Newsletter
Don't miss a thing!
We regularly provide you with the most important news, articles, topics, projects and ideas for One World – No Hunger.
Newsletter
Don't miss a thing!
We regularly provide you with the most important news, articles, topics, projects and ideas for One World – No Hunger.
Please also refer to our data protection declaration.
In early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading around the globe, many countries experienced the implementation of contact, travel and/or trading restrictions, curfews, or even complete lockdowns. In order to assess the challenges that small-scale farmers experienced, and their coping strategies developed during the initial phase of the pandemic, the Centre for Rural Development (SLE) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin initiated a joint research study with partners in Indonesia, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Using the open access tool KoboToolbox, a smartphone-based digital data survey was conducted with more than 700 (peri-) urban farmers in Cape Town (South Africa) and Maputo (Mozambique), as well as rural farmers of Masvingo (Zimbabwe), Java and Toraja, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Farmers played an active role as co-researchers and engaged in data collection and analysis and contributed with own stories. Between April and June, the team managed to send out surveys five times.
Small-scale farmers answered survey questions about food security, challenges of farming and marketing, and how they cope with the crisis. Observations on food price development, its implications on household diets and major fears were also reported on.
The remote and digital data collection included also some challenges. As many of the Maputo urban farmers do not own smartphones, enumerators had to be engaged to conduct telephone interviews with the farmers. Data were entered after the telephone interview. Due to instable and weak internet connection, farmers in Zimbabwe and the remote mountainous Toraja responded by WhatsApp to a regional coordinator, who then transferred the data into KoboToolbox.
The results reveal that the level of imposed restrictions had a corresponding impact on the small-scale farmers. In South Africa and Zimbabwe, a strict lockdown was imposed. As small-scale farmers were not regarded as ‘essential services’, farmers were often unable to access their farms. In South Africa, the government introduced permits for farm access, which were difficult to obtain. As a results, 46% of the responding farmers in Cape Town were not able to access their farms during the lockdown. Similarly, a third of the respondents in Zimbabwe reported difficulties accessing their farms. Restricted access to farms, shutting markets and the closing of borders, meant both cities experienced reduced access to food, spikes in prices of particular food products, and a looming hunger crisis. In Masvingo, a prolonged drought affecting maize harvest intensified food insecurity.
In contrast, small-scale farmers in Indonesia and Mozambique were deemed essential, and almost all participants could access their farms and were able to sell their produce. In fact, as closed borders inhibited the regular food imports, Maputo, generally strongly dependent on food imports from South Africa, saw a growth in demand for local vegetables and local unrefined sugar.
In Indonesia, small-scale farmers are usually important players in the local food systems. This crucial status prevailed in the crisis, and the majority of farmers had access to their farms. However, farmer markets closed down in Sulawesi, where consequently 38% of respondents were unable to buy and sell food produce. In Java, marketing of fresh products like cabbage became a major issue, as logistic channels to the capital Jakarta broke down. Farmers had experience with previous epidemics, such as SARS, and feared the health consequences of Covid-19. Because of this, along with the increased meat prices, many people in Toraja chose a healthier diet rich in vitamins and increased their consumption of vegetables and even of fruits
From this research five lessons stand out:
Digital research was vital to assess the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the ground. Probably this type of inquiry will become more common and increasingly utilised by nutrition and food security projects not only in crisis regions, due to a range of factors: first, new software has made mobile surveys a cheaper and a scalable option; second, real-time data can contribute to rapid responses for policy actions and decision-making; third, it can give a voice to the often unheard, such as small-scale farmers; and fourth, participants do benefit from the exchange with other participants if the results are relayed back to the participants (in this case a South-South exchange where a joint learning process was enabled).
Since many of the projects of the SEWOH initiative are concerned with the development of small-scale farmer market access and value chains, the comparative experience with local food systems in the pandemic must be further evaluated and taken seriously. Subsequent projects should strengthen and help farmers to further develop their own means and instruments for making food systems more robust and resilient against external shocks. Local and federal governments, as partners of such projects, have to be made aware of the “systemic relevance” and general importance of small-scale farmers for maintaining quality nutrition and food security, but also food justice in times of crisis.
The authors would like to thank all farmers who participated as co-researchers – for initiating the study, collecting data, and contributing to the analysis. Thanks to the colleagues in Southern Africa and Indonesia for contextualising the data. We thank Foundation fiat panis and Freunde und Förderer des SLE e.V. for providing financial support.