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- Convenors:
-
Stephan Duennwald
(Centro de Estudos Africanos, ISCTE IUL, Lisbon)
Ulrich Schiefer (ISCTE-IUL)
Ana Larcher Carvalho (ISCTE)
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- Location:
- C5.06
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
African households frequently have difficulties to cover food expenses. Coping strategies may include the reduction of meals per day or the migration of family members. This stresses family bonds and creates dependencies. Are families disintegrating, or adapting to new forms of social bonds?
Long Abstract:
African households, in rural areas, but also in urban and peri-urban dwellings, frequently have difficulties to cover food expenses. The reasons for this are manifold - from degrading soils to climate change, from lack of manpower to lack of jobs, from rising global food prices to conflict. Households react with a broad array of coping strategies, starting from the reduction in the number of meals per day, and including what is frequently called income diversification. What impacts does that have on urban and rural social life, what turbulences rise from this?
Different forms of temporary or continuous migration are also prominent ways out. These strategies, to a greater or lesser degree, stress and threaten family bonds, and sometimes tend to increase the dependency of those left behind. On the other hand, examples of returning migrants show their commitment to the village, to agriculture. Is this a trend 'back home'? How does the agrarian side of African societies evolve? Are families loosing social cohesion, disintegrating, or is this just an adaptive process of social transformation?
We invite papers which look into these peculiar developments, linking agriculture to urban and transnational livelihoods, the rural to modernity.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Kees van der Geest (UN University Insitute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS))
Paper short abstract:
‘Loss and Damage’ is a new concept in climate change research that refers to adverse effects of climate variability and change that people have not been able to cope with or adapt to. Five case studies about drought and flood impacts explore the limits of coping and adaptation in rural Africa.
Paper long abstract:
'Loss and Damage' is a new concept in climate change research that refers to adverse effects of climate variability and climate change that people have not been able to cope with or adapt to. This paper reports on the results of five case studies that assessed loss and damage from droughts and floods in rural Africa. Fieldwork for this research was conducted in The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ethiopia and Mozambique. The study used a mixed method apprroach including a questionnaire survey (N>1500), focus group discussions, expert consultations and in-depth interviews with rural people. The research shows that people incur loss and damage when (1) existing coping and adaptation measures not enough; (2) measures have costs that are not regained; (3) measures are beneficial in the short term, but erosive in the long term; and (4) when no measures are adopted or possible at all. These four loss and damage pathways often occur simultaneously. Pathway 1 and 3 were the most common in the African case studies. The climate and the conditions for agriculture in large parts of Africa are expected to deteriorate in the decades to come. This research shows that irrespective of whether these predictions materialize, the limits of coping and adaptation are already being felt by many rural Africans.
Ana Larcher Carvalho (ISCTE)
Paper short abstract:
The recent coup d’état in Guinea-Bissau has increased the stress on livelihood strategies of the populations. Despite the “irrelevance of the state”, the turbulences surrounding the conflict affect urban and rural populations. This paper explores the linkages between conflict and food security.
Paper long abstract:
The recent coup d'état in Guinea-Bissau has brought to the fore the close linkages between political and military instability, conflict, livelihoods and food security. Despite the fact that the state is considered for most irrelevant, instability and conflicts adds to the pressure on already stretched livelihoods strategies both the urban and rural societies. The dynamics of societies are linked to global, national and local dynamics. Political instability and conflict is yet another flow that conditions the internal dynamics of societies. Societies react by resisting, adapting, migrating, but if the stress is too intense or too long, these societies may loose their resilience capacity.
This paper explores the channels through which the conflict in Guinea Bissau interacts with rural societies and food security. One of the linkages is established through the disruption of one of the main economic activities, that of the cashew trade. In Guinea-Bissau most of the population is involved in cashew production which provide a vital source of income. On the other hand the dependency on the cashew sector, extremely vulnerable to global and local dynamics, may also weaken the capacity to address conflict and instability. Shifts in global cashew production and the economic crisis also send shock waves to Guinea-Bissau. Other turbulences occur due to retraction in another major inflow, foreign aid, and increases in another, drug trafficking, causing serious tensions on society. To understand these dynamics, the paper analyses how internal actors, processes and forces influence the outcome in terms of livelihoods.
Victor Reis (ISCTE(IUL) - Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)
Paper short abstract:
Importância das comunidades rurais e piscatórias de São Tomé no abastecimento alimentar interno e nas exportações e a sua dependência em relação aos preços internacionais.
Paper long abstract:
São Tomé e Príncipe apresenta um défice estrutural da balança corrente cujo risco financeiro pode colocar o problema da vulnerabilidade do abastecimento alimentar. Os alimentos representam cerca de um quarto das importações e as exportações não chegam a cobrir 6% das importações.
Esta comunicação apresentará as mais importantes políticas adotadas para melhorar a cobertura externa das importações bem como de segurança de abastecimento interno. Apresentará ainda as principais características do mercado de produtos alimentares e a relação entre os seus atores e o mercado externo.
Por outro lado, face à importância que as comunidades rurais e piscatórias têm no abastecimento alimentar interno e nas exportações, procurar-se-á identificar o grau de dependência destas comunidades em relação aos preços internacionais e seus efeitos sobre o seu rendimento. Procurar-se-á, ainda, apresentar as principais tendências observadas nas condições de consumo e de segurança alimentar destas comunidades resultantes da concessão de terras aos agricultores bem como o seu efeito sobre as culturas de exportação e abastecimento do mercado urbano. Finalmente, focando as práticas familiares na gestão de recursos limitados, serão apresentadas as estratégias mais frequentes usadas no seu processo de reprodução.
Albert Farré (Centro de Estudos Sociais-University of Coimbra)
Paper short abstract:
Southern Mozambique has been one of the most important labour suppliers to the neighbouring countries, and domestic agricultural production became dependant on migrant wages. Today unemployment is rampant in the whole region but agricultural production remains as low as ever.
Paper long abstract:
Labour has been a recurrent issue of analysis in southern Africa, mainly due to the appearance of an industrial type of production since mid-nineteenth century onwards, its initial difficulties to secure enough wage labour, and its overall effects on land and agriculture. In Mozambique During the colonial debate was mostly oriented to the role of the State: whether it should favour migration as a source of revenue, or it may try to change the trend to be able to develop at home productive activities. After the independence Frelimo's option was the opposite: they wanted their labour to work at home. However, the Frelimo's attempts to increase agricultural production through collectivization failed. Today, in a context of increasing unemployment in South Africa and Zimbabwe, many Mozambicans still prefer working without a contract in south african farms -or in the informal trade-, rather than producing their own food in their own land. This means that many rural households still depend on money sent -although not regularly- by relatives leaving abroad or in Mozambican cities . Also means that due to lack of money to buy food in the rural areas, some childs are sent to the cities to be raised by relatives having an income. This allocations of dependants who have to be fed and dressed is not easy, and normally this tension is worked out through the kinship structure. Therefore, kinship is the social place where new solutions, and also new dependencies and conflicts, appear.
Philipp Jung (ISCTE-IUL)
Paper short abstract:
Senegalese labour migrants on the Cape Verdean Island Boa Vista send regularly money to their families to help them to cover food expenses. The paper analyses the flow of remittances regarding their frequency, amount and how the family members at home use them.
Paper long abstract:
Migration is an important aspect of the Senegalese society today. An estimated 2.8 % of the total population lives abroad, and emigration not only influences the lives of people leaving the country but as well of the Senegalese at home. Emigration from Senegal is directed both to other African countries as well as to Europe or the USA. As a result of economic growth and the extension of the tourism sector since the beginning of the new millennium, Cape Verde has become a new destination for Senegalese labour migrants. Households in Senegal spend a high percentage of their income on aliments and they often depend on the support of migrated household members. Households try to minimize risk of food insecurity through the diversification of income resources and migration is one coping strategy to do so.
This paper analyses the migration of Senegalese to the Cape Verdean Island Boa Vista. The flow of remittances, which are sent home to their relatives, is one of the main characteristics of this migration. These remittances have impacts on both the lives of the family at home and as well as of the migrants themselves. In order to be able to send home money on a more or less regular basis migrants often have to accept hardship like poor housing conditions. This paper analyses migration decision and the flow of remittances with regard to their frequency, the amount, and how family members at home use them.
Oluwafunmiso Adeola Olajide (University of Ibadan)
Paper short abstract:
Rural-Urban migration is on the increase in Nigeria with consequences on agricultural production, urban development and family structure. Migrants think that they have better opportunities to contribute to the family and village development but the long term impact may not be that positive.
Paper long abstract:
South-East Nigeria refers to the Southern Nigeria that lies east of the Niger River and a little south of the Benue River. Its land area is 8.5 percent but is occupied by about 25 percent of Nigeria's population. The rate of migration in the region is one of the highest in the country and is fueled by population growth and the adverse economic and political situation in the country. These two factors contribute to unemployment, food insecurity and poverty which drive rural-urban migration and international migration to Europe and America. Those who migrate are often the youths who have the drive to search for better means of livelihood. This leads to high school drop-out, loss of labor as well as averagely literate groups from rural communities; as such farming is left for the illiterates and aged thereby limiting the rate of food production and agribusiness development. In the cities, the consequences are mixed. There is increased pressure on infrastructural facilities like housing, water supply etc. The pressure in turn engenders poverty and the growth of urban slums. But those involved claim that they were able to start their own ventures, send money back 'home' to families and for infrastructural development in the villages. The family structure is gradually weakening as a result of migration; young men and women are exposed to societal vagaries from which they may not be recover in adulthood; the family security which children enjoyed by virtue of the presence of both parents is being lost.
Key Words: Family, Youth, Rural-Urban, Migration
Sara Stevano (SOAS University of London)
Paper short abstract:
A study of processes of household formation, livelihoods diversification and household food practices through the lens of rural-rural and rural-urban dynamics, in northern Mozambique.
Paper long abstract:
While universally-appicable questions to assess household food security and dietary diversity are widely used, researching household food prcatices is a much more extensive and complex exercise, both theoretically and methodologically, as food habits are intimately interconnected with power relations developing along the lines of class, gender and age. A comprehensive understanding and assessment of diets and household food strategies should place domestic units or households at the centre of analysis: households should be looked at internally - to uncover the ways in which responsibilities in food production, acquisition and preparation are shaped by intra-household relations of power - and through their external interrelations - to expose how across-space linkages contribute to the formation of specific household food strategies. Field research conducted in one urban, one peri-urban and one rural area in the province of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, revealed that mobility of people, goods (especially agricultural produce and processed foods), and money is central in the definition of household survival and food acquisition strategies. Yet, are these strategies determined by choice or socially embedded? This paper discusses the significance of rural-rural and rural-urban dynamics in shaping processes of household formation, livelihoods diversification and social differentiation, which are in turn considered to be strongly associated with the construction of household food practices. Rural-urban dynamics shall then be used as a lens through which sheding light on the major sources of food vulnerability, on the one hand, and as a way to overcome some of these vulnerabilities, on the other hand.
Lúcia Bayan (ISCTE-IUL)
Paper short abstract:
The Felupe society – well adapted to the environment and holding a set of knowledge and techniques that, for centuries, allowed ensuring their own food, religious and prestige value needs – is now confronted with sudden changes of parameters that affect its stability and resilience.
Paper long abstract:
The Felupe society, before constraints and turbulences generated by external dynamics, has been able to adapt their internal dynamics to ensure its stability. Diversifying the agricultural production and serving up of the specificity of their social organization, the location of their ground and the ties with other Joola subgroups, the Felupe society strengthened and restructured traditional networks that allowed the improvement of their own conditions of life.
However, today, new factors are constraining its social cohesion and resilience: rainfall changes decrease the surface of mangrove rice; migration, even though seasonal, reduces the required hand labor; dependence, risk and uncertainty inherent to annual fluctuations of food prices in foreign markets, weakens the economy; the growing strength of the external and invasive dynamics strengthens the capacity of resilience. In fact, the growing and rapid increase of world market inconstancy makes more difficult the timely establishment of strategies of adaptation to turbulences caused in the balance of food security and, consequently, in social stability. Unstable flows of influences, ideas, illicit trades, etc., at Guinea-Bissau state level, promote coups d'état that, by inducing political instability and/or security, change the social organization, aggravate existing constraints, generate new turbulences, weaken social cohesion and, consequently, the social stability. This paper explores these aggressive and abrupt changes of parameters which may strongly restrict the stability and resilience of the Felupe society.
Jude Murison (University of Antwerp) An Ansoms (Université Catholique de Louvain)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, we argue that to understand food price hikes in Rwanda, one should not look externally to the global market, but rather internally to national agrarian reform that has been taking place in the country.
Paper long abstract:
Articles which examine the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on the global south have tended to explain increased food prices as a direct consequence of global events - citing higher fuel costs/transportation costs, climate change, uncertainty of future supply and the impact of future food insecurity. In Rwanda, where 80% of the population are subsistence farmers, and 90% of the countries food consumption is produced locally, one must look elsewhere to explain the exponential of food prices. In this paper, we argue that to understand food price hikes in Rwanda, one should not look externally to the global market, but rather internally to national agrarian reform that has been taking place in the country.
Where previously people cultivated to be food secure, and sold cash crops and excess food crops, now farmers produce crops according to the government's regional specialisation and mono-cropping policies. However, limited regional market integration and extremely low bargaining power of local farmers means smallholders do not profit from the new policies. As a result, this has limited the variations of food types that smallholder farmers have access to. Indeed, 1) farmers produce a lower number of crops and 2) the lack of production of certain crops means that the price of these crops on the market has gone up (crops which they previously would have grown themselves).
Manuela Cardoso
Paper short abstract:
STP é um país rico em termos agrícolas, com clima equatorial e consequentemente e elevadas potencialidades agrícolas. No entanto, a segurança alimentar e o regular abastecimento dos agregados familiares não está assegurado. A emigração tem dado um contributo quase nulo para este processo.
Paper long abstract:
STP, país com características essencialmente agrícolas, o que tem sido reconhecido ao longo de décadas, não consegue a segurança alimentar da sua população. Que estratégias faltam traçar? Que falhas podem ser apontadas?
Durante o período colonial a economia de STP estava estruturada em torno das 'roças' grandes empresas agrícolas que durante a II colonização se dedicavam à produção do café e do cacau para exportação, produzindo também os produtos hortícolas necessários às comunidades que para elas trabalhava. Com a independência, com a sua nacionalização e com a criação de grandes empresas agrícolas geridas pelo Estado a agricultura sofreu um processo de desestruturação. Inicialmente as empresas estiveram sob a direcção de gestores com pouca formação na área, mas tarde, após a priivatização ou abandono dessas propriedades, as comunidades ficaram entregues à sua sorte. Sem uma definição clara de estratégias para o desenvolvimento do país, a economia sofreu também um processo desestruturação que levou à diminuição da produção alimentar e ao aumento da dependência externa. Mas esta não passou pelo processo migratório. A emigração constituiu um voltar costas ao país, não contribuindo para a melhoria dos processos produtivos por transferência tecnológica ou pelo envio de remessas que pudessem ajudar os familiar a suprir a insuficiência alimentar e a má nutrição. E é perante esta situação que actualmente se encontra STP.