Prevalence of food insecurity among smallholder farmers
Our results show very high rates of food insecurity among smallholder maize and bean farmers in Honduras and Guatemala, both on a recurrent basis and following extreme weather events. Across the four landscapes, the incidence of recurrent food insecurity was greatest in the months of June, July and August. This pattern of food insecurity reflects the seasonality of dry and rainy seasons and the associated agricultural calendar (Imbach et al. 2017). June is the beginning of the rainy season in Central America and is a time when many households have exhausted their food reserves from the previous harvest and are just beginning to plant their new crops. During this period, farmers are unable to work off-farm to obtain income to buy food as they need to tend their own crops, and yet their harvests are still months away (Bacon et al. 2017).
While our study is based on self-reporting of food insecurity and, like all such studies, is subjective and could potentially overreport the severity of the issue (Maxwell et al. 2008), other studies have also noted high levels of food insecurity among rural populations in Central America. For example, Morris et al. (2013) reported that 97% of smallholder coffee farmers in El Salvador depleted their maize and bean reserves during the lean months of June–September. In Nicaragua, smallholder coffee farmers face food shortages for an average of 3 months per year (Bacon et al. 2017). A study in the Western Highlands of Guatemala found that almost 80% of smallholder maize farmers had suffered food insecurity at least once during the last decade (Milan and Ruano 2014) and a study of food security in the Central American Dry Corridor reported that 47% of families were food-insecure (WFP 2015). Our study corroborates these high rates food insecurity (varying from 38.5% to 62.3% in the study landscapes, based on Table 3) and provides novel information on the factors associated with these rates.
In addition to facing seasonal food shortages, many farmers are also vulnerable to the threat of episodic food insecurity as a result of extreme weather events, such as droughts and extreme rainfall events. Studies in other regions (e.g., Keil et al. 2008; Harvey et al. 2014; Velazco and Ballester 2015) have similarly reported significant impacts of extreme weather events on smallholder farmer food insecurity. The high vulnerability of Central American smallholder farmers to extreme weather events is due to a combination of multiple, interacting factors, including high poverty rates, marginal lands, low agricultural production, limited access to technical support and information, poor access to capital and credit, few employment options, and low adaptive capacity (WFP 2015; Holland et al. 2017). The high incidence of episodic food insecurity following droughts and extreme rainfall events is particularly worrying for two reasons. First, the region is expected to get drier in future years (Imbach et al. 2012, 2015), and to be subjected to more frequent droughts, more intense hurricanes and other extreme weather events (IPCC 2012). Second, smallholder farmers in the region are already reporting that climate change is reducing their maize yields and increasing their food insecurity (Harvey et al. 2018).
Determinants of recurrent versus episodic food insecurity among smallholder farmers
Our study provides interesting information on the determinants of both recurrent and episodic food insecurity of small subsistence farming communities in Central America. In our study landscapes, food insecurity among smallholder maize and bean farmers was influenced by a combination of sociodemographic factors and asset ownership. Key sociodemographic factors included the age, gender and education level of the household head, family size, having a family member working off farm, having a family member with a technical education, and having a family member who had migrated to another region, while factors related to asset ownership included owning land, the number of microplots farmed, and owning a vehicle. In the following paragraphs, we describe our findings for both recurrent and episodic food insecurity, focusing on the observed differences between the two situations.
Like other studies (e.g., Gbetibouou 2009), the age of the household head played a significant role in determining household recurrent food security in our landscapes, with families headed by older farmers being less likely to experience recurrent food shortages than younger farmers. Older farmers have more experience farming and managing their food supplies than younger farmers and may therefore be better able to plan for the lean months when food supplies run low. However, interestingly, age was not a relevant determinant of episodic food shortages as a result of an extreme event, implying age does not play a significant role in coping with short-term crisis. Efforts to enhance food security among rural communities may therefore benefit by providing support to younger, less experienced farmers, and by encouraging knowledge transition from older to younger farmers. On the other hand, if a crisis ensues after an extreme weather even, age of the household head should not be considered a relevant criteria for providing short-term alleviation of food insecurity.
Households with more mouths to feed were more likely to report experiencing recurrent food shortages than smaller households. Studies of food insecurity in other developing countries (e.g., Nigeria (Idrisa et al. 2008) and Malawi (Kakota et al. 2015)) have similarly shown that larger families are more prone to suffer food insecurity, due to the need to provide food for more family members. In our landscapes, the small size of the farms (mean of 2.1 ha) and the limited off-farm employment opportunities (only 16% of households had a family member working outside the farm) make it very difficult for larger families to secure enough food or money to buy food for their families throughout the year. However, family size does not appear to affect food insecurity following extreme weather events: extreme events seem to affect households equally irrespective of their size.
Human capital is a productive asset that accumulates slowly over time. Our results show that households with at least one member having a technical education were less likely to experience recurrent food shortages than those lacking this education. Our results are similar to other studies (e.g., Maxwell et al. 2008; Davis et al. 2010; WFP 2017) that highlight the positive role of technical education in improving household food security and facilitating the implementation of on-farm adaptation measures (e.g., Morris et al. 2013), and suggest that investments in technical education should form a component of any agricultural policies or programs targeting improved food security.
Asset ownership has been mentioned in the literature as an important determinant of household’s food security. In the landscapes studied, households that owned their land had a lower probability of experiencing recurrent food shortages than those households who did not own the land they cultivate. Having formal property rights allows households to adopt longer-term planning horizons and make more ambitious long-term investments in their land (such as the use of cover crops or agroforestry systems), thereby reducing their vulnerability (e.g., Harvey et al. 2014; Milan and Ruano 2014). Indeed, in our study areas, farmers who owned their land were more likely to have implemented agricultural practices that yield long-term benefits and enhance farm sustainability (Harvey et al. 2017). Another benefit of owning land is that it enables farmers to access to credits and incentives (CEPAL, FAO, IICA 2014) which can be used to improve farm productivity. All this surely contributes to reduced vulnerability to recurrent food insecurity. Still, it is important to note that owing your land is not a significant determinant of episodic food insecurity, i.e., owning your land does not exempt you from exposure to episodes of hunger as a result of an extreme weather event.
Focusing on the factors that significantly explain the probability of suffering hunger after an extreme event, we do find a different set of factors than for recurrent food insecurity. Female-headed households had lower probabilities of experiencing food shortages after an extreme event than male-headed households, whereas no such effect was found for recurrent food insecurity. This finding is similar to results from Bangladesh (Mallick and Rafi 2010), but contrary to those from Panama (Fuwa 2000), Kenya (Kassie et al. 2014) and Malawi (Kassie et al. 2015). It is possible that female-headed households were less likely to experience food insecurity when extreme weather hits because women are usually in charge of preparing meals for their families and are, therefore, more likely to plan more carefully for extreme weather events or take immediate action to cope with any food shortages arising from such events (Goh 2012; Jost et al. 2016). However, more studies are needed to better understand the gender dimensions of household food security and how agricultural development programs and adaptation strategies can more effectively support food security within female-headed households in Central America and elsewhere (Jost et al. 2016).
Migration was also clearly linked to episodic food security. In our study sites, we found that households with a permanent migrant had higher probability of experiencing episodic food shortages after a climatic shock than households without migrants, but did not differ in terms of recurrent food insecurity. In other words, permanent migration did make the household more vulnerable to climatic shocks. The fact that households with permanent migrants were more vulnerable to episodic food insecurity may be due to the reduced family labor available to work off-farm, replant crops or rebuild farm infrastructure following extreme weather events. A recent study in the Dry Corridor of Central America (World Food Programme (WFP) 2017) similarly highlighted the link between emigration and household food security, noting that in many places emigration reduced the available work force for agricultural activities, resulting in increased food insecurity and greater poverty among rural families. Remittances from permanent migrants could potentially offset these negative impacts of lost family labor (Rozelle et al. 1999), but in our study landscapes, this does not appear to be the case. The increased vulnerability of households with permanent migrants to extreme weather events is alarming, given both the increasing rates of migration from Central America (World Food Programme (WFP) 2017) and the projections for extreme weather events to increase under climate change.
The quality of land holdings also played a role in determining episodic food security. In our landscapes, farmers frequently cultivate several plots that are often separated by several kilometers. This could be positive from an adaptation perspective, if having several microplots implies diversifying the exposure to external shocks. On the other hand, it could be negative if the small size of the plots inhibits the farmer from reaching an efficient scale of production and results in more costly production. In our study sites, the latter appears to be the case, as having more microplots increased the probability of experiencing episodic food shortages.
The final factor affecting episodic food insecurity is ownership of a vehicle. Of the farmers surveyed, 19% owned a vehicle (car or motorbike). Ownership of a vehicle did not affect whether or not the household suffered from recurrent food insecurity, but did significantly decrease the probability of experiencing episodic food shortages following extreme weather events. These results suggest that farmers with vehicles may have an easier time getting their products to market, buying food supplies from nearby towns, and/or pursuing off-farm labor opportunities which can provide them with the income needed to purchase food, when none is available locally. Our results show that owing a vehicle does not exempt household from suffering from recurrent food insecurity, but it surely comes in handy in case of extreme weather events.
Factors affecting food insecurity among the most vulnerable farmers
In our study landscapes, a significant proportion of farmers (15–30% per landscape) were vulnerable to both recurrent and episodic food shortages following extreme weather events. Our analysis (Table 5) reveals the factors that affect the probability of belonging to the most vulnerable group in our sample.
Although education plays no significant role in explaining recurrent or episodic food insecurity separately, we find that the education level of the household head was a significant factor in explaining the overall vulnerability of a household, with more educated household heads being less likely to have suffered from both recurrent and episodic food insecurity in the last 10 years, compared to those with less educated household heads.
A similar pattern arises from the combined interpretation of Tables 4 and 5 when it comes to off-farm labor. Although off-farm labor was not a significant determinant of episodic or recurrent food insecurity individually (Table 4), it did determine whether a family is part of the most extremely vulnerable group in our sample. Families who had a member (other than the household head) working off-farm were less likely to experience both recurrent and episodic food insecurity than those without household members working off-farm, showing the importance of having a source of off-farm employment. The importance of off-farm jobs in providing income and securing the food security of subsistence farmers has also been noted elsewhere (Babatunde et al. 2010; Nyikahadzoi et al. 2012; Velazco and Ballester 2015). In a similar line, those farmers who regularly interact with the market economy, be it selling or exchanging some of their agricultural produce, were significantly less likely to be affected by both types of food insecurity. This is an important finding, as it shows the importance of the market economy even in landscapes that are strongly dominated by subsistence agriculture.
Finally, two other factors already discussed above were important in affecting the probability of belonging to the most vulnerable group in our sample: the microplot indicator and ownership of a vehicle. The significance of microplot indicator in both explaining episodic food insecurity and the probability of suffering from both episodic and recurrent food insecurity tells a compelling story of the hardship faced by farming household who have to divide their time and effort between small, and distant plots of land. Owning a vehicle is a luxury in the studied landscapes, so it comes as no surprise to find that farmers that own a vehicle are less likely to have suffered from both types of food insecurity in the last 10 years than those lacking a means of transportation.
Coping strategies used by smallholder farmers
While smallholder farmers used a variety of coping strategies to address food shortages that results from extreme weather events, many of these strategies are short-term solutions, and can potentially undermine their ability to cope with future shocks. Like smallholder farmers in other developing countries (e.g., Ramakrishna and Demeke 2002; Muche et al. 2014), many of the smallholder farmers reduced their food intake and/or adjusted their diet when food was lacking. Reducing food intake is a short-term solution that will be unsustainable if extreme events become more frequent and intense, as predicted (IPCC 2012). Reducing food intake is often accompanied by changes in diet, such as the reduction of meat intake and/or the increase in less nutritious or less preferred food (WFP 2015), both of which could have longer-term impacts on household nutrition (Lawson and Kasirye 2013). In other studies of coping strategies, households used different means to obtain income, such as selling livestock and looking for off-farm jobs (e.g., Campbell et al. 2011; Patnaik and Narayanan 2015), and resorting to aid from kindship networks and government and non-government organizations (e.g., Kinsey et al. 1998). However, in our study, savings, working off-farm and selling assets or livestock were used infrequently. In addition, very few households (< 10%) reported accessing food from government or non-government organizations among their coping strategies, likely reflecting the limited assistance available in rural areas across the region (Harvey et al. 2018).
The use of coping strategies for food insecurity following extreme weather events differed among households. Farmers who experienced both recurrent and episodic food insecurity are forced to reduce their food intake and change their diet in higher proportion, because experiencing food shortages on a recurrent basis undermines their capacity to cope with the impacts of extreme weather events. Facing drought, farmers tend to change their diet more than facing excessive rain events. That could be related to the depletion of staple foods associated with the longer duration of drought events. The general reduction in food intake and changes in diet likely results in households consuming less nutritious food and could result in lower nutritional status (FAO 2008). However, longer-term, longitudinal studies of the farmer households (including detailed nutritional studies and health measurements) would be needed to understand the long-term impacts of climate-induced food insecurity on household nutrition and health (Maxwell 1996; Barrett 2010).