Determinants of food insecurity among smallholder farmer households in Central America: recurrent versus extreme weather-driven events

Francisco Alpízar,Bárbara Viguera,M Ruth Martínez-Rodríguez,Raffaele Vignola,Milagro Saborío-Rodríguez,Tabaré Capitán,Celia A Harvey

doi:10.1007/s10113-020-01592-y

Abstract

To ensure food security among rural communities under a changing climate, policymakers need information on the prevalence and determinants of food insecurity, the role of extreme weather events in exacerbating food insecurity, and the strategies that farmers use to cope with food insecurity. Using household surveys in Guatemala and Honduras, we explore the prevalence of food insecurity among smallholder farmers on both a recurrent (seasonal) and episodic (resulting from extreme weather events) basis, analyze the factors associated with both types of food insecurity, and document farmer coping strategies. Of the 439 households surveyed, 56% experienced recurrent food insecurity, 36% experienced episodic food insecurity due to extreme weather events, and 24% experienced both types. Food insecurity among smallholder farmers was correlated with sociodemographic factors (e.g., age, education, migration) and asset ownership. The factors affecting food insecurity differed between type and prevalence of food insecurity. Our results highlight the urgent need for policies and programs to help smallholder farmers improve their overall food security and resilience to extreme weather shocks. Such policies should focus on enhancing farmer education levels, securing land tenure, empowering women, promoting generational knowledge exchange, and providing emergency food support in the lean season or following extreme weather events.

Highlights

Climate change poses a significant threat to agricultural production and food security in developing countries worldwide (Porter et al 2014), especially to smallholder farmers who depend on agriculture for both their food security and livelihoods
Our study highlights the high prevalence of food insecurity among smallholder subsistence farmers in Central America, the negative impacts of extreme weather events on smallholder farmer food security, and the limited number of coping strategies used by smallholder farmers to cope with food shortages
The main coping strategies reported by the families, for example decreasing food intake, using savings or selling assets and livestock, undermine their ability to cope with future shocks, in a setting in which most studies coincide in predicting an increase in the number of extreme hydrometeorological events

Summary

Introduction

Climate change poses a significant threat to agricultural production and food security in developing countries worldwide (Porter et al 2014), especially to smallholder farmers who depend on agriculture for both their food security and livelihoods. Many national governments are developing strategies to maintain agricultural production and achieve food security under changing climatic conditions (Godfray et al 2010; Vermeulen et al 2012). These efforts are both in response to international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which emphasize the importance of ensuring food security, as well as to national development agendas. Finding ways to improve the food security of smallholder farmers is critical for climate change adaptation and development goals in many developing countries (Vermeulen et al 2012), as smallholder farmers are responsible for much of the agricultural production and are among the most food-insecure and poorest populations and targets of efforts to end hunger and alleviate poverty

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Conclusion