Impacts of climate variability and food price volatility on household income and food security of farm households in East and West Africa
Authored by Thomas Berger, Christian Troost, Tesfamicheal Wossen, Mekbib G Haile
Date Published: 2018
DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.02.006
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MPMAS
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Abstract
This paper provides an ex-ante assessment of the impacts of climate and
price variability on household income and food security in Ethiopia and
Ghana. The study applies an agent-based modelling approach to highlight
the role of coping and adaptation strategies under climate and price
variability. Our simulation results show that climate and price
variability adversely affects income and food security of households in
both countries. Self-coping mechanisms are found to be important but
insufficient to mitigate the adverse effects of variability, implying
the need for policy interventions. Adaptation strategies composed of a
portfolio of actions such as the provision of production credit and
access to improved seeds are found to be effective in reducing the
impacts of climate and price variability in Ethiopia. Similarly, policy
interventions aimed at improving the provision of short-term production
credit along with the existing irrigation facilities are important in
Ghana. Finally, this study highlights the importance of capturing the
distributional aspects of adaptation options by highlighting
heterogeneous effects of variability and adaptation options. (C) 2017
Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tags
Adaptation
Agriculture
Simulation
systems
Model
climate variability
Food security
Options
Shocks
Ghana
Ethiopia
Food price volatility
Consumption risk
Northern ghana
Poverty traps
Yield response