Increasing concern exists over the impacts of climate change on food production amongst the Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Changing weather patterns are already having effects on soil fertility, pests and diseases, heat stress in plants, soil moisture, saltwater incursion from rising sea levels, and increased damage to agriculture and crops from climate-related extreme events. Although climate-related extreme events such as cyclones, floods, droughts and storm surges are causing damages on food production, farmers in PICs often attribute the occurrences and frequency of climatic hazards to God, spiritual beliefs and cultural practices. This paper evaluates farmers' perceptions of how their food production systems and livelihoods are influenced by religious and cultural-spiritual beliefs, as a proxy for understanding climate impacts. We conducted 98 in-depth, semi-structured one-on-one interviews, a social-demographic survey (n = 98) and personal observations on farmers' behaviours using the snowballing method in the Malu'u and Sikwafata communities on Malaita in the Solomon Islands. We thematically analysed the transcripts placing emphasis on understanding commonalities and differences within and between the study sites. We found that climate impacts on food production are one of the major problems identified by 92.3% of the respondents (29.0% of youths, 25.8% of middle-age, and 37.5% of elderlies) who attribute climate impacts to God's punishment or the fulfilment of a prophecy. Human factors including folklore (cultural behaviours/sorcery) were also factors affecting food production for 76% of the respondents (19.3% of youths, 31.6% of middle-age, and 25.1% of elderlies). We also found that 5.4% of farmers had no knowledge or awareness about climate change and 21.7% claimed that lack of farming equipment (tilling tools and planting materials) was a major problem. More community awareness on climate change and its impacts and further research is needed to enable farmers to make informed decisions about improving their food production systems.
Access to and availability of various food sources is not an issue in rural communities. However, there is no guarantee that households are not affected by nutritional inadequacy, which is still a problem in most underdeveloped nations. A mixed-methods study was conducted to determine the HDDS through snowballing method for the last 12 months' food-source-group and the 48-hour diet recall. Ninety-eight households in 2 rural communities in Malaita participated in the interview between April and May 2019 and analyzed through SPSS and QDA MINER. The aim is to analyze the household dietary patterns of two communities between Zion 1 and Zion 2. The study also hypothesizes that the dietary pattern of households has not changed. A total of 9 food groups; grain, white roots and tubers, plantains, oils/fats (95.90%), condiments (83.70%), and meat/poultry/sea foods (77.60%) were consumed. Majority of the food consumed are from the gardens followed by other food sources which makes up the average HDDS of 5. A correlation analysis found a statistically significant relationship between HDDS and total meal (0.504*) with no relationships between demographic. When comparing 48-hour food sources and food groups to the last year, there was little to no difference in accessibility and availability. This implies that the majority of households are likely to achieve their nutritional needs within the parameters of their dietary trend. Despite the fact that households have adequate food access, there is a significant need to improve their nutritional needs, even if they consume the average required food groups.
Access to and availability of various food sources is not an issue in rural communities. However, there is no guarantee that households are not affected by nutritional inadequacy, which is still a problem in most underdeveloped nations. A mixed-methods study was conducted to determine the HDDS through the snowballing method for the last 12 months’ food groups-and-sources and the 48-h diet recall. Ninety-eight households in two rural communities surrounding Sikwafta (zone one) and Malu’u (zone two) participated in the interview between April and May 2019. The results were then analyzed through SPSS and QDA MINER. The aim is to analyze the household dietary patterns of the communities between the two zones. The study also hypothesizes that the dietary pattern of households has not changed. Results showed that a total of nine food groups were consumed: grain, white roots, tubers, plantains, oils/fats (95.90%), condiments (83.70%), and meat/poultry/sea foods (77.60%). The majority of the food consumed comes from the gardens, followed by other food sources, which make up the average HDDS of five. A correlation analysis found a statistically significant relationship between HDDS and total meal (0.504*), with no relationships between demographics. When comparing 48-h food sources-and-groups to the previous year, there was little to no difference in accessibility and availability. This implies that the majority of households are likely to achieve their nutritional needs within the parameters of their dietary trend. Even though households have adequate access to food, there is a significant need to improve their nutritional needs, even if they consume the average amount of the required food groups.
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