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Smallholder food storage dynamics and resilience

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Abstract

For smallholder farmers in developing countries, agricultural production is seasonal yet food demand is constant throughout the year. One fundamental agricultural decision is how much harvest to sell versus store for subsequent household consumption. Little is known about the temporal dimensions of grain storage, the extent to which storage levels vary over time, and the diversity of food storage patterns across different household types. This paper examines household level maize storage consumption, sales, and purchases using weekly food storage data collected via text message. We demonstrate how high frequency data can be used to measure rates and patterns of food storage decline, identify thresholds of food security, and anticipate future periods of food insecurity at a fine spatial scale.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this research came from National Science Foundation awards SES-1360463, BCS-1115009, and BCS-1026776. Our deep gratitude to our colleagues from the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) who helped us with the logistics and data collection for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Indiana University, Student Building 104, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Kurt B. Waldman & Jordan P. Blekking

  2. Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Stacey Giroux

  3. Agriculture and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA

    Kathy Baylis

  4. School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Tom P. Evans

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  1. Kurt B. Waldman
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  2. Stacey Giroux
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Correspondence to Kurt B. Waldman.

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Waldman, K.B., Giroux, S., Blekking, J.P. et al. Smallholder food storage dynamics and resilience. Food Sec. 12, 7–20 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00983-2

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