The Effects of Sugarcane Production on Food Security, Health, and Nutrition in Kenya: A Longitudinal Analysis

This research report by Eilleen T. Kennedy is part of a major IFPRI effort to assess the effects of the commercialization of agriculture on production, consumption, and nutritional status of rural people in Africa, Asia, and Central America countries. It reports on the continuation of survey work first undertaken at the request of the government of Kenya in 1983. The original survey work was analyzed in Research Report 63, Incomes and Nutrition Effects of the Commercialization of Agriculture in Southwestern Kenya. The follow-up study described in this report a rare opportunity to examine longitudinal data on a group of farmers in three periods: before they entered a contract arrangement for growing a commercial crop- sugarcane; during the period before they harvested their first sugar crop; and after the harvest. Moreover, the study includes landless, merchant, and nonsugar-growing farm households, as well as the contract sugarcane growers at various stages in the commercialization of agriculture. This longer-term analysis confirms the findings of the earlier study that commercialization has positive benefits stemming from increased household incomes and has no negative effects on the nutritional status of children in sugarcane growing households. It is also clear, however, that commercialization is not a cure-all for childhood illness and malnutrition. Increased incomes must be accompanied by improved health and sanitation facilities if they are to have a major effect in reducing such illness and malnutrition. Other recently published research reports in the commercialization of agriculture series include Cooperative Dairy Development in Kamaraka, India: An Assessment, Research Report 64: Nontraditional Export Crops in Guatemala: Effects on Production, Income, and Nutrition, Research Report 73; and Irrigation Technology and commercialization of Rice in the Gambia: Effects on income and Nutrition, Research Report 75.