Assessing Food System Sustainability in Rural Cameroon: An Analysis Focused on Food Supply, Food Security and Food Waste

Abstract

The study is aimed at evaluating the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the food system prevailing in rural Cameroon, with particular attention to the West region. Food system sustainability is assessed in its economic, social, and environmental domains through household food supply, household food security, and household level food waste respectively. The food consumption score and food consumption nutrition quality analyses were used to measure food security. Frequency tables, cross tables and chi2 tests were applied to data collected from 600 rural households in the West region of Cameroon and it appears that the food system is economically sustainable for most rural households given that only 6.34% of households consider household food supply to be low. However, the food system is not sustainable in the social domain given that 21.17% of households are vulnerable to food insecurity and 17.83% are food insecure. The food consumption score nutrition quality analysis highlights an inadequate consumption of hem-iron, protein and vitamin A rich foods for a considerable number of households. Analysis of household food waste behaviour shows that the food system is relatively sustainable in the environmental domain given that only 1.33% of households always discard food. There are some trade-offs between the economic and environmental dimensions and between the social and environmental dimensions. Hence, measures taken to improve food system sustainability should consider the existence of such trade-offs.

Keywords: Food supply, Food security, Food waste, Food system, Sustainability

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-16-04

Publication date:August 31^st 2021