A comparative assessment of the poverty and food insecurity experience between food entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers in rural Zambia

The study was carried out to ascertain the poverty and food insecurity experience between food entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers in selected rural communities in Zambia. The study followed a mixed research design in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) was adopted in the design of the data collection questionnaire. Data were collected from 112 smallholder farmers in Chipapa, Shalubala, and Musomali villages and from 120 food entrepreneurs from Chisamba and Chibombo. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics through the use of means and frequencies, Levene’s test, independent samples t-test, factor analysis, as well as arithmetic calculations. The results revealed that both the food entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers live in extreme poverty – US $0.74 per person per day at most. In addition, food access, availability, stability, and utilisation were the main challenges constraining the food intake for both smallholder farmers and food entrepreneurs. Therefore, both smallholder farmers and food entrepreneurs experience food stress equivalent to Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 2.