Land access, livelihoods, and dietary diversity in a fragile setting in northern Uganda

Food systems in fragile contexts are hardly investigated. We examined the crop value chain activities, agriculture income, coping strategy, and food consumption score (FCS) among South Sudan refugees ( n = 394; refugee HH) and Uganda host communities ( n = 420; host HH) living on the northern border of Uganda. Secondary data analysis was conducted using baseline data collected from an NGO-supported project. Linear regression analysis was conducted to test the association between the type of crop for growing and selling, agriculture income, coping strategy, and FCS in the refugee HH and host HH, separately. The mean number of growing and selling crops was 2.7 (SD 1.7) and 0.6 (1.0) in the refugee HH and 3.6 (1.4) and 1.3 (1.1) in the host HH. Overall food insecurity and FCS was poor in both refugee and host HH. Larger land access was associated with diverse crop production and crop selling in both groups ( p