A survey of the relationship between community social life and food security in Adjumani district

Abstract

A survey to study the relationship between community social life and food security was done among the people in Ciforo Sub- County, Adjumani district. The study was conducted to gain an understanding of the influence of food storage practices on the dimensions of the food security of the people in Ciforo- Sub county, Adjumani district, to identify the general social life habits and practices affecting the food security situation in the communities in Ciforo Sub-county, Adjumani district and to identify common environmental factors affecting food security in the communities of Ciforo Sub- County, Adjumani district. The study covered a sample of 150 respondents who are farmers and the data were collected through a questionnaire and personal interview from all the five parishes and selected fifteen villages of Ciforo Sub-county using both probability and non probability sampling technique. Designing field data recording sheets was done before data collection and data collection was done with appropriate quality control. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Scientists. The results have clearly indicated that the people of Ciforo sub- county, Adjumani district have poor food storage system where the majority 73% (see table 1) store their food reserve in the huts in which they sleep forcing them to sell off the food reserve and the majority 58% of the farmers produce less than 1 ton of food per year on average (See table 3). This indicates that the farmers have poor food levels where the average majority 61.67% of the respondents disagreed that their households have food availability, food stability, ability to access and utilize appropriate levels of food in their households from April to June every year (see table 2). The study also found general social life habits and practices of the people like domestic violence, cultural practices, over population in household and lack of planning for production and sell of agriculture food reserve as the cause of cyclical food insecurity especially from April to June every year. The majority 48% of the farmers spend 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 on church marriage (see line graph 1) and this extravagancy usually cause them food shortage from the month of April to June every year It is recommended that sensitization and counseling of the community about social life factors affecting food security for example alcoholism, domestic violence, cultural practices, theft, health, power in household social structure and environment be given by government agencies for the people so that it improves their performance in saving of food reserve for consumption in the household. There is also need for Government involvement in enacting bylaw to control too much consumption of alcohol, domestic violence, population, theft of food reserve and environmental protection. Government should also enact laws and policies at national level to make agriculture attractive to farmers by revamping cooperatives, increasing education scholarship for students and subsiding health services to improve household food security