What determines consumption of fortified foods in Kenya: the potential for micronutrient malnutrition control

Food fortification is considered as an important strategy for addressing micronutrient malnutrition that includes vitamin A, iron and zinc deficiency in most developing countries. Development efforts have thus focused on breeding for crops that have natural ability to produce through a process widely known as bio-fortification. In Kenya, these efforts are being complemented with push pilot fortification of foods. The recently enacted National Food Security and Nutrition Policy aims to encourage industrial fortification of widely consumed foods with essential micronutrients. Despite these efforts there is still very weak information on factors affecting consumption of fortified foods hence the dearth of knowledge regarding consumption levels and patterns. This study therefore assessed factors affecting consumption of fortified foods. It focuses on Vitamin A fortified sugar and uses data collected from rural and peri-urban areas of Kenya through a binary probit model to examine consumption drivers. The results showed that point of purchase, trust for stakeholders involved in fortification, consumer awareness and knowledge of the importance of vitamin A have significant effects on consumption of fortified foods. These findings offer useful insights for the development of nutrition policies in Kenya, and Africa at large. The study also augurs well with the theme ‘Innovative Research and Technology for Global Development’ on the premise of value addition, food technology and human health development

Determinants of Farmers’ Awareness about Crop Insurance: Evidence from Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

Kenya has a long history in applying risk management mechanisms in agriculture. The initial agricultural insurance scheme was initiated by the colonial government in the 1930’s under the Guaranteed Minimum Returns (GMR); a form of crop insurance that guaranteed farmers a minimum price for their produce besides insuring their production against unavoidable crop failure. However, due to its abuse by stakeholders, the government made a decision to discontinue the programme in 1978. For many years after the discontinuation, agricultural insurance was virtually not available in the country. In order to revive the crop insurance industry, the private sector launched ‘Kilimo salama’, meaning safe farming in 2009. However, despite the noble intention to revive the crop insurance industry, a dearth of empirical knowledge exists on factors affecting farmer awareness about crop insurance product. In order to address the aforementioned knowledge gap, a binomial logit model was employed to assess the factors affecting awareness. The core findings of the study were that gender, education, and income of the household were the main determinants of awareness. These findings provide policy insights on key areas of intervention with respect to uptake of crop insurance in the country

Time Series Analysis and Forecasting of Carbon Dioxide Emissions: A Case of Kenya’s Savanna Grasslands

Climate change and climate variability is perhaps one of the major challenges facing the world today. There is an equivocal agreement that climate change is not only a threat to the economies of developing world, but also to those of the developed economies. One of the key drivers of global warming is the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Even though several studies have in the recent past evaluated various sources of GHG emissions and their associated impacts, little empirical information exists on the role played by burning savanna grasslands as far as global warming is concerned. This study is an attempt to determine the emission pattern over time and consequently forecast the linear trend in GHG emissions from the Kenya’ Savanna. Using Autoregressive (AR) modelling, the study analyzes and forecasts time series data ranging from the year 1993 to 2012. The key finding of the study indicate that emissions resulting from continual burning of Savanna grasslands will continue in an upward trend if no serious mitigation measure is put in place to revert the statusquo. Averting the current state of affairs requires policies aimed at reducing the levels of GHGs in the atmosphere for instance promotion of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) Practices