Coping with household-level food insecurity in drought-affected areas of Burkina Faso

The paper examines strategies used by rural households in the Sahelian and Sudanian zones of Burkina Faso to ensure food security in the face of drought-induced cropping shortfalls. It finds that three-quarters of the average household income in the Sahel sample and half of the same in the Sudanian sample come from non-cropping sources. These are more diversified regionally and sectorally in the case of the Sahel. The latter's non-cropping income is less covariant with the local cereal economy than is the case in the Sudanian sample. Moreover, much greater food aid was targeted to the Sahel for geographical reasons, without taking into account the more stable and higher level of purchasing power in that zone vis-á-vis the Sudanian zone