Evaluating the Impact of Cereal Banking on Food and Livelihood Security of Rural Communities in The Gambia

Abstract

mport-dependent developing countries like The Gambia are particularly vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity caused by rainfall and price volatility. This is due to the increasing frequency and severity of climate and market shocks, dependence on imports and low adaptive capacity to cope with shocks. Cereal banking is one community-based risk management strategy that has been employed to maintain food reserves at the community level. The purpose is to smooth consumption, especially during lean periods, providing a buffer when disaster strikes and a guard against food price fluctuations. It is a widely practiced community-based risk management strategy in arid and semi-arid regions, but one for which little empirical research exists. Most of the grey literature falls short in evaluating the usefulness of this practice. In this study, we attempt to understand how rainfall and price volatility affect food and nutrition security. In addition, we assess how cereal banking can hedge against these risks for rural communities and households in The Gambia. Data is drawn from a Community Driven Development Project implemented in the Gambia from 2007 - 2010. Using Propensity Score Matching (PSM), I match similar communities (827) with and without cereal banking schemes and compare their food and nutrition security outcomes. The results of our PSM indicate that communities that are relatively poorer, isolated from markets and are vulnerable to high inter-seasonal food price dispersion have a higher probability of adopting and sustaining cereal banking schemes. A simple replication of cereal banking schemes without considering these factors creates challenges for the sustainability of the program. Then using econometric regression from a unique set of data from 604 households, the impact evaluation shows that cereal banking can reduce inter-seasonal food price variability and the food gap by 31% and 25% respectively. It can also be observed that the level of malnutrition is at least 5% lower among under-five year old children in treated villages. However, we find no significant impact of cereal banking on wealth accumulation suggesting that such short term savings and risk management behaviours may take a long time to impact wealth in rural households. Thus, it can be concluded that, despite the need to factor in important operating costs, communities that operate functional cereal banking schemes are better able to manage their food and livelihood security needs and are more resilient to future climate and market shocks.