Food security and everyday hunger in rural Ghana: a case study of the Akobima community

The issues of hunger and food insecurity had been previously understood as the unavailability of food in the marketplace. The argument that the main cause of hunger and food insecurity is lack of food availability has led to various research and debates about the actual causes of hunger in different contexts. Even though reports of Ghana being just 5% food insecure, an important argument against this view is that household level in rural areas who are mostly farmers still experience food insecurity and hunger despite growing crops and even selling these crops in markets., in spite of various initiatives by international and state actors to address food insecurity and hunger, Ghana still experiences these issues. Contributing to studies, regarding the literature covering food insecurity and hunger in Ghana, this paper teases out the nature, patterns, and everyday experiences and struggles of food insecurity as to the livelihoods of rural households in Ghana. The main aim of the paper was to explore how different social groups experiences food insecurity; the different coping mechanisms that are adopted by the rural households in addressing their food insecurity and hunger conditions; and how the mechanisms help in supporting their livelihoods Akobima community. To meet its objective, the research used qualitative research design and gathered data using interviews and focus group discussions. The sample of the study was composed of small-scale farmers with different characteristics in terms of landholding status and household leadership (male/female) in the Akobima community. The study’s findings showed a high prevalence of poverty and food insecurity in the Akobima community. The findings showed that women and children are the most affected by challenges as most of the youth migrated to the urban cities to seek better livelihoods. Analysing from the perspectives of SRLA the study found that migration, agricultural intensification as some of the coping strategies employed by the community members to supplement their farming activities. Pluriactivities such as wage labour work, were some productive coping strategy. Social coping strategies such as gifts, donations which form part of food insecurity and hunger concept were used by the people. There was notable absence of government interventions supporting the community as most of them depended on themselves and family members for support.