Weather variability and food consumption: Evidence from rural Uganda

This multidisciplinary study considers the impact of short-term weather variations on food consumption of 488 rural households in Uganda. We combine World bank LSMS households panel data with data on rainfall, number of rainy days, maximum and minimum temperatures in the period 2005/06-2009/10. Triangulating the findings of the econometric model with qualitative interviews and the analysis of the agricultural sector recent developments, we argue that households are involved in ex-ante smoothing strategies while land and reduction of non-consumption expenditures seem to partially offset adverse rainfall variations