Do household expenditure patterns affect food security? Evidence from French beans exporting households in Mbooni sub-county, Kenya

Kenya in the recent decades has made a lot of efforts aimed at improving food security and promoting sustainable agriculture. These have included recommendations for cash cropping as a way of increasing smallholder farmers’ income – which is an important determinant of expenditure within a household. The objective of this paper was to assess the household expenditure patterns and their effects on food security, a case study of French beans exporting households in Mbooni sub-county. This was done using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). The results indicate three distinct household expenditure patterns; savings, investment on shares and entertainment. Entertainment expenditure pattern was found to have a positive effect on household food security. We recommend that programs aimed at increasing farmers' household income, such as introducing new cash/export crop enterprises, should have a clear strategy to promote food security and nutrition. We suggest an assessment of how intra-household control of farm income affects expenditure decisions and household food security.