Smallholder aquaculture diversifies livelihoods and diets thus improving food security status: evidence from northern Zambia

Table 1 Household and livelihood characteristics

Household characteristics	Aquaculture n = 177		Non-aquaculture n = 174
Household characteristics	Freq.	%	Freq.	%
Sex of household head
Female	12	6.8	27	15.5	*
Male	165	93.2	147	84.5
Marriage status^†
Married male household head	159	89.8	140	80.5
Unmarried female household head	12	6.8	27	15.5
Unmarried male household head	6	3.4	7	4.0
Age of household head
< 35 years old	32	18.1	58	33.3	**
35–60 years old	117	66.1	86	49.4
> 60 years old	28	15.8	30	17.2
Household size
Small (< 3 people)	17	9.6	27	15.5	**
Average (4–7 people)	85	48	100	57.5
Large (> 8 people)	75	42.4	47	27
Education level of household head
Partial primary school	87	49.2	105	60.3
Partial high school	76	42.9	57	32.8
Finished high School	14	7.9	12	6.9
Yearly income—Zambian Kwacha (ZMW)
Median (interquartile range 25%—75%)	3000 (1200—6000)		1900 (800—4000)		*
Main income source
Aquaculture	23	13.0	0	0.0	***
Staple crops (maize, cassava, millet.)	79	44.6	85	48.9
Beans	28	15.8	26	14.9
Groundnuts	16	9.0	21	12.1
Vegetables (tomatoes, okra, etc.)	25	14.1	7	4.0
Fisheries	1	0.6	15	8.6
Employed	3	1.7	12	6.9
Other	2	1.1	8	4.6
Livelihood characteristics	Mean ± SD		Mean ± SD
Total number of crops & livestock (CLS)	6 ± 2.65		4.47 ± 2.18		***
Total number of non-farm activities	0.21 ± 0.44		0.37 ± 0.56		*
Production diversity score (PDS)	5.26 ± 1.66		3.59 ± 1.46		***

All p values on mean differences between aquaculture and non-aquaculture groups calculated with chi-squared tests or Welch’s t tests for categorical and continuous variables, respectively—statistical significance marked with * (p < 0.05) or ** (p < 0.01) or *** (p < 0.001)
^† “Unmarried” signifies single, widowed, or divorced household-head. In all married male households, the main food preparer was the spouse (female). Only one elderly woman of all the female unmarried households had another person (daughter) cook for the household, while eight unmarried male households cooked for themselves (all young, single men); and the rest had a female household member cook for the household (e.g., sister, daughter)

ISSN: 2048-7010