jens Gebauer & Katja Kehlenbeck, 2018. "Crop diversity in homegardens of southwest Uganda and its importance for rural livelihoods," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(2), pages 399-424, June.
    8. Elahi, Khandakar Qudrat-I, 2018. "Amartya Sen, Fad And The 1974 Famine In Bangladesh: A Closer Look," Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, vol. 38(1-2), September.
    9. Ballet, Jérôme & Bazin, Damien Jérôme Albert & Komena, Boniface K., 2020. "Unequal capabilities and natural resource management: The case of Côte d’Ivoire," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    10. Lopamudra Banerjee, 2016. "Catastrophes And Consumption Failure," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(01), pages 1-25, March.
    11. Dzanku, Fred Mawunyo, 2019. "Food security in rural sub-Saharan Africa: Exploring the nexus between gender, geography and off-farm employment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 26-43.
    12. Christopher Mutungi & Julius Manda & Shiferaw Feleke & Adebayo Abass & Mateete Bekunda & Irmgard Hoschle-Zeledon & Gundula Fischer, 2023. "Adoption and impacts of improved post-harvest technologies on food security and welfare of maize-farming households in Tanzania: a comparative assessment," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(4), pages 1007-1023, August.
    13. Anna Heath & Ioanna Manolopoulou & Gianluca Baio, 2018. "Efficient Monte Carlo Estimation of the Expected Value of Sample Information Using Moment Matching," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 38(2), pages 163-173, February.
    14. Borgonovo, Emanuele & Hazen, Gordon B. & Jose, Victor Richmond R. & Plischke, Elmar, 2021. "Probabilistic sensitivity measures as information value," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(2), pages 595-610.
    15. Hirons, M. & Robinson, E. & McDermott, C. & Morel, A. & Asare, R. & Boyd, E. & Gonfa, T. & Gole, T.W. & Malhi, Y. & Mason, J. & Norris, K., 2018. "Understanding Poverty in Cash-crop Agro-forestry Systems: Evidence from Ghana and Ethiopia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 31-41.
    16. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    18. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    19. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    20. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:154:y:2017:i:c:p:133-144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.