Household Food Strategies in Response to Seasonality and Famine

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Periodical article

Title:	Household Food Strategies in Response to Seasonality and Famine
Author:	Longhurst, Richard
Year:	1986
Periodical:	IDS Bulletin
Volume:	17
Issue:	3
Pages:	27-35
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Northern Nigeria Nigeria
Subjects:	famine rural households food seasonality agriculture mass media Sex Roles
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.1986.mp17003005.x
Abstract:	Rural families have a range of strategies with which to cope with seasonal and interseasonal fluctuations in food supply. These include the choice of cropping pattern, drawing on stores and assets, developing and exploiting social relationships, and diversifying off-farm income opportunities. The author considers each in turn, in the context of research carried out in the village of Dayi in Hausaland in northern Nigeria. If a bad season stretches into a prolonged drought or if there is a sudden drop in purchasing power, then these activities are further intensified, with families ultimately forced into divesting resources, selling productive assets, restricting food intake, and migration. Measures to improve rural welfare must not undermine these coping mechanisms. Bibliogr., sum. in English, French and Spanish.