IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ssefpa/v15y2023i3d10.1007_s12571-023-01344-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heterogeneous impacts of home-gardening on household food and nutrition security in Rwanda

Author

Listed:
  • Gazali Issahaku

    (University of Bonn
    University for Development Studies)

  • Lukas Kornher

    (University of Bonn)

  • Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam

    (University of Bonn
    Bangladesh Agricultural University)

  • Awal Abdul-Rahaman

    (University for Development Studies)

Abstract

This study examines farmers’ decisions to engage in subsistence home-gardening and its impact on food and nutrition security among farm households in Rwanda under diverse conditions. The study uses a nationally representative dataset from Rwanda from 2012, 2015, and 2018. We employ an endogenous switching regression model to jointly estimate the drivers of home-gardening participation decisions and food and nutrition security outcomes, whiles accounting for selection bias from observable and unobservable factors. We also estimate the treatment effects of home-gardening participation on dietary diversity, food consumption score, and anthropometric markers of women and children. The treatment effects are calculated at sample means and connected to market-related variables, such as land ownership, commercialization extent, and market distance. We find that having a home-garden is linked to improved dietary diversity and better nutritional outcomes. If households have restricted access to land and reside further away from marketplaces, the benefits are larger. In contrast, the benefits of home-gardening are positive and significant regardless of the level of commercialization of production. We also discover that family size, gender, education, access to land, and livestock ownership are statistically significant drivers of home-gardening participation in Rwanda. However, the amount of commercialization did not affect a household’s decision to participate in home-gardening.

Suggested Citation

  • Gazali Issahaku & Lukas Kornher & Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam & Awal Abdul-Rahaman, 2023. "Heterogeneous impacts of home-gardening on household food and nutrition security in Rwanda," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(3), pages 731-750, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:15:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s12571-023-01344-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s12571-023-01344-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-023-01344-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12571-023-01344-w?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Muthini, Davis & Nzuma, Jonathan & Qaim, Matin, 2019. "Subsistence production, markets, and dietary diversity in the Kenyan small farm sector," 2019 Sixth International Conference, September 23-26, 2019, Abuja, Nigeria 295862, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    2. Pandya-Lorch, Rajul & von Braun, Joachim, 1991. "Income sources of malnourished people in rural areas: Microlevel information and policy implications," IFPRI working papers 5, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Barrett, Christopher B., 2008. "Smallholder market participation: Concepts and evidence from eastern and southern Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 299-317, August.
    4. Sylvester Ochieng Ogutu & Theda Gödecke & Matin Qaim, 2020. "Agricultural Commercialisation and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 534-555, June.
    5. Abebaw, Degnet & Haile, Mekbib G., 2013. "The impact of cooperatives on agricultural technology adoption: Empirical evidence from Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 82-91.
    6. Marc F. Bellemare & Christopher B. Barrett, 2006. "An Ordered Tobit Model of Market Participation: Evidence from Kenya and Ethiopia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(2), pages 324-337.
    7. Salvatore Di Falco & Marcella Veronesi & Mahmud Yesuf, 2011. "Does Adaptation to Climate Change Provide Food Security? A Micro-Perspective from Ethiopia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(3), pages 825-842.
    8. Bahta Yonas Tesfamariam & Enoch Owusu-Sekyere & Donkor Emmanuel & Tlalang Boipelo Elizabeth, 2018. "The impact of the homestead food garden programme on food security in South Africa," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(1), pages 95-110, February.
    9. Prabhu Pingali & Anaka Aiyar & Mathew Abraham & Andaleeb Rahman, 2019. "Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India," Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-14409-8, September.
    10. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2010. "Microeconomics of Technology Adoption," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 395-424, September.
    11. Michael Lokshin & Zurab Sajaia, 2004. "Maximum likelihood estimation of endogenous switching regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 4(3), pages 282-289, September.
    12. Feder, Gershon & Just, Richard E & Zilberman, David, 1985. "Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 255-298, January.
    13. Bekele Shiferaw & Gideon Obare & Geoffrey Muricho, 2008. "Rural market imperfections and the role of institutions in collective action to improve markets for the poor," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(1), pages 25-38, February.
    14. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Goedecke, Theda & Qaim, Matin, 2017. "Agricultural Commercialization and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 257242, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    15. Ma, Wanglin & Abdulai, Awudu, 2016. "Does cooperative membership improve household welfare? Evidence from apple farmers in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 94-102.
    16. Prabhu L. Pingali, 1997. "From Subsistence to Commercial Production Systems: The Transformation of Asian Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(2), pages 628-634.
    17. Seeth, Harm Tho & Chachnov, Sergei & Surinov, Alexander & Von Braun, Joachim, 1998. "Russian poverty: Muddling through economic transition with garden plots," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 1611-1624, September.
    18. Muthini, Davis & Nzuma, Jonathan & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Subsistence production, markets, and dietary diversity in the Kenyan small farm sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    19. Constance Rybak & Hadijah Ally Mbwana & Michelle Bonatti & Stefan Sieber & Klaus Müller, 2018. "Status and scope of kitchen gardening of green leafy vegetables in rural Tanzania: implications for nutrition interventions," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1437-1447, December.
    20. Akhter Ali & Awudu Abdulai, 2010. "The Adoption of Genetically Modified Cotton and Poverty Reduction in Pakistan," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 175-192, February.
    21. Sibhatu, Kibrom T. & Qaim, Matin, 2018. "Review: Meta-analysis of the association between production diversity, diets, and nutrition in smallholder farm households," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-18.
    22. James Heckman, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    23. Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam & Joachim Braun & Andrew L. Thorne-Lyman & Akhter U. Ahmed, 2018. "Farm diversification and food and nutrition security in Bangladesh: empirical evidence from nationally representative household panel data," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 701-720, June.
    24. Pepijn Schreinemachers & Marie Antoinette Patalagsa & Nasir Uddin, 2016. "Impact and cost-effectiveness of women's training in home gardening and nutrition in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 473-488, October.
    25. Zanello, Giacomo & Shankar, Bhavani & Poole, Nigel, 2019. "Buy or make? Agricultural production diversity, markets and dietary diversity in Afghanistan," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-1.
    26. Justin Schupp & Jeff Sharp, 2012. "Exploring the social bases of home gardening," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 93-105, March.
    27. Muthini, Davis & Nzuma, Jonathan & Qaim, Matin, 2018. "Subsistence Production, Markets, and Dietary Diversity in the Kenyan Small Farm Sector," Department of Agricultural and Rural Development (DARE) Discussion Papers 279791, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (DARE).
    28. Depenbusch, Lutz & Schreinemachers, Pepijn & Roothaert, Ralph & Namazzi, Sylvia & Onyango, Charles & Bongole, Sophia & Mutebi, James, 2021. "Impact of home garden interventions in East Africa: Results of three randomized controlled trials," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    29. Jones, Andrew D. & Shrinivas, Aditya & Bezner-Kerr, Rachel, 2014. "Farm production diversity is associated with greater household dietary diversity in Malawi: Findings from nationally representative data," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-12.
    30. Sibhatu, Kibrom T. & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Qaim, Matin, 2015. "Farm Production Diversity and Dietary Diversity in Developing Countries," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205286, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    31. Carletto, Calogero & Corral, Paul & Guelfi, Anita, 2017. "Agricultural commercialization and nutrition revisited: Empirical evidence from three African countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 106-118.
    32. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Goedecke, Theda & Qaim, Matin, 2017. "Agricultural Commercialization and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households," 2017 International Congress, August 28-September 1, 2017, Parma, Italy 261285, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    33. Rattan Lal, 2020. "Home gardening and urban agriculture for advancing food and nutritional security in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(4), pages 871-876, August.
    34. Ghassan Baliki & Tilman Brück & Pepijn Schreinemachers & Md. Nasir Uddin, 2019. "Long-term behavioural impact of an integrated home garden intervention: evidence from Bangladesh," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1217-1230, December.
    35. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "Control Function Methods in Applied Econometrics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 420-445.
    36. Olufemi D. Bolarinwa & James F. Oehmke & Charles B. Moss, 2020. "Agricultural commercialization and food security: an ex-ante approach," Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(5), pages 472-489, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Olabisi, Michael & Obekpa, Hephzibah Onyeje & Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda O., 2021. "Is growing your own food necessary for dietary diversity? Evidence from Nigeria," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. van Asselt, Joanna & Useche, Pilar, 2022. "Agricultural commercialization and nutrition; evidence from smallholder coffee farmers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    3. Bai, Yunli & Zeng, Xuanye & Zhang, Linxiu & Song, Yiching & Zeng, Xuanye, 2021. "Domestic decision-making, crop diversity, and household dietary diversity: Evidence from five developing countries in Asia," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315393, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Do, Manh Hung & Nguyen, Trung Thanh, 2024. "Impact of crop commercialization on smallholder farmers’ resilience to shocks: Evidence from panel data for rural Southeast Asia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. Martin Paul Tabe‐Ojong & Abebayehu Girma Geffersa, 2024. "Complementary technology adoption and smallholder commercialization: Panel data evidence from Ethiopia," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 1151-1174, September.
    6. Muthini, Davis & Nzuma, Jonathan & Qaim, Matin, 2019. "Subsistence production, markets, and dietary diversity in the Kenyan small farm sector," 2019 Sixth International Conference, September 23-26, 2019, Abuja, Nigeria 295862, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    7. Christoph Kubitza & Sarah Hackfort & Arnold Opiyo & Cornelia Rauh & Caroline S. Stokes & Susanne Huyskens-Keil, 2024. "The effects of market-oriented farming on living standards, nutrition, and informal sharing arrangements of smallholder farmers: the case of African indigenous vegetables in Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(6), pages 1363-1379, December.
    8. Davis Muthini & Jonathan Nzuma & Beatrice Daniel, 2025. "“Not All Income is Equal”: Rural Livelihood Diversification and Diet Quality in South–Western Kenya," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 37(3), pages 548-568, June.
    9. Pallavi Rajkhowa, 2024. "From subsistence to market-oriented farming: The role of groundwater irrigation in smallholder agriculture in eastern India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(2), pages 353-369, April.
    10. Mauricio R. Bellon & Gervais Ntandou-Bouzitou & Janet E. Lauderdale & Francesco Caracciolo, 2023. "Combining market and nonmarket food sources provides rural households with more options to achieve better diets in Southern Benin," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(2), pages 411-422, April.
    11. Muthini, Davis & Nzuma, Jonathan & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Subsistence production, markets, and dietary diversity in the Kenyan small farm sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    12. Muthini, Davis & Nzuma, Jonathan & Qaim, Matin, 2018. "Subsistence Production, Markets, and Dietary Diversity in the Kenyan Small Farm Sector," Department of Agricultural and Rural Development (DARE) Discussion Papers 279791, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (DARE).
    13. Simphiwe Innocentia Hlatshwayo & Rob Slotow & Mjabuliseni Simon Cloapas Ngidi, 2023. "The Role of Smallholder Farming on Rural Household Dietary Diversity," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-16, February.
    14. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Qaim, Matin, 2019. "Commercialization of the small farm sector and multidimensional poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 281-293.
    15. Isaac Bonuedi & Lukas Kornher & Nicolas Gerber, 2022. "Agricultural seasonality, market access, and food security in Sierra Leone," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(2), pages 471-494, April.
    16. Mohammed, Feiruz Yimer & Khonje, Makaiko G. & Qaim, Matin, 2024. "Women’s roles in decision-making and nutrition-sensitive agriculture," Sustainable Food Systems Discussion Papers 347962, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    17. Oliver Schulte & Trung Thanh Nguyen & Ulrike Grote, 2022. "The Effect of Renting in Cropland on Livelihood Choices and Agricultural Commercialization: A Case Study from Rural Vietnam," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2878-2898, December.
    18. Sylvester O. Ogutu & Matin Qaim, 2018. "Commercialization of the small farm sector and multidimensional poverty," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 269561, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    19. Lutz Depenbusch & Pepijn Schreinemachers & Stuart Brown & Ralph Roothaert, 2022. "Impact and distributional effects of a home garden and nutrition intervention in Cambodia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(4), pages 865-881, August.
    20. Kilimani, Nicholas & Buyinza, Faisal & Guloba, Madina, 2022. "Crop commercialization and nutrient intake among farming households in Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:ssefpa:v:15:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s12571-023-01344-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.