Urban Food Insecurity and Household Coping Strategies During Covid-19: Evidence from Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor LGA, Nigeria (Published)
Globally, the COVID-19 epidemic seriously disrupted the availability of food and essential requirements; Rivers State in Nigeria especially had great difficulties during lockdown times. This paper investigates the challenges in obtaining food and basic supplies during the epidemic as well as the coping mechanisms used by Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas’ populations. Data were gathered by semi-informal interviews with fifty house heads chosen by both intentional and inadvertent sample methods. Results show that low-income earners, daily wage workers, and the jobless suffered disproportionately from food shortages, inflated costs, and insufficient palliative care. Food rationing (80% of respondents), menial labour in exchange for food (60%), and reliance on family networks (50%) were common coping strategies. Rich households used tactics including compromised enforcement to get around lockdown rules. The study underlines the importance of strong social safety nets to minimize the effect of the next crises and concludes that the epidemic revealed weaknesses in food security systems. Suggestions call for better government actions, fair allocation of palliatives, and strengthened systems of community assistance.
Keywords: COVID-19, Coping Strategies, Evidence, Food Insecurity, urban