| dc.description.abstract | The study mainly focused at examining the effect of food insecurity on household welfare in
Katine sub county Soroti district. The time scope covered periods between 2009 and 2018. This
time range helped to capture periods of massive food insecurity in katine Sub County. The study
used primary data, which was collected using questionnaires, and analyzed using Microsoft
Excel and SPSS where the frequencies of the categories were determined and presented in tables
and figures as appropriate. The research focused on three objectives to find out the effect of food
insecurity on household welfare that include; income, education and health. Findings revealed
that 83.1% agreed that Katine sub-county was facing food insecurity and 16.9% disagreed.
Findings on the effect of food insecurity on income of households in Katine sub-county included;
increase in the cost of living due to high food prices (55.4%), reduction in saving due to
increased expenditure on food (52.3%), sale of household tangible assets such as land, animals to
raise money for buying food (53.8%), borrowing from informal sources and money lenders
(49.3%), reduction in farm labor which may prevent individuals from doing farm work (36.9%)
Findings further revealed the effect of food insecurity on education of households, which
included; decline in school performance (64.6%), increase in school absenteeism (67.2 %),
increase in the number of school dropout (63%), class repetition (57%), withdraw of children
from school to work in or off the farm for wages to buy food (70.8%).
The study recommended the government of Uganda to consider creating rural labour intensive
opportunities, increasing minimum wages to reduce poverty in Katine, subsidizing agricultural
machines; pesticides and planting materials. Further, the study recommended setting up a
national food supplementary programme to provide breakfast and lunch either at no cost or
reduced price in schools. | en_US |
