Measuring food security by what households actually eat
A household can harvest enough maize and still be undernourished. ISSED tracks dietary diversity across the year, not tonnage after harvest.
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Food security is frequently reported as production volume. ISSED measures it as dietary diversity — the number of food groups a household actually eats, assessed across the year rather than in the weeks following harvest.
The distinction matters. A household can produce a full year’s maize and still fall short on the nutrients a growing child needs, particularly in the lean months before the next harvest.
Diversification as risk management
Crop diversification does two things at once: it spreads the risk of a single crop failing, and it widens what ends up on the plate. Post-harvest handling and storage training then protects what has been grown.