Abstract

Maintaining food security at both household and national level is increasingly more challenging for many developing countries. Empirical studies conducted in The Gambia emphasized merely the static dimensions of food insecurity, worse still, stressing the national level. These have failed to address challenges at the micro-household level adequately.

This study, therefore, analysed household’s vulnerability to food insecurity and coping strategies in The Gambia. Data were gathered from households in the Lower River Region of The Gambia, using both structured and unstructured questionnaires and interviews to agrarian households. Descriptive statistics and probit model were the analytical tools employed.

A modified CARI approach was also used to analyse vulnerability to food insecurity in the study area. The results indicate that on average, the degree of vulnerability in the study area is about 45%.

Vulnerability to food security is partly due to large family sizes, low income of households, limited access to land, and limited availability of food due to low production, droughts, and other climatic extremes.

About 1,309 households are highly vulnerable, and 4,394 households are moderately vulnerable. Across the different districts in Lower River Region, households in Jarra  west district have most of the food insecure households, (65.3%) tend to reduce the expenditure of the household on other needs, to have money to buy food, (53.7%) turn to the consumption of low quality and cheaper foodstuff such as carbohydrates foods like rice accompanied with soup or different stew with either fish or meat but in worst scenarios for vulnerable households they tend to turn to eat rice without any of the protein which is called “Nyangkatango” (white rice) or “futoo” (Locally processed millet), (52.1%) borrow food from relatives, friends and neighbours and (51.3%) reduce adults‟ food consumption to secure the need of children for food in times of food deficit.

Weak institutional and governance capacity, as well as unsustainable or inequitable use of natural resources, are also a common feature of protracted crises. Emergency interventions in these contexts are often not well integrated with development approaches to address structural issues and promote resilience.

Therefore, to reduce food insecurity among vulnerable populations in the study area, agrarian households must have access to inputs or mechanisms that will not only help them manage risks and respond to shocks in the short and long term but measures that will also enhance their resilience and promote their food security status in the long run.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Food security is a multi-dimensional concept that has changed over time. Initially, at the beginning of the 1970s, food security was seen as the capacity of a country to provide enough food to all its habitants (Treiber, 2014). However, due to a set of problems linked to hunger, lack of success in reducing the levels of poverty and malnutrition, the FAO recognised the limitation of this one-dimensional approach and therefore, called for new ways of thinking about hunger and food insecurity and their consequences for nutrition. Therefore, food security nowadays is related to the limitation of food access and malnutrition (FAO 2003).

However the 1996 World Food Summit adapted definition of Food Security is “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

According to FAO estimates, in 2017, globally close to 10% of the population was faced with severe food insecurity, which corresponds to about 770 million people. At the regional level, values range from 1.4% in Northern America and Europe to almost 30% in Africa. However, the total number of people affected by undernourishment, or chronic food deprivation globally, is estimated to have increased from about 804 million in 2016 to nearly 821 million in 2017 (FAO 2018).

The situation is getting worse in South America and in most regions in Africa. Similarly, the decreasing trend in undernourishment that characterised Asia until recently seems to be slowing down significantly. Without increasing efforts, there is a risk of falling far short of achieving the Sustainable Developments Goal (SDG) target of hunger eradication by 2030 (FAO 2018). There is an increase in the proportion of the population experiencing severe food insecurity as of their inability to access food in the region.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of undernourishment appears risen from 20.8 to

22.7 per cent between 2015 and 2016, and the number of people undernourished rose from 200 to 224 million, accounting for 25 per cent of the 815 million people undernourished in the world in 2016. According to the latest estimates, 9.2% of the world population (or slightly more than 700 million people) exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2018 (FAO, 2019).

The food security situation has worsened, particularly in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South-Eastern Asia and Western Asia. Declines have been observed most notably in situations of conflict and conflict combined with droughts or floods.

There are four critical interlinked components of food security: access, availability, utilisation and stability. Food access refers to a household‟s ability to secure sufficient amount of food regularly through a combination of acquisitions, barter, borrowings, food assistance or gifts” (WFP, 2009). This is however influenced by affordability, allocation and preference.

The World Food Programme defines availability as “The amount  of  food that is present in a country or area through all forms of domestic production, imports, food stocks and food aid” (WFP, 2009)

On the other hand, utilization is referred to as “safe and nutritious food which meets  their dietary needs”. It also includes factors such as safe drinking water and adequate sanitary facilities to avoid the spread of disease and awareness of food preparation and storage procedures (WFS 1996). Therefore, Utilization covers a range of aspects that centres on the consumer‟s understanding of what foods to select and how to prepare and store them.

Whilst Stability refers to the steadiness over time of the three dimensions: availability, access, and utilisation. Thus, it is a condition of the other three dimensions. It shows the probability that food security status may change over time. However, indicators of variability are considered, which show the changes in specific indicators, such as prices, production, supply, over time (FAO, 2006).

To be food secure, a population, household, or individual must have access to adequate food at all times, and should not risk losing access to food as a result of sudden economic, environmental, or political shocks. The purpose of the stability dimension is to monitor the strength of the food security situation to cyclical, predictable variations connected with seasonal weather patterns. (Moltedo et al., 2014). Thus, a household is food secure in a given period if it has enough food to provide its members with all the regular meals in a day, for the entire period, if not it is food insecure. The ability to ensure adequate food security lies in the ability to identify vulnerable households. The extent of vulnerability of an individual, household or group of persons is influenced by their exposure to the risk factors and ability to cope with or withstand traumatic situations. (Zakari et al. 2014)

However, lack of access to food, both physical and social, and the lack of food in a country is linked to food insecurity (FAO, 2003). There are two forms of food insecurity: transitory and chronic.

Transitory food insecurity is associated with a deficit  in household food consumption. On the other hand, chronic food insecurity is understood as a continuous deficit in dietary needs caused by the inability to access food. According to the FAO (2003:32) “The major causes of transitory food insecurity are year-to-year variations in international food prices, in foreign exchange earnings, in domestic food production and variation of household incomes. These sources are often related to each other”.

 

Not all households can be at the same level of volatility in temporary consumption deficit. Vulnerable households like agrarian households, landless agricultural workers and small- scale subsistence farmers are more exposed to food insecurity. This deficit in consumption can push them into harder conditions of already existing food insecurity. Thus, the need to understand the risks households in vulnerable areas face, as well their coping strategies, define the level of exposure to food insecurity and their ability to prevent severity, or improve the household‟s situation.

According to the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture report – Understanding Global Food security and nutrition, 2015, national governments and international development policy have not invested much in agriculture in developing countries. There is also a shortage of advice, knowledge, capital and well-functioning infrastructures.

While German farmers store their harvest, for instance, in granaries before going to sell it with the aid of the telephone or by e-mail, using well-developed market structures and excellent road connections, farmers in developing countries frequently do not have access to these. They lack opportunities to process the products or to preserve them. There is also inadequate support from the agricultural policy as well as of good governance.

Drought, flood, earthquakes, epidemics, and even wars,  undoubtedly contribute to the uneven distribution and lack of access to food in some regions. However, political and structural reasons for supply shortages are prominent: the failure of policy-makers, taking the wrong decisions on investment or infrastructure and hence impairing the conditions for agriculture and rural development.

While little literature seems to focus obliquely on vulnerability levels and coping strategies, very little attention is also paid to implication for policy on household food insecurity.

Different researches have been undertaken to determine factors that are behind food insecurity in developing countries. Those researches have shown that the causes of food insecurity in Africa and other third world countries include: pests/diseases that affect plants, livestock diseases and other agricultural problems, climate change, military conflicts, lack of emergency plans, corruption and political instability, cash crop dependence, human diseases and rapid population growth.

However maintaining food security at the country and household levels is still a major challenge for many developing countries. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, an estimated number of about 870 million people have been malnourished (in terms of dietary energy supply) in the period 2010–2012. This represents 12.5% of  the population, globally. A great majority of these, 852 million live in developing countries, where the prevalence of undernourishment estimated at 14.9% of the population (Zakari, Ying, and Song, 2014).

Nonetheless, some parts of the world are more food secured than others. Those unable to meet their required food needs are food insecure, and a plethora of problems make them vulnerable to this. According to Zeller (2006), vulnerability refers to people‟s propensity to fall or stay below a pre-determined food security line.

The food security line could be caloric-based (i.e., food requirement) or it could include all basic needs. Vulnerability is a function of exposure to risks/shocks and the resilience to these risks. Risks/shocks are events that threaten households‟ food access, availability and utilisation and hence their food stability.

However, over more extended periods, people move in and out of food insecurity and vulnerability becomes the ex-ante probability of falling or remaining below the set threshold of welfare while food insecurity refers to the current or ex-post measure relative to the threshold level. Because vulnerability links to the uncertainty of events, everyone is vulnerable to food insecurity, but some more so than others (Babatunde, Omotesho, Olorunsanya and Owotoki, 2008).

Vulnerability to  food insecurity is a  general problem among  poor  agrarian households; risk factors threaten food security today and cause the vulnerability of households. At the household level, the major types of risks include health (illness, disability, injuries), life cycle-related (old age, death, dowry), social (inequitable intra-household food distribution), environmental factors like climate, drought, floods etc. and economic risks (unemployment, harvest failure). These risks cause food insecurity by lowering food production, reduce income, reduce assets holding, and increase indebtedness (Lovendal and Knowles, 2005).

The population of The Gambia is 1.8 million (2013), with a 3.1% growth rate per year (Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS, 2013). The Gambia‟s economy is predominantly agrarian with about 75 % of the population relying on agricultural production for food and income. Its climate is Sudano-Sahelian, characterised by 5 months of rainy season and dry season for the rest of the year.

In The Gambia, the food security situation continues to worsen, particularly for populations reliant on agriculture as their livelihood source. The country, therefore, seeks to explore appropriate policy responses. (National Food Security Council of The Gambia 2018 report).

Policy influence food security to a great extent; however, a critical analysis of the relationship is key. Thus, the Gambia saw the need for a strategy for ensuring food security for all and such a plan recommended in the Proposed Strategy for Food Security in The Gambia. The strategy seeks to ascertain food security for all by 2020 as its goal and proposes five strategic objectives to achieve this goal through the following:

• Develop a productive, sustainable and diversified agriculture
• Develop an integrated market for agricultural products both internally and externally
• Improve accessibility for vulnerable groups through a strategy for poverty alleviation
• A mechanism for monitoring food stocks put in place (PSFS 2001)

Before independence, in 1965, The Gambia was self -sufficient in food and for that reason importation of rice and other food items was minimal. During the sixties and early seventies, the farmers were still producing enough food to meet the requirement of the population (CFSVA 2016). However, present production levels are not able to meet the needs of agrarian households. The level of food self-sufficiency that prevailed in The Gambia 50 – 60 years ago, especially among agricultural households, was much higher than in recent times.

The first major food crisis struck the country in the early eighties, which was as a result of drought and crop failure. This and many other unfortunate cases of food insecurity and vulnerability serve as unhappy reminders of the gravity of food scarcity and the need to put in place reliable and sustainable measures for enhancing food security (Ceesay et al., 2006).

However, many failures in food security programmes and policies are due to the assumption that large groups of people are homogeneous, rather than being composed of socio-economic groups with different needs and interests; knowing who does what work and carries out what roles in providing for household food security, is essential in policy planning (IASC 2006).

Also, assessing the level of vulnerability for sound strategies adoption is of paramount importance. Similarly, the need to put in place adequate institutional structures for managing national food security that allows for active participation of all stakeholders in The Gambia cannot be emphasised (Ceesay et al., 2001).

Generally, information on the characteristics of those most likely to be food insecure in the future, an understanding of factors that determine their vulnerability and methods that exist for influencing this probability, could be of great importance to government, non- governmental organisations and development agencies in the design of effective food security strategies, both for the present and future. Addressing food security issues is crucial to policy decision-making since achieving the SDGs centres around addressing food insecurity. This study therefore examines the degree of vulnerability and coping strategies of agrarian households to food insecurity.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Like most developing nations, The Gambia‟s small economy is heavily dependent on agriculture and tourism. The performance in agriculture is vulnerable to erratic rains, low productivity, and little to no mechanisation (PAGE 2012-2015). Before independence in 1965 and during the late sixties and early seventies, the country enjoyed some “nutritional sovereignty” characterised by the adequate supply of affordable and culturally acceptable foodstuffs.

For most of this period, food importation was minimal and mostly destined for consumption in the urban area. However, though for a relatively short period, the first food crises hit the country in the 1980s. This food scarcity was epitomised by long queues in major food shops to buy food. (Ceesay et al., 2001).

According to The Gambia Transitional Interim Country Strategic Plan (T-ICSP, 2018), Insufficient national investment and public-private partnership in The Gambia, little diversification of agricultural production, high production cost, low adoption of farm mechanisation and changing climatic conditions continue to hinder necessary progress toward achieving zero hunger despite the country’s efforts in reducing food insecurity over the past 20 years.

Regardless of the primary role of the agriculture sector in the economy, its performance in the past decade and share in most vital socio-economic indicators has not been consistent and performance in production stagnated or even declined in some years. This is said to have been caused by a number of factors, that is adverse climatic conditions, application of Structural Adjustment Programmes, low private sector investment, especially in value-addition, decline in international agricultural commodity prices, rising food prices of food and essential production inputs, inadequate national policies and institutional support and investment in the sector, especially roads and equipment.

On the other hand, subsistence farming households do not produce enough in their mono-crop system to attain marketable surplus. Also, income from agriculture and other sources is limited often due to insufficient output marketing opportunities. Poor rural households have to bridge a food deficit period between 4 to 6 months, generally in the raining season (FAO, 2019)

Although significant in-roads have been made, food security in The Gambia remains problematic with unacceptably high rates of malnutrition (Ceesay et al., 2001). Food production in The Gambia is increasingly being constrained due to climatic vagaries observed over the past years, recurrent droughts, persistent crop failures, encroachment on agricultural land as a result of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, high levels of postharvest losses and an agriculture sector that is predominantly characterised by subsistence food crop production, traditional extensive livestock rearing and a semi- commercial production of crops which is not able to meet the needs of households. (Ceesay et al 2001).

These factors, compounded with the frequent rise and fluctuations in the price of imported good, non-diversification, high cost of production and inadequate public-private partnership, a fall in purchasing power of most households, inadequate market infrastructure, a growing population, changing dietary preferences has further exacerbated food security issues in The Gambia. Without concrete actions, this deleterious situation will persist with far-reaching implications for the country‟s development agenda. Therefore, there is an urgent and dire need to understand the issues further.

While national-level food security assessments have been carried out, as useful as they may be, they have contributed to masking the micro-level realities, worse still, stressing the national level. Evidence of household food security or insecurity in The Gambia has remained mainly in the realm of speculations and conjectures. There is, therefore, the need to assess household vulnerability to food insecurity and their coping strategies. This micro-level assessment is warranted given the paradigm shift in food security analyses from the national, regional and community level to the households. An understanding of these local realities will offer avenues for policy. Thus, this study is an attempt in that direction.

1.3 Objectives of the study

The main objective is to assess vulnerability to food insecurity and coping strategies of Agrarian households in the Lower River Region of The Gambia and implication for policy.

1.3.1Specific objectives

The specific objectives of this study are:

1. To evaluate the extent of the vulnerability of agrarian households to food Insecurity in the Lower River Region of the Gambia.
2. To examine the coping strategies of agrarian households to Food Insecurity.
3. To assess the implication for policy on agrarian household‟s food Insecurity.