A network analysis of household food sharing in Zambia

von Gnechten, Rachel Marie

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/105076 Copy

Description

Title

A network analysis of household food sharing in Zambia

Author(s)

von Gnechten, Rachel Marie

Issue Date

2019-04-23

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Konar, Megan

Department of Study

Civil & Environmental Eng

Discipline

Civil Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• food sharing
• sharing
• household sharing
• Zambia
• food security
• adaptation
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Current and future food security are threatened by impending population growth, increasing demand for resource intensive foods, and climate change. Coping strategies at various scales have been proposed to help food security. One potential strategy is household sharing. Household sharing is an important part of current smallholder food systems. However, we do not currently understand the full social network of sharing in a village. To this end, we evaluate the full network structure of two villages in Zambia: one within biking distance to a food market on a tarmac road, the other within walking distance to a food market off a tarmac road. Both villages are fairly isolated and consist of roughly 50 households. The seasonal food, maize, livestock, non-food, and labor sharing practices from the agricultural year 2017-2018 are analyzed via household surveys. The general network properties of the villages are analyzed at an annual and seasonal time scale revealing seasonal fluctuations in sharing. The impact of a household’s network properties on its food consumption score (FCS) are studied to see how access to a sharing network impacts household food security. Our study shows that the presence of a household sharing network appears to have no statistically significant impact on household food security. Additionally, we show that the classic gravity model of trade is applicable at the household level, which means that prediction of household food sharing can be accomplished with household income and geographic distance variables. To our knowledge, this is the first study that determines the applicability of the gravity model of trade for this scale. These results highlight the important and efficient role that sharing may play in future food security strategies and indicate a powerful tool to predict household level food sharing.

Graduation Semester

2019-05

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105076

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Rachel von Gnechten

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