Exploring the links between agriculture, migration and food security: a survey of diversified, multi-situated farming households in Northwestern Nicaragua[Explorer les liens entre agriculture, migration et sécurité alimentaire : une enquête auprès de ménages agricoles diversifiés et multilocalisés du nord-ouest du Nicaragua]

This paper presents a survey conducted in northwestern Nicaragua, which aims at understanding how the flows of money and food generated by the diversified and multi-situated activities of farm households intervene in food access and perception of food security. In the study area, family agriculture develops in difficult agro-ecological conditions, and aims at producing staple food production and cattle ranching. In response to the lack of income, farm households have diversified their agricultural production with off-farm activities, locally and in migration. This diversification and multilocation allow them to generate income and food, essential for food security in regions at the origin. Social relationships between household members and beyond (extended family, neighborhood, and institutional actors) structure the flows of money and food. To capture these flows, the survey questionnaire, composed of three sections, is organized around a unique identification key: the individual. By capturing individual activities and resource flows directed towards the family kitchen, the survey offers possibilities for analyzing food security based on the deconstruction of conventional analysis units (residence, household, operation). Production and circulation communities are then established to study the supply strategies of the consumption community, which is the starting point for the analysis of food security. The questionnaire was applied to 350 households in a study area located in the North-west of Nicaragua. Data were gathered by paper questionnaire and face-to-face interview between April and June 2016. Additional individual interviews were conducted between February and May 2016. The data were entered between July and October 2016, before being checked, cleaned and prepared for analysis between June and October 2017 on the SPSS software. The metadata was produced on NESSTAR.