Evaluation of ex - ante and ex - post strategies of coping with drought-driven food insecurity in Kwale county, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Drought and famine, in sub-Saharan Africa, are among the leading causes of vulnerability within resource poor households in Arid and Semi-Arid agro-ecosystems. Accordingly, understanding how these communities cope with drought-driven food insecurity is critical for mitigation planning. This study was conducted in Makamini location in Kwale County, an area with a long history of food insecurity. Purposive sampling was used to identify twenty key informants and 30 respondents in each sub location. Data were collected using questionnaires, participatory approaches and environmental observation checklists. Collected data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to determine frequency distributions, rankings and correlations. The findings showed that the two most devastating effects of drought were crop failure (79%), and water scarcity (74%). Accordingly, the two most effective ex-ante and ex-post ante strategies were construction of high capacity water reservoirs (85 %), soil and water conservation (74 %), diversification of income (70.8%), and sale of livestock (65%) respectively. Further, analysis showed that there was a negative correlation of -0.32 between the ex-ante drought coping strategies used and those perceived as effective, meaning that the target community used less frequently the ex-ante drought coping strategies perceived to be effective, which was probably due to the relatively high initial cost of investment required. On the other hand, the analysis showed a positive correlation between the ex-post coping strategies used and those perceived as effective meaning that the target community frequently used ex-post strategies that they perceived effective. The study also used Wilcoxon signed rank test and Kruskal Wallis test to determine variables association. Indeed, the devastating effects of drought changed the behavior and practices of the target community, and the most two are migration to urban centres to look for employment (87%) and walking long distances in search of pasture and water (74%). To contribute to mitigating drought-driven food insecurity, this study recommends construction of high capacity water reservoirs to meet people‘s requirements, developing dynamic and reliable markets for livestock, and investing in off-farm income generating activities.