Consumption intensity of leafy African indigenous vegetables: towards enhancing nutritional security in rural and urban dwellers in Kenya

Agricultural and Food Economics

Table 1 Definition of variables used in econometric analysis and descriptive statistics

Variable	Definition of variables and its measurement	Rural dwellers	Urban dwellers	Significance
Continuous variables		Mean		t value^a
Age	Age of the decision-maker^b in years	43.22	40.62	2.03**
Educ	Years of schooling of the decision-maker	9.45	10.37	−1.88*
H_size	Number of members in the household	5.56	4.38	5.65***
Yr_cons	Years of AIV consumption by the household	23.45	18.78	3.62***
P_income	Proportion of income allocated to food items (in Kenyan shillings)	0.45	0.35	2.29**
V_diversity	Number of different AIV leaves stocked at preferred retail outlets	5.67	6.00	−1.69*
Mrkt_dist	Distance to the nearest preferred retail outlets (in walking minutes)	35.39	18.00	7.41***
Categorical variables		Percentage		χ ² ratio^c
Gender	% of male decision-makers	34.32	30.08	0.72
Occup	% of respondents with household cook^dformally employed	19.26	21.77	0.43
Nutrit	% of respondents informed about nutritional benefits of leafy AIVs	45.49	43.94	0.36
Medic	% of respondents informed about medicinal benefits allied to leafy AIVs	53.42	46.27	4.83*
Price_Per	% of respondents who perceive prices of leafy AIVs are affordable	74.63	85.22	5.37***

*, **, ***Significant at 10, 5, and 1%, respectively
^a t test was used to determine significant differences in continuous variables, between rural and urban dwellers
^bDecision-maker is a household member responsible for making key decisions on matters concerning food consumption
^cχ² ratio was used to determine relationships in categorical variables, between rural and urban dwellers
^dHousehold cook is the person responsible for preparing household meals