FACTORS INFLUENCING FOOD SECURITY IN TURKANA EAST DISTRICT, TURKANA COUNTY, KENYA

The purpose of the study was to assess the factors influencing Food security in Turkana East , \nTurkana County, with reference to Food for Assets programme. This research was guided by the \nobjectives; to establish the influence of bad weather/climatic conditions on household’s food \nsecurity, to determine the effect of insecurity on food security, to assess the effect of cultural \npractices on food security, to establish the impact of Government policies on agriculture on food \nsecurity in Turkana East District. \nThe study targeted 452 households receiving food aid, 4 staffs of the lead Cooperating partner \ndistributing relief food in Turkana East District and 6 government officers from the different line \nministries helping in the implementation of the project (Actionaid, 2012). Simple random \nsampling was used in the study. The information for the study was gathered by use of \nquestionnaires as the main research instruments and interview schedules. The questionnaires \nwere subjected to the head of households, while a key informant questionnaire was administered \nto the staffs of the Lead Cooperating partner distributing relief food aid and government officers \nfrom the different line ministries helping in the implementation of the project. A research \ninstrument is valid depending on how the data collected is related in terms of how effective the \nitems have sampled significant aspects of the purpose of the study (Orodho, 2005). The collected \nraw data was coded and analyzed by both descriptive and inferential methods using Statistical \nPackage for Social Scientist (SPSS) software. This study revealed that bad weather/ climatic \nconditions affect food security negatively. The correlation coefficient between bad \nweather/climate and food security is -0.75 and P- value = 0.075. This shows that there is a strong \nnegative correlation between bad weather/climate and food security. Secondly, the study \nestablished that the major form of insecurity in the area is cattle raids which are very persistent in \nthe region. Thirdly, the study established that majority of the respondents (63%) were \npolygamous while 33% had monogamous families. This culture of having many wives leads to \nthe families having many children. Finally, the study established that 86% of the respondent \ncultivated less than 2 acres of land and did not use modern farming technique and had poor \nstorage facilities for their produce. This is an indication of insufficient food production. Also the \ncorrelation coefficient between agricultural practices and food security is +0.78 and P- value = \n0.075. This shows that there is a strong positive correlation between agricultural practices and \nfood security.