Foodgrain disposals as early warning famine signals

A case from Burkina Faso

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3898705
AutoresConstance M Mccorkle (University of Missouri, autor correspondente)
Ano1987
Volume11
Fascículo4
Páginas273-281
Data de publicação1987-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDisasters (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-7717.1987.tb00649.x
OpenAlexW2034171454
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas9

Recent research suggests that monitoring key events in social, economic, cultural and political systems may provide more timely, frequent, and reliable warnings of impending famine than monitoring physical processes alone. But empirical data on early warning distress signals in these arenas are slim. Based on anthropological investigations in a southern Volta Noire community of Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) during the drought of 1983-1984, this paper outlines a variety of possible early warning signals in disposal systems for staple foodgrains - the nutritional "bottom line" for farmers and herders in the West African savannah. Pre-famine distress signals in five broad categories are discussed: changes in marketing patterns, non-market exchanges, dietary practices, utilization of agricultural and pastoral labour, and ideological and sociopolitical behaviours. Data consist of both quantitative and qualitative comparisons of cereal disposals in these categories between 1983 and preceding years

Agriculture · Distress · Early warning system · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental planning · Famine · Geography · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Warning system · Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Engineering · Psychology