Food Priorities and Poverty: The Case of Smallholder Farmers in Rural Uganda

Abstract

In this article, the food consumption patterns of poor rural smallholder farmers in Uganda are explored to see if they suggest useful ways for household welfare rankings. For this purpose, a ranking and testing procedure is developed to assert if people consume food items in a particular dominant order. The methodology is used to construct the so-called ‘hierarchy of menus’, which outline people's priorities over a given set of consumption items. These hierarchies are compared and contrasted across different locations and with formal household survey expenditure data. Furthermore, it is illustrated how information on food priorities and underlying welfare distributions can be combined into a cost-effective instrument for poverty monitoring and as input into policymaking.