scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 on Smallholder Poultry Farmers in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11475
Author(s):  
Oladeji Bamidele ◽  
Tunde Adegoke Amole

In sub-Saharan Africa, most households in rural communities keep smallholder poultry, and are exposed to harsh socio-economic conditions caused by COVID-19 pandemic due to the vulnerability of their production systems to crisis. This study assessed the impact of COVID-19 on 525 smallholder poultry farmers in five states of Nigeria. The study was conducted 15 months after the onset of the pandemic in Nigeria using structured questionnaires focused on socio-demography, income, production systems, markets, and food security. Average household size increased from 6.9 before COVID-19, to 8.3 during COVID-19, representing a 20.3% increase in population growth. Over half (52.6%) of this increase was due to childbirths. Average monthly income before and during the pandemic was reduced from NGN 22,565 (USD 62.70) to NGN15,617 (USD 38.10), respectively. During the pandemic, there was a 28.4% increase in the number of farmers living below the international poverty line of USD 1.90 per day. In addition, reliance on chickens for food and income was significantly (p < 0.05) impacted by gender, location, household size, and monthly income. These results show that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant effect on the livelihoods and food security of farmers, and the findings are essential in developing appropriate post-COVID-19 interventions for smallholder poultry production in Nigeria.

Author(s):  
Constanza Gutiérrez-Gómez

Abstract The livestock sector faces an important challenge in the medium and long term since it must satisfy an increasing demand for animal products as a result of the increase in population and the world economy but safeguarding natural resources and at the same time minimizing the environmental contamination, especially the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributed to livestock husbandry. For Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), this becomes more relevant given the importance of the sector for the food security of rural communities, particularly for small-scale producers. In this manuscript, we address the main challenges of LAC in this context, from a global perspective that includes the demographic, economic, cultural, and environmental effects. The biggest global challenge for the LAC livestock sector for the coming decades is how to satisfy the growing human demand for animal protein in a sustainable way maintaining the food security of their communities. The efforts to achieve these goals require focusing on improving the efficiency of both animal husbandry and production systems. Therefore, it is necessary to implement technologies of sustainable intensification and it is urgent that those who make political decisions become aware of these issues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Smeets-Kristkova ◽  
Thom Achterbosch ◽  
Marijke Kuiper

Nigeria is one of the most dynamic economies in Africa. Strong GDP and population growth coupled with urbanization trends place tremendous pressures on natural resources and the food systems that are dependent on them. Understanding the impact of these “mega trends” is important to identify key leverage points for navigating towards improved nutrition and food security in Nigeria. This paper contributes to the Foresight Project of the Food Systems for Healthier Diets which aims to analyse how the food system in Nigeria is expected to transform in the next decades, and to identify the leverage points for making sure that the transformation contributes to balanced consumer diets. For the food systems foresight, a well-established global economy-wide model, MAGNET, is applied that enables to capture the interlinkages among different food industry players in one consistent framework. By linking MAGNET to the GENUS nutritional database, it is further possible to relate the developments occurring on a macro-level with detailed macro and micronutrient consumption. Model projections suggest that a process of intensification of agriculture in combination with land substitution appears critical for the evolution of food and nutrition security, and for shifts towards healthy diets for the population. Intensification results in greater diversity of the production systems, which in turn cascades into positive effects on the diversity in the food supply and better food security outcomes.


Food Security ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Pawel Jarzebski ◽  
Abubakari Ahmed ◽  
Yaw Agyeman Boafo ◽  
Boubacar Siddighi Balde ◽  
Linda Chinangwa ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Okonya ◽  
Walter Ocimati ◽  
Anastase Nduwayezu ◽  
Déo Kantungeko ◽  
Nicolas Niko ◽  
...  

Biotic constraints cause major crop losses and, hence, food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. This study documented the popularity, production constraints, pests and diseases, farmers’ perceptions on the severity of biotic constraints and the impact of related crop losses on household food security for the key root, tuber and banana (RTB) crops (cassava, potato, sweetpotato and banana). Farmer interviews were conducted in 2014 covering 811 households in Rwanda and Burundi. Farmers were asked to list their RTB crop production constraints, name insect pests and diseases of RTB crops, estimate crop loss due to pests and diseases, and mention if their household experienced any form of food insecurity due to pests and diseases. Cutworms and late blight in potato, banana weevils and banana Xanthomonas wilt in banana, cassava whitefly and cassava mosaic disease in cassava, sweetpotato weevils, and sweetpotato virus disease in sweetpotato were the most predominant pests and diseases reported. Crop losses due to pests and diseases for sweetpotato, banana, potato and cassava were estimated at 26%, 29%, 33%, and 36%, respectively, in Rwanda and 37%, 48%, 38%, and 37% in Burundi. Pests and diseases reduce the profitability of RTB crops, threaten food security, and constitute a disincentive for investment. Sustainable and affordable integrated pest management packages need to be developed.


2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 759
Author(s):  
Raïfatou Affoh ◽  
Haixia Zheng ◽  
Kokou Dangui ◽  
Badoubatoba Mathieu Dissani

This study investigates the relationship between climate variables such as rainfall amount, temperature, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and the triple dimension of food security (availability, accessibility, and utilization) in a panel of 25 sub-Saharan African countries from 1985 to 2018. After testing for cross-sectional dependence, unit root and cointegration, the study estimated the pool mean group (PMG) panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL). The empirical outcome revealed that rainfall had a significantly positive effect on food availability, accessibility, and utilization in the long run. In contrast, temperature was harmful to food availability and accessibility and had no impact on food utilization. Lastly, CO2 emission positively impacted food availability and accessibility but did not affect food utilization. The study took a step further by integrating some additional variables and performed the panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) regression to ensure the robustness of the preceding PMG results. The control variables yielded meaningful results in most cases, so did the FMOLS and DOLS regression. The Granger causality test was conducted to determine the causal link, if any, among the variables. There was evidence of a short-run causal relationship between food availability and CO2 emission. Food accessibility exhibited a causal association with temperature, whereas food utilization was strongly connected with temperature. CO2 emission was linked to rainfall. Lastly, a bidirectional causal link was found between rainfall and temperature. Recommendations to the national, sub-regional, and regional policymakers are addressed and discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thompson, John Thompson, John ◽  
Njuguna Ndung’u ◽  
Miguel Albacete ◽  
Abid Q. Suleri ◽  
Junaid Zahid ◽  
...  

Studies of livelihoods and food systems since the start of the global pandemic in 2020 have shown a consistent pattern: the primary risks to food and livelihood security are at the household level. Covid-19 is having a major impact on households’ production and access to quality, nutritious food, due to losses of income, combined with increasing food prices, and restrictions to movements of people, inputs and products. The studies included in this Research for Policy and Practice Report and supported by the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) Programme span several continents and are coordinated by leading research organisations with a detailed understanding of local food system dynamics and associated equity and livelihood issues in their regions: (1) the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa; (2) supporting small and medium enterprises, food security, and evolving social protection mechanisms to deal with Covid-19 in Pakistan; and (3) impact of Covid-19 on family farming and food security in Latin America: evidence-based public policy responses.


Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Andrew Hanley ◽  
Galina Brychkova ◽  
Wilson John Barbon ◽  
Su Myat Noe ◽  
Chan Myae ◽  
...  

Diversification of production to strengthen resilience is a key tenet of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which can help to address the complex vulnerabilities of agriculture-dependent rural communities. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the promotion of different CSA practices across four climate-smart villages (CSVs) in Myanmar. To determine the impact of the CSA practices on livelihoods and health, survey data were collected from agricultural households (n = 527) over three years. Within the time period studied, the results indicate that some the CSA practices and technologies adopted were significantly associated with changes in household dietary diversity scores (HDDS), but, in the short-term, these were not associated with improvements in the households’ food insecurity scores (HFIAS). Based on the survey responses, we examined how pathways of CSA practice adoption tailored to different contexts of Myanmar’s four agroecologies could contribute to the observed changes, including possible resulting trade-offs. We highlight that understanding the impacts of CSA adoption on household food security in CSVs will require longer-term monitoring, as most CSA options are medium- to long-cycle interventions. Our further analysis of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) amongst the households indicated a poor understanding of the household knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to nutrition, food choices, food preparation, sanitation and hygiene. Our KAP findings indicate that current nutrition education interventions in the Myanmar CSVs are inadequate and will need further improvement for health and nutrition outcomes from the portfolio of CSA interventions.


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