Living Hedges and Household Food and Nutrition Security in Cote D'ivoire

Abstract

Soil degradation is a major problem, particularly for Ivorian rice farmers who grow rainfed rice on slopes or flood plains. To remedy this situation, some households are adopting agroforestry practices, in particular living hedgerows. This study analyzes the economic impact of the adoption of living hedgerows on the food and nutritional security of rice-growing households in Côte d'Ivoire. Data were collected from 456 households in the regions of Tonkpi in the west, Poro and Tchologo in the north, using stratified random sampling, with each village considered as a stratum. Then, the two steps of the propensity score matching (PSM) method were used to identify the factors involved in the adoption of living hedges and to measure the effect of this adoption on household food and nutritional security. The results obtained from the propensity score matching (PSM) analysis indicate that the adoption of living hedges improves the food and nutritional security of adopters by an average of 67% and 266.67% respectively. The study therefore recommends improving human capital through training in rice plot selection, raising awareness of the benefits of agroforestry practices, and capacity-building for producers in the use of living hedgerows.