Samuel Amakye
University of Bergen, Norway
Title: oping with household food insecurity during the lean season; Strategies employed by smallholder farmers in navrongo within the guinea savanna zone of ghana
Biography
Biography: Samuel Amakye
Abstract
Access to sufficient food in a sustainable way is a fundamental human right that needs to be enjoyed by everyone no matter the age, gender, nationality or religion of the individual. However, it is the right that has constantly been violated. Individual right to food are sometimes curtailed by lack of availability, access and sustainable way. This has been the situation for most smallholder farm households in Navrongo, Ghana. Navrongo is located in the Guinea Savanna zone of Ghana. This zone experience unimodal pattern of rainfall and therefore there is only one planting season. Due to this, households have to depend on their harvest year by year. Smallholder farmers are the major food producers in the country, yet still they are the most vulnerable to food insecurity. Food insecurity exist in most households in the study area throughout the year, however this reaches its peak during the lean season. The lean season in this context refers to the period in between planting and just before harvest. It is the time that smallholder farmer households experience the most difficult period in the year. Households’ food stock gets depleted and also it is the time when food prices reach its maximum. As low income households, the question is, how do they survive during such period? This and many other questions I seek to answer within the theoretical framework of sustainable livelihood approach and the concept of food security. Based on this, qualitative research methods (in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus groups, informal conversation) were used during the data collection. The qualitative research methods were used to be able to unearth the perceptions and the experiences of smallholder farmer households of lean season food insecurity.