The Relationship between Socio-Economic Characteristics of Maize Farmers and Household Food Security in Eastern Uganda

Despite the importance of maize in the Ugandan diet, its role in ensuring food security, and the numerous research studies that have been done on adoption of maize production technologies, limited work has been done to assess the food security status of households engaged in improved maize production vis-à-vis that of local maize farmers. This study was done firstly to compare the socio-economic characteristics of 187 improved maize and local maize growers; secondly, to establish the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics and household food security of improved and local maize growers. Two separate analyses were done- one to examine the socio-economic differences between local maize and improved maize growers and the other to assess the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics and household food security. All socio-economic characteristics were found to be non-significant which implied that improved maize growers and local maize growers did not differ statistically in all aspects. The Subsistence Potential Ratio was used to compare the food security status of improved maize and local maize growers and was found to be 0.54 for improved maize growers, while that for local maize growers was 0.42 though the difference was not significant. Analysis using a consumption model revealed that a significant relationship existed between household food security and income, labour hours exported and imported by a household, education level of household head, number of extension visits, and area allocated to improved maize varieties. Keywords: Food security, maize, subsistence potential ratio Eastern African Journal of Rural Development Vol.19(1) 2003: 2-12