Food coping strategies among migrant labourers on cocoa farms in southern Ghana

This paper examines coping strategies adopted by migrant labourers on cocoa farms in Southern Ghana in the face of food shortfalls. Using primary data from 400 labourers on cocoa farms, this paper employs coping strategy index, negative binomial, Tobit and multivariate probit regression models to investigate migrants’ food coping mechanisms, and their key determinants. Generally, migrants on cocoa farms were constrained with low quality food and limited food availability during certain periods of the year. Migrant labourers suffering from food shortfalls adopted food-compromising and income-maximizing coping strategies. The main strategies include consumption of less preferred foods and immature crops, borrowing of food and money, reduction in portion sizes during mealtimes, and reduction in the number of meals eaten per day. Farm labourers with higher education, income, secondary occupation, own farms, social capital, secured contract, work for multiple farmers, and asset ownership tended to cope better during periods of food shortfalls. The effects of these factors on the adoption of specific food coping strategies differed markedly. To improve household resilience in the face of food shortfalls, migrant labourers on cocoa farms should engage in secondary occupations, do their own farms, build social capital by joining faith-based organizations and tribal associations, as well as engage in long term contract arrangements with their principals.