I study the economics of blue foods, wild-capture fish, freshwater and marine aquaculture , with particular attention to how producers, traders, and consumers absorb and respond to environmental and market shocks.
My current work examines global blue food trade flows, the production-level costs of harmful algal blooms and other environmental disturbances, and the economic conditions under which the sector can build durable resilience. Within aquaculture, I focus on freshwater systems, with Nile tilapia in Lake Victoria as my empirical anchor. I am especially interested in fish trade, risk perception and management, feed-use decisions, and how a warming climate will reshape production geographies, prices, and livelihoods in freshwater aquaculture over the coming decades.
Nyakundi, F. N. & Naylor, R. L. Perceived Risk and Risk Management Strategies in Nile Tilapia Aquaculture in Kenya. Aquaculture (2026). [Methods: behavioural economics, survey]
Nyakundi, F. N., Moanga, D., Lambin, E. F., & Naylor, R. L. Monitoring Cage Aquaculture Dynamics and Zoning Compliance in Lake Victoria, Kenya, Using Remote Sensing. (under review). [Methods: remote sensing, spatial analysis]
Nyakundi, F. N., Naylor, R. L., & Burney, J. Cost-Minimization or Risk Exposure? Feed Use Decisions in Nile Tilapia Aquaculture in Kenya. Working paper. [Methods: behavioural economics, production economics]
This strand of my work asks how smallholder agricultural systems, consumer behaviour, and nutrition outcomes interact — and where well-designed market and policy interventions can shift those outcomes for the better.
I draw on choice experiments, willingness-to-pay analysis, intra-household decision-making studies, and large-scale household surveys to investigate how new crop varieties reach end users, why nutrient-dense foods are adopted (or not), and how diversification at the farm and household level translates into resilience and improved diets. Empirical work to date has concentrated on East Africa, with active and forthcoming work in other geographies, and more cross-country comparative analysis in development.
Mwendia, S. W., Ohmstedt, U., Nyakundi, F., Notenbaert, A., & Peters, M. (2022). Does harvesting Urochloa and Megathyrsus forages at short intervals confer an advantage on cumulative dry matter yields and quality?. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 102(2), 750-756.[Methods: optimization]
Andrade, R. et al. (2021). Where Is My Crop? Data-Driven Initiatives to Support Integrated Multi-Stakeholder Agricultural Decisions. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. [Methods: spatial analysis, multi-stakeholder modelling]
Nyakundi, F. et al. (2020). Survey data on income, food security, and dietary behavior among women and children in Nairobi, Kenya. Data in Brief. [Methods: household survey]
Consumer Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for High-Iron Beans in Northern Tanzania. CIAT (2019). [Methods: Theory of Planned Behavior &. Health Belief Model]
Productive Diversification in African Agriculture and its Effects on Resilience and Nutrition. World Bank (2019), book chapters 2, 3, 5, 6.
I work at the intersection of land-system science and resource economics ; using spatial analysis, remote sensing, and applied microeconomics to study how land, forests, and water systems are used, valued, and governed.
Topics I have written about include the political and policy challenges of global land use, optimal management of forest resources, and how urban and commercial water users respond to scarcity and price signals. The unifying thread is treating natural systems as the productive base of food and economic life, and asking what rules, prices, and incentives produce sustainable outcomes.
Lambin, E. F., Turner II, B. L., & Nyakundi, F. (2021). Policy challenges for global land use. Global Environmental Change. [Methods: synthesis, land system science]
Nyakundi, F. N., Mulwa, R. M., & Kabubo-Mariara, J. (2018). Determination of optimal rotation period for management of lumbering forests in Kenya. Journal of Sustainable Forestry. [Methods: Economic optimization, forest valuation, bioeconomic simulation]
Determinants of commercial water demand and supply in Nairobi, Kenya: price elasticity and coping strategies. EfD project with Otieno, Cook & Fuente. [Methods: applied microeconomics]