Abstract
Common resources (CRs) provide a “hidden harvest” for rural households and can also act as a safety net in the event of poor agricultural output or seasonal food gaps, hence contributing to food security. Yet only limited empirical research has assessed the relationship between CRs and the self-assessed food security conditions recorded among rural households. This exploratory paper draws on recent data from the Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS), a nationally representative sample of households administered in 2012–2013 as part of the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study — Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). A sustainable livelihood framework was used to contextualise CR access within the broader set of food security drivers. In Nigeria, access to common pasture and water resources is significantly associated with less reporting of food insecurity. In contrast, access to common forest tends to be associated with food insecurity, suggesting that households with access to common forest remain vulnerable (i.e. isolated from services and opportunities) despite having the advantage of the forest as a source of food. Echoing existing literature, the relative importance of these commons decreases when income of households increases. However, there are no clear signs that access to commons acts as a seasonal safety net for households during the lean season. The paper advocates streamlining CR data collection alongside agricultural data for a more integrated food security policy intervention aimed at the most vulnerable.
Highlights
Food insecurity remains a reality for 795 million people, despite the fact that the proportion of the global population that is undernourished has fallen from 23% to 13% over the past 25 years (FAO et al 2015)
In sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), the proportion of the population that is undernourished decreased from 33% to 23% over the same period, the absolute number of undernourished individuals increased by 25%, to 220 million
To the best of our knowledge, the influence of access to commons on livelihoods — and by extension on food security — has generally been approached through cases studies using a limited number of households, with rare exceptions such as the cross-continental reviews by Wunder et al (2014b) and Angelsen et al (2014)
Summary
Food insecurity remains a reality for 795 million people, despite the fact that the proportion of the global population that is undernourished has fallen from 23% to 13% over the past 25 years (FAO et al 2015). Food insecurity persists because of lack of food or the food production gap, and because of lack of access and entitlement to food (Sen 1981), conflict, lack of job opportunities, and lack of access to social services or land (FAO et al 2014; Food Security Information Network 2017). It is the result of unsustainable natural resource use, on which the rural poor are directly dependent for their livelihood (Cavendish 2000; Kamanga et al 2009). Responding to the food and nutrition security challenge entails going beyond improving agriculture performance to considering how to integrate the wider landscape and its wild resources into food security policy
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