Urban food security and multi-spatial livelihoods in Ghana's medium sized cities: Does food transfer matter?

Abstract

This study uses data from two medium sized cities in Ghana to analyse the importance and determinants of food transfer received from urban or rural households in Ghana. Several hypotheses are tested to establish whether participation in agriculture contributes to reducing a household's likelihood of receiving food transfers. The parameter estimates show that the participation of households in urban agriculture reduces their chances of receiving food transfers from other urban dwellers. Female headed households and ageing household heads had an increasing likelihood of receiving food transfers, all things being equal. Other findings from the article show that grains and tubers are the most received food groups, usually from rural and urban relatives. All (100 per cent) rural to urban and urban to urban food transfer receipts are found to be consumed by the receiving households while about a fifth of rural to urban transfers are given as gifts to other urban households. The article concludes that multispatiality and food transfer receipts are an important part of the urban household food basket that must be accounted for in urban food security discussions, taking into account city specific contexts.