Assessing the food security outcomes of industrial crop expansion in smallholder settings: insights from cotton production in Northern Ghana and sugarcane production in Central Ethiopia

Lam, Rodolfo Dam; Boafo, Yaw Agyeman; Degefa, Sileshi; Gasparatos, Alexandros; Saito, Osamu

doi:10.1007/s11625-017-0449-x

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…However, consequences are not always positive particularly for the poor; and diverging outcomes have been observed for different community groups. For example, the cash crop sugarcane was found to have a positive effect on food security in Ethiopia, but cotton production in Ghana resulted in lower food security among growers (Lam et al 2017). In Sulawesi, Indonesia, Belsky and Siebert (2003) found that food self-sufficiency would likely decline with conversion of food-crop focused swidden fields to cocoa farms.…”

Section: Background On the Relationships Between Livelihoods And Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Livelihood strategies, capital assets, and food security in rural Southwest Ethiopia

et al. 2019

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Households combine capital assets in a process involving human agency and resourcefulness to construct livelihood strategies and generate well-being outcomes. Here, we (1) characterized types of livelihood strategies; (2) determined how different capital assets are associated with different livelihood strategies; and (3) determined how livelihood strategies differed in food security outcomes. We conducted a survey in southwestern Ethiopia and used principal component and cluster analyses. Five types of livelihood strategies, which differed mainly in food and cash crops comprising the strategy, were identified. These were, in order of decreasing food security: ‘three food crops, coffee and khat’, n = 68; ‘three food crops and khat’, n = 59; ‘two food crops, coffee and khat’, n = 78; ‘two food crops and khat’, n = 88; and ‘one food crop, coffee and khat’, n = 44. The livelihood strategy ‘three food crops, coffee and khat’ was associated with a wide range of capital assets, particularly having larger aggregate farm field size and learning from other farmers. A generalized linear model showed that livelihood strategies were significantly associated with food security outcomes. Particularly, a high number of food crops in a strategy was linked with relatively high food security. In this context, diversified livelihood strategies primarily through having a mix of food crops for subsistence, in combination with cash crops for income, are important for food security. This suggests a need to rethink dominant policy narratives, which have a narrow focus on increasing productivity and commercialization as the primary pathway to food security.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s12571-018-00883-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Background On the Relationships Between Livelihoods And Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Livelihood strategies, capital assets, and food security in rural Southwest Ethiopia

et al. 2019

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“…Relying on multiple metrics is essential for multi-dimensional concepts such as food security [31], with such standardized metrics being increasingly used to assess food security impacts in industrial crop settings of SSA (e.g., [32][33][34][35]). Essentially such approaches can reduce the complexity (and increase the consistency) of food security assessments considering the multiple interacting mechanisms that that are often at play in such industrial crop settings of SSA, for example, [1,8,9,36].…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The recent surge in large-scale land acquisitions for industrial crops in SSA [5] has raised concerns about the effects of large-scale industrial crop expansion on local food security and rural livelihoods [6,7]. However, it is not always clear as to what extent (and under which conditions) industrial crop production improves or compromises rural livelihoods and household food security in SSA [8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smallholder-Based Oil Palm and Rubber Production in the Forest Region of Guinea: An Exploratory Analysis of Household Food Security Outcomes

et al. 2019

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The Guinean government has promoted the large-scale production of industrial crops such as oil palm and rubber through the Guinean Oil Palm and Rubber Company (SOGUIPAH). Smallholder-based production of these crops has also been promoted to boost rural development but the food security outcomes are unclear. This exploratory study assesses the food security outcomes of smallholder-based oil palm and rubber production at the household level using six standardized metrics of food security. We compare households involved in industrial crop production and households that only grow food crops under subsistence conditions through statistical tools such as Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Endogenous Treatment Effect Regression (ETER). Overall, results suggest that oil palm and rubber smallholders perform better than subsistence farmers on metrics that capture perceptions of hunger and coping behaviors but perform worse for food diversity metrics. We hypothesize that this discrepancy can possibly be explained by the strong sense of security that steady income provides across time, which outweighs the shortcomings of diet diversity. The results of this exploratory study can inform the development of more detailed assessments of the food security outcomes of interventions implemented by SOGUIPAH in the area (and the mechanism through which these impacts emerge).

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“…They discuss a transdisciplinary approach that allows the establishment of linkages between the local communities that are in dire need of climate change adaptation interventions in northern Ghana and regional/national stakeholders. Dam et al (2017) develop a rapid appraisal methodology for assessing the local food security outcomes of industrial crop expansion in smallholder settings of Africa. They develop a metric of household caloric intake that captures food security across its four pillars (i.e., availability, access, utilization, stability), but also considers gender roles, and especially the toll that unpaid household work can take on household food security.…”

Section: Aims and Structure Of The Special Featurementioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability science for meeting Africa’s challenges: setting the stage

et al. 2017

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Assessing the food security outcomes of industrial crop expansion in smallholder settings: insights from cotton production in Northern Ghana and sugarcane production in Central Ethiopia

Cited by 19 publications

References 54 publications

Livelihood strategies, capital assets, and food security in rural Southwest Ethiopia

Livelihood strategies, capital assets, and food security in rural Southwest Ethiopia

Smallholder-Based Oil Palm and Rubber Production in the Forest Region of Guinea: An Exploratory Analysis of Household Food Security Outcomes

Sustainability science for meeting Africa’s challenges: setting the stage

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