scholarly journals Food Security in Artisanal Mining Communities: An Exploration of Rural Markets in Northern Guinea

Foods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 479
Author(s):  
Laetitia X. Zhang ◽  
Fatima Koroma ◽  
Mohammed Lamine Fofana ◽  
Alpha Oumar Barry ◽  
Sadio Diallo ◽  
...  

The number of people engaged in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has grown rapidly in the past twenty years, but they continue to be an understudied population experiencing high rates of malnutrition, poverty, and food insecurity. This paper explores how characteristics of markets that serve ASM populations facilitate and pose challenges to acquiring a nutritious and sustainable diet. The study sites included eight markets across four mining districts in the Kankan Region in the Republic of Guinea. Market descriptions to capture the structure of village markets, as well as twenty in-depth structured interviews with food vendors at mining site markets were conducted. We identified three forms of market organization based on location and distance from mining sites. Markets located close to mining sites offered fewer fruit and vegetable options, as well as a higher ratio of prepared food options as compared with markets located close to village centers. Vendors were highly responsive to customer needs. Food accessibility and utilization, rather than availability, are critical for food security in non-agricultural rural areas such as mining sites. Future market-based nutrition interventions need to consider the diverse market settings serving ASM communities and leverage the high vendor responsiveness to customer needs.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong ◽  
Aaron Kobina Christian ◽  
John Ganle ◽  
Richmond Aryeetey

Abstract Background: Small-scale mining, referred to as galamsey in Ghana, is an important source of income for many rural populations. Although concerns have been raised in the media about the significant threats galamsey poses to the environment, and human health and livelihoods, there is a representational paucity of evidence regarding its links with local food systems, particularly from the perspective of affected mining communities. The current study explored community perceptions and experiences of galamsey and its perceived effects on food security and livelihoods in the East Akyem Municipality in the Eastern region of Ghana. Methods: Primary data was collected in the East Akim District of Ghana, using photography, interviews based on the photographs, and a photo exhibition, all conducted . Thirty-six male and female adults were purposively selected with the help of a community focal person and advertisements in the study community. Respondents participants in a one-day photography training and thereafter, deployed to take at least fifteen photos that portray the effect of galamsey on food security and health. Subsequently, each participant was asked to selected five of the photographs and to explain the image and why they captured that in the photo. A photo exhibition was held to facilitate community conversation and perspectives on the effects of galamsey on food and nutrition security. Results: Galamsey has resulted in degradation of, otherwise, fertile agricultural land, and contamination of freshwater sources. As a consequence, there is reduced cultivable land, reduced crop production, shortage of essential staple foods, increase in food price, and increased consumption of ultra-processed foods. There is also perception of increased exposure to heavy metals like mercury in locally-produced food. Conclusions: Given the adverse health consequences of both food and nutrition insecurity, and increased consumption of processed foods, it is important that public and policy discussions to minimize the effects of galamsey in Ghana should include considerations about food and nutrition insecurity in mining communities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Smart Mhembwe ◽  
Newman Chiunya ◽  
Ernest Dube

Smallholder farmers across Zimbabwe have been facing a problem of food insecurity because of climate-induced droughts and lack of effective use of irrigation schemes. Rainfall patterns in the country have become more unpredictable and inconsistent with the traditional farming seasons. Faced with such challenges, many smallholder farmers in Shurugwi district in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe adopted small-scale irrigation schemes to improve food security. The principal objectives of this study were to examine the status of the irrigation schemes in the district; analyse the need to rehabilitate small-scale irrigation schemes; assess the initiatives towards the revival of irrigation schemes; establish the benefits that can accrue to smallholder farmers from small-scale irrigation schemes and discuss challenges faced by smallholder farmers in the running of small-scale irrigation schemes in rural areas. This qualitative study employed literature and interviews to obtain data from 40 purposively selected participants. The direct observation method was used to compliment the interviews. The findings of the study were that small-scale rural irrigation schemes have the capacity to significantly transform the lives of rural farmers through earning increased reliable income from farming if institutional and capacity issues of the farmers are addressed. Furthermore, the study found that small-scale irrigation schemes can also be a panacea to food security challenges mainly faced by rural households. As such, the article concluded that irrigation schemes are fortress and antidote to the effects of climate change. The study calls for capacity promotion on technical skills for the farmers, the establishment of many new irrigation schemes and the rehabilitation of the existing small-scale irrigation schemes in the country as well as calling on the farmers to adopt climate-smart irrigation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Krause ◽  
Anja Faße ◽  
Ulrike Grote

Kenya ranks among the countries with the highest micronutrient deficiency worldwide. Due to their high micronutrient content, African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) can be a solution to this problem, and urban areas in Kenya have seen a rise in demand for these crops in the previous decade. To fill the gap between supply and demand, programmes to promote AIV production have been implemented in rural and peri-urban areas. However, the effects of increased AIV production on income and food security in the regional economies are not clear. Thus, in this analysis, we first evaluate differences between the livelihoods of household groups with different levels of food security in rural and peri-urban Kenya using a two-step cluster analysis. Then, we generate a regional social accounting matrix (SAM) and calculate the direct and indirect income effects of AIVs and other crops grown in the area using a multiplier analysis. For the analysis, a total of 706 small-scale vegetable producers in four counties in Kenya were interviewed in 2015. Households in rural areas were more food insecure, especially with respect to the utilization and stability dimension of food security. Multiplier analysis showed increased indirect income effects of AIVs in the regional economy compared to those of many cash crops. We suggest further promoting the production of AIVs in rural and peri-urban Kenya.


1992 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Priscilla Smith Naro

The transition from slave to free labor in the Americas involved many and varied forms of internal labor and land adjustments which affected slaves, landless farmers, and large scale producers in rural areas. Unlike Haiti and the United States South, the Brazilian process of emancipation was gradual and did not involve violent structural ruptures with the past. The Land Law of 1850, the Law of the Free Womb of 1871 and the 1885 Sexagenarian Law marked fundamental phases in an ongoing process of state participation in the organization of the free labor market, which culminated in Abolition on 13 May 1888, and the onset of the Republic on 15 November of the following year. Current analyses of the late nineteenth century emphasize continuity and define the state as its own agent, embarking on a course of conservative modernization which unfolded during the process of transition from the liberalism of a nineteenth-century empire to the interventionist Republic which was ushered in, in 1889. The planter class, joined with emerging but weak Brazilian industrial and financial sectors and upheld by the military, contributed to an Estado Oligárquico, in Marcelo Carmagnani's terminology, linked by coffee production into the world economy as a flourishing dependent peripheral economy. But the process, which until recently was associated with the coffee export sector and its relation to urbanization and industrialization, has now taken on broader dimensions. A developed domestic economy, composed of a complex and sophisticated internal food supply network, operated alongside the export economy throughout the nineteenth century. Although unstudied from the political perspective of small-scale food producers who were displaced by the coffee economy, the broader issue of food provision could not be dissociated from conservative modernization, the basic issues of which would be carried forth during the course of the First Republic in the form of “Ruralismo.”


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 50-63
Author(s):  
Confidence Ndlovu ◽  
Mandla Masuku

The paper has aimed to explore the effectiveness of small-scale farmers in improving household income and food security, particularly looking at the barriers to market access in rural areas. This study was undertaken in rural areas of Kanyamazane, Clau-Clau and Nyongane, South Africa, where small-scale producers depend on low-risk and low-return markets to generate household income from production, thus ensuring food security. To achieve the aim of this study, a qualitative approach was used to provide in-depth interpretation of the perspectives, experiences, and behavioural patterns of the small-scale farmers faced with market related issues. Small-scale farmers, agricultural extension officers, and municipal officials were purposefully selected to share their views, perceptions, and experiences on the effectiveness in accessing markets. The findings revealed that there was limited access to formal markets by small-scale farmers because of limited knowledge and capacity to meet market requirements. The study confirmed that a lack of marketing skills, institutional support services, and limited access to arable land, have directly negative effects on achieving livelihood outcomes. This study recommends a sustainable crop production method which reduces the costs of farming resources, such as pesticide and fertilizer, through organic methods to ensure food safety and enhanced nutrient quality. This study further encourages inclusive rural development, where small-scale producers are treated as stakeholders in agricultural policy formulation to enable access to financial resources and increase in production through the formation of cooperatives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-118
Author(s):  
Vladimir Grigor'ev ◽  
Van Lok Nugen ◽  
Rustam Nizamov ◽  
Igor Grigorev

In connection with the development of the Republic of Vietnam, which is accompanied by the growth of its importance in the Asia-Pacific region, it becomes relevant to analyze the current state and prospects of the republic in various industries and regions, including in agriculture. In order to eliminate the imbalance between the declining share of agricultural production in the national economy and more than 60% of the population living in rural areas, a competent state policy in the field of integrated rural development is necessary. In addition to this disparity, there are growing problems associated with the income gap between the peasantry and urban residents, with a strong orientation of agriculture towards exports, and with the implementation of the idea of creating peasant cooperative farms. To date, the basis for working with rural areas is the resolution of the Communist Party of Vietnam “Agriculture, farmers and rural areas” adopted in August 2008. On its basis, the “National target program - New rural development” was created, designed for the period from 2010 to 2020. Data analysis showed that the area of agricultural land in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam gradually increase, and the cropping pattern change, for example, reduces the area of rice fields and increases the area occupied by permanent crops, especially fruit. Production of grain per capita has been steadily decreasing. In animal husbandry, there is a gradual transition from small-scale dispersed production to its concentration on large farms. The measures taken for the development of agriculture are aimed, among other things, at minimizing the negative impact on the environment and introducing modern achievements of science and technology in order to increase the economic efficiency of production. At the same time, Vietnam’s food security in general cannot be called sustainable, especially because of the need to import barley, without which Vietnam’s livestock farms cannot feed their existing livestock


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (71) ◽  
pp. 15-18
Author(s):  
G. Assanova ◽  
M. Saginbayeva ◽  
S. Aytkhozhin ◽  
D. Nurpeisov

This article is written based on the results of two years of research during the implementation of the Grant financing project of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. AR08053217 "Development of a model for the effective functioning of personal subsidiary farms on the example of poultry meat production", 2020-2022. The basis of this article is the study of such form of farming in rural areas as personal subsidiary farms. The importance of private farming is actualized both in matters of a social nature in rural areas, and issues of sustainable development of entire sectors of the economy. The article clarifies the main socio-economic functions of personal subsidiary farms. The basics of motivation and goal-setting are considered in the direction of entrepreneurship. And in this regard, a model is given for increasing the business activity of personal subsidiary farms based on small-scale poultry meat production. The model is described from the point of view of the mechanisms of interaction of participants, and from the point of view of the organization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-17
Author(s):  
Rider PANDURO-MELENDEZ ◽  

This document is based on a case study of small-scale peasant agriculture and in this case linked to a peasant woman who is a conservator of biodiversity; It was carried out in the district of Cartel, province of Rioja, department of San Martín, Upper Amazon of Peru. Open and semi-structured interviews were conducted and direct observations were made of the various activities that this peasant family, which exists on its family farms, with tours of each of its plots that it has on its plots, with the aim of recording on -site information regarding to the diversity that they collect, conserve, the uses and destinations that this diversity has, concentrating on the value of diversity that is oriented to the market and food security; Data from diversified production, production volumes, values to each of them and the destinations of production for food security were analyzed; confirming their resilience, adaptation and mitigation to the disorders of the contexts that currently appear. Keywords. Accompaniment, Peasant Woman, In situ, Food Security, Diversity and Local Markets


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Stella Nordhagen ◽  
Mohamed Lamine Fofana ◽  
Alpha Oumar Barry ◽  
Sadio Diallo ◽  
Joseph Lamilé Songbono ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a widespread livelihood in low- and middle-income countries, however many in ASM communities face high levels of poverty and malnutrition. The food environments in ASM communities have non-agricultural rural characteristics that differ from those in urban and subsistence rural areas examined in much existing food environment literature. Design: We examine these complex external and personal food environments in ASM communities via a study using qualitative and quantitative methods. Market surveys and a cross-sectional household survey, plus qualitative mining site non-participant observations and in-depth structured interviews, were conducted in three waves. Setting: Eighteen study sites in ASM communities in northern Guinea. Participants: Surveys covered mothers in mining households with young children (n=613); in-depth interviews engaged mothers of young children (n=45), food vendors (n=40), and young single miners (n=15); observations focused on mothers of young children (n=25). Results: The external food environment in these ASM communities combines widespread availability of commercially-processed and staple-heavy foods with lower availability and higher prices for more nutritious, non-staple foods. Within the personal food environment, miners are constrained in their food choices by considerable variability in daily cash income and limited time for acquisition and preparation. Conclusions: We demonstrate that ASM communities have characteristics of both urban and rural populations and argue for greater nuance and appreciation of complexity in food environment research and resultant policy and programming.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-176
Author(s):  
Ludmila Namrueva

The possibilities of small-scale economic activities, which include peasant (farm) farms, in the preservation and development of rural areas of the country, in solving the problems of employment and income of rural residents require a deep interdisciplinary analysis in order to develop effective support measures in the future. Farmers are a significant subject of socio-economic processes in modern Russian rural areas and the implementation of state food security programs. Most of their farms are multi-industry, they are engaged in grain growing, animal husbandry, vegetable growing, beekeeping, etc. In order to understand what processes are taking place in farms, what factors constrain and what, on the contrary, contribute to their development, how the farming way of life adapts to the conditions of constantly changing socio – economic reality, how farmers are integrated into the activities of rural societies, it is important to use various research practices to study the various aspects of farms in different regions of the country. This article uses sociological information obtained from rural residents of such large agricultural regions as the Republic of Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Volgograd regions, and Stavropol territory.


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