Determinants of gender differences in household food security perceptions in the Western and Eastern regions of Kenya

Abstract

In addition to Intra-household resource allocations and internaldynamics of decision-making, gendered perceptions on household food securityplay a critical role in households’nutritional status, especially in developing coun-tries. However, evidence on the role of gender-based perceptions on households’food security and related implications on the households’nutritional status islimited. This study examines the determinants of gender-disaggregated householdfood security perceptions among smallholder farming households. We used twopanels of data from households in eastern and western Kenya and employ theHouse hold Food Insecurity Access Scale to measure perceptions of household foodinsecurity, and the random effects generalized ordered probit model to evaluate thedeterminants of security perceptions across gender. The results reveal that thefactors that influence food security perceptions vary across gender. The educationlevel of household head and the number of relatives were negatively associatedwith female perceptions of household food insecurity, whereas the householddependency ratio was positively associated with female perceptions of householdfood insecurity. In contrast, age and gender of household head were positively