Chapter 3


 Box 3.5 Coping Strategies in Ghana

 A study was undertaken in the village of Pusiga in north-eastern Ghana, in 1988-89, to study household
 responses to production shocks. During this period there was an attack of armyworms. followed by an
( agricultural drought, which severely undermined food production. The main responses fell into three
 categories, borrowing, selling animals and reducing consumption. The experience of one middle-income
 household was as follows.

 Immediately after the harvest, crop sales were undertaken, starting with henna, and followed by
 groundnuts. The groundnuts included the bag set aside for seed for the following year. A wristwatch was
 sold in December, and this was followed by four goats and a cow throughout the following year.
 Eventually in the immediate per-harvest season, the plough was sold. The remaining animals were being
 kept for sale in the rainy season, when work loads were heavy.

 Other methods of raising income were tried. The household head was unsuccessful in trying to borrow.
 However, at the end of 1988, a son migrated to Cote d'lvoire to work as a cocoa sharecropper. Throughout
 the period, the family rationed food by eating smaller portions, and by March 19898, first the adults and
 then the children were skipping meals.

 This household employed numerous different coping strategies, but they were adopted simultaneously.
 There was no evidence of a linear sequence of responses. This was true of other families in the village.

 Source: S. Devereux, in IDS Bulletin, Volume 24.



 5 Monitoring Food Security

 Over the last two decades, a number of countries, particularly in Africa, have set up food
 early warning systems, often with the assistance of agencies such as FAO. In addition the
 Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture in FAO produce
 bulletins for their member countries such as the quarterly Food Supply Situation and Crop
 Prospects in Sub-saharan Africa. In this section, the function of these monitoring systems
 will be discussed, and the appropriate food security indicators which should be monitored.

 5.1 The need for a food security monitoring system

 The general rationale for food security monitoring systems is to provide information about
 developments in food security which can form the basis for government policy intervention
 and programme design. Food emergencies can be averted if information reaches the relevant
 decision makers at an early enough stage. Food imports can be ordered, or pesticides can be
 delivered to the regions under pest attack, or, if all else fails, food distribution systems can
 be activated. Food and financial aid can be requested through donor appeals. To do this.
 reliable information is necessary, which is accepted by national and international institutions
 as reasonably accurate.

 This gives some indication as to the necessary attributes of a monitoring system. Most
 important of all, it must be instituted in such as way as to be part of or report to an
 organisation which has a response mechanism. Monitoring systems are expensive to set up


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