Policy Interventions and Community-Based Initiatives: A Mixed-Methods Study on Food Security and Resilience in Rural Tigray
Hagos Gebremariam *
Department of Anthropology, (IPHC), Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia and Department of Sociology, Adigrat University, Adigrat, Ethiopia.
D. James Narendra Bondla
Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany & Professor, Department of Anthropology, (IPHC), Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray Regional State, Ethiopia.
Tesfaalem Gebreyohannes
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Mekelle University, Ethiopia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The study analyzes the interplay between governmental measures and community-based efforts in promoting food security and resilience in rural Tigray. Using mixed techniques, including ethnography, surveys, interviews, and secondary data analysis, the study analyzed the contributions of external and local efforts on household adaptive ability. The study's results indicate great variety in community participation: women-led savings and credit groups had the most engagement (46%), seed-sharing cooperatives 39%, while grain banks had the lowest at 16%. Government support, such as food aid (61%) and the Productive Safety Net Programme (52%), were vital in the near term but inadequate for sustainable resilience. Areas with greater local efforts such as Beleso and parts of Agazi had better recovery rates (63%) and food security levels (48%) compared to areas depending mostly on foreign help (Guahgot: 42% recovery and 28% food security). Generally, these results emphasize that long-term resilience is most successfully obtained when community-driven methods are improved and supported by properly coordinated governmental measures.
Keywords: Policy interventions, community-based initiatives, food security, rural Tigray