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Abstract
Dealing with household food insecurity has become a serious challenge for policymakers in developing countries, including Ghana. À number ofrisk and vulnerability factors account for food insecurity among peasant women in Ghana and elsewhere. This study explored food insecurity vulnerability among low-income women in rural communities in Northern Region, Ghana, through semi-structured interviews with 28 participants. Despite the localized focus, the findings-covering income disparities, asset access, land tenure inequities, and burdensome domestic roles-contribute to broader discussions on gendered socioeconomic vulnerabilities in sub-Saharan Africa. The study highlights critical implications for research, policy, and practice addressing global gender inequality in food insecurity contexts. Keywords: Food insecurity; women, risk and vulnerability; household assets & income, Ghana
Introduction
Although Food insecurity is a global problem, it is more pronounced in some areas of the world and among certain groups in society. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization's (ЕАО, 2019) report, over 3 million Ghanaians are food insecure, and 10% of them come from the Northern Region. Research has identified factors that account for shortfalls in food production and food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. These factors include rapid population growth, environmental degradation, climate change, and pollution, which adversely affects food security and livelihoods of rural households, with women and children greatly affected (Bugri, 2008; De Janvry & Sadoulet 2009; Какой, 1999). For example, the high rate of population growth progressively reduces the acreage of cultivable lands and length of fallow intervals without "compensating inputs" which consequently reduce fertility or "soil mining" (Adams & Mortimore, 1997, p. 150), and the socio-economic entanglements mean food scarcity in the peasant communities, declining yield per hectare and costly food import strategies. In addition, food security threats in the region emerge from a multiplicity of factors (i.e. political, socio-economic, ecological and climatological) which generally place food systems under stress and women and children become vulnerable (Whitehead, 2002).
Food insecurity risks and vulnerability among rural women have widely been researched in sub-Saharan Africa, including among households in rural Ghana (Babatunde et al., 2008; Gladwin et al., 2001; Hesselberg & Yaro, 2006; Lovendal & Knowles, 2007; Whitehead, 2002; Yaro, 2004). However, much still needs to be done by focusing the lens on a special category of women such as poor elderly women, widows and...