Circular bioeconomy practices and their associations with household food security in four RUNRES African city regions

Achieving the United Nation’s 2030 agenda which aims, among other goals, to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, requires a sustainable resource use model deployed at scale across global food systems. A circular bioeconomy (CBE) model of resource use has been proposed to reuse of organic waste in agricultural production to enhance food security. However, despite several initiatives recently introduced towards establishing a CBE in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), minimal scientific efforts have been dedicated to understanding the association of CBE practices and food security. This study use data from 777 smallholder farm households from DRC, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Africa, to examine associations between three CBE practices (use of organic waste as compost, as livestock feed, and sorting waste) and household food security. Using different regression and propensity score matching models (PSM). Result reveal that using CBE practices more likely adds a 0.203 score of food insecurity access prevalence (HFIAP), 1.283 food insecurity access scale (HFIAS-score) and 0.277 for household dietary diversity score (HDDS) among households using CBE practiced groups. Associations regarding using organic waste as compost are generally positive but insignificant, while those with sorting waste are significantly and consistently negative. Thus, CBE innovations aiming to enhance household food security could prioritize organic waste valorization into livestock feed consider socio economic aspects such as access to land, access to market, education level, using mobile phone, income and city regions where interventions took place. However, prior sorting of waste is necessary to enable effective waste valorization.Author summary: The CBE aims to ensure the continuously cycled and reused of biological resources. Thus, the development of the CBE could have a significant and positive transformative impact on the attainment of SDGs 1 and SDGs 2. The latter respectively concerns the global pledge to end poverty in all its forms by 2030 and promote sustainable agriculture, which is essential for fighting hunger and thereby ensuring food security and enhancing nutrition. This study examine empirically the association of CBE practices; using organic waste as compost, or as livestock feed, or sorting organic from inorganic waste practices put in place in four RUNRES African city regions with household food security captured by HDDS, HFIAS-score, and HFIAP and socio economics factors as covariates. Hence, the study premised that, CBE practices provide a direct means of improving food security by firstly supplying organic manure to replenish soil nutrients and enhance biomass production, leading to increased food production, and secondly via income streams facilitated by market sales of CBE products such as waste sorted, compost, livestock feed and agricultural produce. Income from these sales contributes to food accessibility. Ensure sustainable food consumption by reducing the use of external inputs, thus minimizing resource extraction and soil deterioration. The evidence generated through this study inform public and private sector that CBE has the potential to promote sustainable, bio-based economic growth, contribute to the green circular economy implementation, new employment opportunities, improved livelihoods, food security and wealth creation.