The effect of food-price movements on African households - An investigation of food production and consumption patterns in four African countries

The recent spike in world food prices has intensified the debate regarding the impact of food prices on poverty. In this paper weaim to assess households’ vulnerability to food-price increases in four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using household datafrom the World Bank’s Living Standard Measurement Surveys in Ghana (2005–2006), Kagera region, Tanzania (2004), Malawi(2004–2005) and South Africa (1993) we analyze food production and consumption patterns in rural and urban populations. Weuse two established indicators of sensitivity to food price changes—one measuring the share of income spent on food, the othermeasuring net sales of food compared to total expenditures. We find that the shares of the populations spending more than halfof their income on food ranges from 62–81% in rural areas and from 26–67% in urban areas. Further we find that in all regionsstudied, most households (74–99%) in rural areas are net buyers of food and stand to lose in the short term from higher food prices.As expected, for urban households this is true to an even higher extent. In contrast to earlier studies we look at all food items andnot just one or a few staple foods, giving a better understanding of vulnerability to general food price changes. We find that theexclusion of non-staple foods has a significant impact on theresults