Adoption of farm biosecurity practices among smallholder poultry farmers in Kenya – An application of latent class analysis with a multinomial logistic regression

Sub-Saharan Africa has a growing demand for poultry, but productivity in the sector has not increased to meet this demand. One major constraints in the sector is diseases. Many farmers currently use clinical control measures that involve treating birds with antibiotics upon detecting an infection. However, this approach has presented the misuse of antibiotics, leading to antimicrobial resistance, which could have catastrophic effects going by different projections. We evaluate the uptake of preventive approaches to disease management, otherwise known as biosecurity measures and the effect of the adopted practices on animal health outcome among poultry farmers in Nyanza region of Kenya. The study applies latent class analysis, which is a model-based clustering approach to categorize poultry farmers into low, moderate, and high biosecurity adoption classes. We find low adoption of biosecurity measures across all classes of smallholder poultry farmers in Nyanza. However, correlation analysis show that increased uptake of biosecurity measures is associated with positive poultry health outcomes. This is as demonstrated by lower mortality rates among farmers characterized by higher adoption of biosecurity measures. Lastly, we implement a multinomial logistic regression to assess determinants of class membership and our analysis shows that information access is the greatest driver of biosecurity adoption. Farmers who had access to information on biosecurity measures were 25 % more likely to belong to the class of farmers adopting more biosecurity practices – high adoption class– and 21 % less likely to be in the moderate adopters class. As such, the study recommends enhanced information dissemination to improve the uptake of biosecurity measures

Do Nutrition Education Approaches With Preschoolers and Their Caregivers Influence Retention of Biofortified Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato on Farms?: Evidence From Homa Bay County, Kenya

Background: Biofortified staples have been promoted widely in sub-Saharan Africa to combat micronutrient deficiencies. Contemporary projects are increasingly using elementary schools to target households with these foods. Objective: This study assessed the effects of integrated nutrition education approaches, targeting preschoolers and their caregivers, on retention of orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) on farms in the second season after lapse of free vine dissemination initiatives. Methods: Rural farming households, with preschoolers and no prior engagement with OFSP, were targeted. A multistage sample of 431 preschooler-caregiver pairs was recruited for a cluster-randomized controlled trial. After issuing routine OFSP promotion activities, 15 village-level clusters of the pairs were randomized into 1 control group (3 villages) and 3 treatment arms (4 villages each) for the interventions. Baseline and follow-up household-level survey data were collected from the caregivers. The interventions included: (1) OFSP-branded exercise books, posters, and a poem to preschoolers only; (2) OFSP-oriented mobile phone-mediated text messages to caregivers only; and (3) both 1 and 2 provided to individual households concurrently. Interventions 1 and 2 were single-channeled, while 3 was multichanneled. We estimated the intention-to-treat (ITT) and treatment-on-the-treated (TOT) effects using a binary logit model and a special regressor method, respectively. Results: Only the multichanneled nutrition education approach had significant effects (ITT = 0.167, P = .001; TOT = .243, P = .007) on the caregivers' likelihood to retain OFSP on their farms. Conclusions: The finding implies that multichanneled agriculture-nutrition education interventions through Early Childhood Development institutions can be effective in ensuring sustainable adoption of OFSP

The Role of Targeted Nutrition Education of Preschoolers and Caregivers on Sustained Consumption of Biofortified Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato in Kenya

Background Persistent prevalence of high malnutrition in poor households in developing countries calls for enhancement of cost-effective nutritioninterventions among the vulnerable groups. One responsive way is to promote regular consumption of home-grown biofortified foods, particularlyin the micronutrient-deficient groups. Previous nutrition interventions have targeted adults with behavior change education, but have rarelyexplored the potential of nutrition education of preschoolers as change agents. ObjectivesThis study sought to assess the effect of nutrition education targeting preschool children and their caregivers on their consumption ofvitamin A–biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) in rural farm households in Homa Bay County, Kenya. Methods A total of 431 preschooler-caregiver pairs from 15 village-level clusters were recruited into a randomized controlled trial. The sample wasrandomized into 1 control (3 villages) and 3 treatment groups (4 villages each). Treatments involved channeling nutrition education to preschoolersthrough their learning materials (preschooler treatment); the caregivers through their mobile phones (caregiver treatment); and to bothpreschoolers and their caregivers simultaneously (integrated treatment). Baseline and follow-up household-level surveys were conducted with thecaregivers, and consumption data were collected from the preschoolers using a child dietary diversity register. Class teachers sought 24-hconsumption recalls of the preschoolers for 19 consecutive schooldays. Results The results of a zero-inflated Poisson regression showed that the phone-mediated and multichanneled nutrition education approachessignificantly increased the number of days of OFSP consumption. The integrated nutrition education approach significantly increased thepreschoolers’ likelihood to consume OFSP, number of OFSP consumption days, and likelihood to consume it more than once per week by 11%,77%, and 20%, respectively. Conclusions Nutrition education through OFSP-branded preschoolers’ learning materials and phone-mediated messages provides effectivenudges to the caregivers to feed their preschoolers regularly with OFSP. This could have implications for realizing sustainable nutrition programsinbiofortified crop-growing areas

Using preschoolers to improve caregivers' knowledge, attitude, and practices relating to biofortified crops: Evidence from a randomized nutrition education trial in Kenya

This 2018 randomized controlled trial examined the role behavioral nudges can play in improving caregivers' knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) relating to biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP). The experiment involved 431 preschooler– caregiver pairs in 15 villages. The preschoolers were enrolled in public-run Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centers in the respective villages. Caregivers were first exposed to the routine OFSP promotion activities in the area – invited to cooking demonstration workshops and issued with free OFSP vines to plant. A baseline survey followed. Next, the 15 villages were randomized into four study groups (a control and three treatments). The interventions were deployed for 30 days as follows: Treatment 1 – preschoolers issued OFSP-branded exercise books, class posters, and poems; Treatment 2 – caregivers received phone-mediated text messages; and Treatment 3 – received the full suite of interventions. This study analyzed the endline and baseline data and finds that, in general, changes in KAP scores were negatively associated with control group (p = .005) and positively associated with Treatment 3 (p = .02). Specifically, Treatment 3 significantly increased caregivers' knowledge of OFSP production, consumption, and vitamin A. Treatment 2 significantly improved their attitude too. It concludes that an integrated complementary nutrition education approach targeting preschooler–caregiver pairs is more effective in increasing knowledge of cultivation and consumption of OFSP. It discusses the implications for the design of more effective nutrition programs targeting households with preschoolers to accelerate the fight against vitamin A deficiency (VAD)

Quality and psychosocial factors influencing purchase of orange‐fleshed sweet potato bread

This 2018 study, conducted in six Tusky's supermarkets in Nairobi, Kenya, combined the Just‐About‐Right, Penalty and Mean‐End‐Chain analyses to examine the quality and psychosocial factors influencing the purchase of a novel bread made from orange‐fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), a biofortified crop, focusing on sixty‐one male and eighty female urban OFSP bread buyers recruited at point of purchase. It finds that sensory and psychosocial factors drive purchasing decisions and that some of the bread's sensory characteristics are misaligned with consumers' expectations. It also finds that women and men’s evaluations of the bread's characteristics are different, as are their motivations for purchase. However, good sensory attributes and the knowledge of the bread's nutritional value were key drivers. Some misaligned characteristics reveal levers for the reformulation of the bread and present opportunities for segmenting the market. Several other implications of the findings for policy and future improvement of the bread are discussed