Strategies for Coping with Household Food Insecurity. A Global Perspective

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2011; Morello, 2012; O‟Brien & Cook, 2016). Cattle measure the worth of anything from children to wives, and the amount of food borrowed during food scarce seasons (Mjonono et al., 2009;

Kahsay & Mulugeta, 2014; Rukundo et al., 2016). Thus, without critical assets deprived households find it difficult to procure food. Intervention approaches that fail to address the asset requirements of poor household may not be appropriate within rural contexts.

Farming land size and food deficit

Farming land is a critical factor that determines household productivity (Maxwell, 2011; Hendrix

& Brickman, 2013; Lawson et al., 2017). Access to farm land permits production of both cash crops and food for households as well as for individuals. The extent of land possessed by a family is an imperative indicator of food deficit status. Kahsay & Mulugeta (2014) reveal that the extent of land possessed by families had negative or positive effect on food deficit in Ethiopia.

Kabui (2012) also discovered that farm land size was negatively and significantly associated with household food deficit in Kenya.

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In his seminal work, Morello (2012) maintains that although coping options are used after a perturbation, their invocation cause a rise of novel livelihood options. The invoking of coping strategies at an early phase may comprise the pursuit of other sources of income that completely change the coping pattern of a household at a future period. Numerous researches (Morello, 2012; Ndiweni, 2015; Wabwoba et al., 2016) used the concept “coping strategies” to include short term, inadvertent and carefully considered household risk avoiding strategies and lasting adjustment to food deficit. Concerning the conceptual boundaries of the notion „coping‟, this research goes beyond the limited concept to include the broader concepts borrowed from the term „livelihood strategies‟. Maxwell (1996) defines livelihood as

…capabilities, resources and undertakings essential for a means of living. A livelihood is viable when it can manage and recuperate from stress and shocks, preserve or improve assets and capabilities, and offer viable livelihood prospects for the subsequent generation; and which contribute to the livelihoods benefits at the global, national and local levels and in transitory and projected basis.

The term “coping strategies”, as conceptualized in this research, took into account a number of aspects that determine the configuration of livelihood approaches over a long period of time.

This study also stresses how adopted coping strategies eventually evolve into livelihood strategies that are included in households‟ seasonal calendars.

Households rely on a diverse of coping strategies to counter the effects of production deficit and food market uncertainties. Hendrix and Brickman (2013) and Peng et al. (2017) suggest that coping mechanisms are not always efficient or effective due to lack of assets and inadequate institutional aid. The degree of a household susceptibility to food deficit is affected by the assets that it possesses (Maxwell, 2011). The resilience of a household depends on how well it can reorganize and adapt (Ellis, 2000; Altman et al., 2009; O‟Brien & Cook, 2016). Demographic characteristics are also important in determining household food shortfall (Mengistu & Haji, 2015; Wabwoba et al., 2016; Peng et al., 2017). Small-scale farmers aim to maximize household‟s utility (FAO, 2011; Ehebhamen et al., 2017) and therefore have to take account of the risks. This is a vital factor given the characteristics of agricultural production in rural areas.

The coping strategies employed by various households may be different from place to place.

Affected by adverse seasonal conditions, households develop mechanisms to manage these problems. Families rely on minimal crop and livestock farming (Scoones, 1996; Krishnal, 2015) and petty trade (Mjonono et al., 2009; Wabwoba et al., 2016). Beside, Barrett (2010) and Akhtar

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et al. (2015) deliberate on the capacity of households to address the constrictions of food production practices, including famine incidents. De Stage et al. (2012) also point out that food insecure households adopt short-term coping strategies which do not provide solutions to food deficit challenge in the long term. Scoones (2009) notes that the failure to address food insecurity in the SADC region lies in the lack of institutional capacity to address long term impacts of adopted coping strategies. While the above findings are important at the national level, little information exists on the effects of preferred coping mechanisms at the family level.

Studies in West Africa reveal that the major influence on household‟s choices of coping strategies lies in their access to assets (FAO, 2011). The choice of coping options is a procedure in which families select coping options to satisfy their varying requirements (Peng et al., 2017). For instance, among rural families, activities are not essentially restricted to farming, but comprise other coping options in order to spread income and risks. However, while access to assets is critical, seminal work on food shortfall fails to address the major determinants of deficit (Ellis, 2000; Silverman, 2011; Abu & Soom, 2016); role of institutions (Grobber, 2014;

Cheema & Abbas, 2016) and procedures (Irohibe & Agwu, 2014; Johnson et al., 2015) that affect households‟ capacity to utilize assets in an endeavour to realize realistic coping outcomes. In the same vein, this study is critical because these essential elements are addressed adequately in proceeding chapters.

In Mali and Senegal, there is evidence of coping options developed to cushion against the uncertainties induced by droughts (FAO, 2012; Ehebhamen et al., 2017). Mengistu & Haji (2015) also indicate that there is evidence that coping strategies have evolved among pastoral communities in famine prone areas in the Sahel region. FAO (2011) narrates how pastoral communities in North and West Africa make changes in their selection of technologies, production and consumption choices. Scoones (1999) grouped these coping strategies into ex- ante (in season adjustment of resources and pastures) and ex-post risk management (distress sale of livestock, borrowing and cutting of expenditure). While these studies shed more light on the coping strategies in the Sahel region, little is known on coping strategy matrix and the spatial scale at which the numerous approaches function in Zimbabwe. Environmental differences make it difficult to overlay the Sahel findings on the Zimbabwean case studies.

In drier environments, coping strategies are important, although they are less varied owing to more constrained resource base (Ellis, 2000; Fahmida et al., 2017). Where the prospects exist, being employed as salary labourer, trader, merchandiser or as a farmer are also common practices (Scoones, 1999). However, due to the limitations which exist in these drier

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environments, whether employed or not, people continue to survive on the margins. Also, the challenges related to animal production in arid locations reduce the motivation to invest.

However, FAO (2010) notes that since livestock are the major store of wealth, households hold more in order to insure that they remain sustainable after the disaster. In many cases, farmers lost their livestock due to speculation tendencies. Kolmar and Gamper (2012) conclude that in the Sahel region, coping comes at significant costs to the poor households. The costs remain to be felt even after the disasters recede. The impact of reduced food consumption, sale of assets, foregone health care and education and the stress incurred by household heads struggling to cope reverberate for a long time.

A research conducted in South Africa reveals that households adopt various strategies and also rely on existing support structures to cope with food shortfall (Altiman et al., 2009). These included gathering of wild foods (Mjonono et al., 2009) support from relatives and friends (Altiman et al.,2009), market purchases, sale of productive assets, remittances, decrease in daily meals, cut in food rations and intake of less favoured diets (Tshediso, 2013). Despite the existence of literature on coping strategies in many parts of the world, there is little known about coping strategies in Chipinge district. This situation hinders the establishment of appropriate interventions in the study area.