Food security and coping strategies for COVID-19 disruptions among farming households in Cameroon

Abstract

The uncertainty of a secure next meal has continued to bedevil global economies and undermine households’ well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected farming households’ livelihood through diverse pressures on global food systems. In this study, we assessed the association between the COVID-19 shocks and farming households’ food and nutrition security and the different coping strategies adopted in Cameroon. Focus group discussions were conducted to identify the COVID-19 shocks affecting farming households and the different response strategies implemented. A multi-stage random sampling method was employed to interview 249 households. Through the ordered probit model and other empirical strategies, we show that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced farming households’ access to food, dietary diversity, and consumption frequency of essential food groups. Our results show that male-headed and rural households are significantly more food insecure than female-headed and semi-urban households. Moreover, our analysis shows that female-headed and semi-urban households reported a positive and statistically significant association with coping strategies, indicating that female-headed and urban households contributed more to sustaining household food security than male-headed and semi-urban households. The most implemented coping strategy is consuming less preferred and less expensive food. This study provides evidence for targeted interventions such as capacity build and training to strengthen farming households’ food and nutrition security resilience to emerging and unpredictable shocks. Strengthening and improving farming households’ coping strategies through capacity building and skills acquisition in off-farm income opportunities are crucial to improving their adaptive capacity and reducing their vulnerability to food and nutrition insecurity in Cameroon.