Sustainable intensification and food security: A panel data assessment of the smallholder maize farmers in Uganda

Food security is touted as an essential condition for social growth. Yet, the food deficit is rampant among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, farm productivity is considered the theme for improving household food security outcomes. As one of the sub-Saharan African countries, Uganda is affected by food insecurity caused by the declining availability of cropped farmland. Sustainable intensification (SI) is a critical farming practice that enhances crop yield and reduces environmental degradation. However, there is scanty empirical evidence on if farming practices contributing to sustainable intensification can improve the household livelihood and food security. In this research, we used multinomial endogenous treatment effects and a balanced Uganda National Panel Survey to evaluate the impacts of SI technologies on maize farming households' livelihood and food security. We ranked households into four groups depending on the inputs and soil management practices they use on their maize farms, namely “non-adopters”, intensification group”, “sustainable group”, and “sustainable intensification group”. The multinomial endogenous treatment effect (METE) model's findings suggested using the SI cluster is associated with improved food consumption score, household dietary diversity score, and per capita expenditure using non-adopters as the baseline group. Further, these improvements are determined by combining maize-legume intercrop and inorganic fertilizer practices. The results indicate that experts and researchers should espouse multidimensional and all-inclusive technological evaluation methods instead of conservative reductionists methods that concentrate on a solo farming practice at a time. Also, the findings can guide the sustainable vector that highlights and strengthens all-inclusive agricultural growth with policymakers and scientists working with marginalized farmers.