Abstract:
Food insecurity remains a serious challenge for many households in Africa and the
situation is even more prevalent among young people. However, there is a dearth of
empirical evidence on youth food security status in Africa. We assessed the level and
determinants of food security among young farmers in Africa. We adopted a multi-
stage sampling technique to select 400, 429, and 606 young farmers in Kenya, Nigeria,
and Uganda, respectively. Individual food consumption was assessed following a 7
days recall method. The Food Consumption Score, which combines dietary diversity
and consumption frequency was used to assess food security status while the determi-
nants of food security were identified using a logistic regression model. Results suggest
low dietary diversity across the three countries. Also, the majority of the respondents
had an unacceptable food consumption score, suggesting that despite being food
producers, young farmers are still food insecure. The odds of being food secure was
positively determined by access to extension services, participation in the ENABLE TAAT
business incubation programme, and access to market information but, negatively by
access to credit, number of employees, Covid-19 pandemic, and location. Additionally,
the food security status of young female farmers was positively influenced by age, sug-
gesting that younger youths are less food secure compared to older ones. These results
suggest that more efforts should be directed towards improving the food security of
young African farmers and that policy- and programme-level interventions should
support access to extension services, market information, and land. Additionally, more
investments should be directed towards developing need-based agribusiness incu-
bation programmes with an effort to scale existing programmes beyond the regular
one-time period
