Rainfall variability and farm households’ food insecurity in Burkina Faso: nonfarm activities as a coping strategy

Abstract

This study explores the impact of rainfall variability on farm households’ food insecurity and how nonfarm activities may contribute to mitigate such effects in Burkina Faso. Ordinary least square and copula switching regressions were performed on the data of the 2014 Multi-sectoral Continuous Survey of Burkina Faso (EMC-BF). It appears that both short- and long-term rainfall variabilities are important determinants of farm households’ food insecurity level in Burkina Faso. An increase in rainfall average significantly reduces the level of farm households’ food insecurity. However, the effect of a short-term decrease in rainfall appears to be significant only among rural farm households, indicating their dependence on rainfall for their livelihood, compared to urban farm households. More importantly, the study reveals that nonfarm activities reduce farm households’ food insecurity. Operating a nonfarm activity may therefore be a strategy to cope with the effects of rainfall variability among farm households in Burkina Faso.