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Dietary energy consumption (DEC), dietary diversity (DD) and household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) are
used in determining food security. However, it is not known whether their uses give similar incidences of food
security. The study on which this paper is based sought to determine food security based on the above methods, with
the specific objectives to: a) determine DEC per adult equivalent and per capita both per day, b) determine
household dietary diversity, c) measure food access by using HFIAS and (d) compare food security incidences based
on the four methods of food security determination. Random sampling was used to select 400 households. The
research was a cross sectional one and was conducted through structured interviews using a questionnaire, focus
group discussions and key informant interviews. Using DEC per adult equivalent and per capita both per day, it was
found that 84.2% and 81.8% of the 400 sampled households were food secure respectively. Using HFIAS and DD,
88% and 31.8% were food secure respectively. It is concluded that DEC per adult equivalent per day, per capita per
day and HFIAS give almost similar food security incidences and have good potential to give reasonable results of
food security status, while DD tends to exaggerate food insecurity incidences. It is recommended that the government
and other stakeholders dealing with food security should use both DEC per adult equivalent, DEC per capita per day
and HFIAS almost equally since they give almost similar results. Besides, effort should be made to establish
international cut off points and food items to include in the classification of households into food secure and food
insecure based on DD. |
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