OC-10.1: Consumption frequency of ICARDA-mandated crops and livestock

Owned by Enrico Bonaiuti
Last updated: May 05, 2020
2 min read

Definition: This is indicators is a count of the number of days in a week that a household consumes an ICARDA-mandated crop or livestock food product. It is a sub-set of the Food Consumption Score (FCS) indicator, widely used in food security projects/studies.

Unit of Measure: Count

Disaggregated by: Crop/livestock, sex of household head (Male, Female), Geographic location (national, sub-national)
Crop: Chickpea, Lentil, Faba beans, grass pea, Spring barley, Winter barley, Durum wheat, Spring Bread wheat
If crop: Timing of data collection (Within 3 months from harvest, >3-6 months from harvest, >6-12 months from harvest.
Livestock: Goats, Sheep, Cattle

Method of Calculation:
Step 1: For each of the past 7 days, elicit the number of times an ICARDA-mandated crop or livestock food product was consumed, and record 1 if any was consumed at all on a particular day
Step 2: Elicit the number of days an ICARDA-mandated crop or livestock food product was consumed using a standard 7-day recall period.
Step 3: Compute the average number of days the ICARDA-mandated crop or livestock food product was consumed by households

Data sources: Farm households

Data collection method: Farm household surveys

Data collection and reporting responsibility: Program leader, project leader, project M&E focal point person

Data Collection and Reporting Frequency: Annual, bi-annual, baseline, mid-term, end-term.

Evidence required:
For internal evaluation or research studies: Study protocol, data collection tools, dataset, report;
For external evaluation or research studies: Request for proposals (RFP) document, final report, dataset

Rationale: For food-based nutrients to be efficacious, they have to be consumed in sufficient quantities and intensities. This indicator provides a snapshot of the usefulness of the ICARDA-promoted food crop and animal foods in household diets.

Comments and limitations:

  • This indicator generates discrete indicator values with a narrow range, and so the underlying distribution does not conform to normal distribution. Whereas means are more accurate for normally distributed values, the computed means for this indicator are deemed to provide useful guidance, and the limitations thereof are acknowledged.

  • The indicator is meant to measure the contribution of ICARDA-promoted crops to the dietary diversity of the household. It however does not encompass the whole dietary diversity concept as this is the subject of indicator OC-10.3.