Hunger in an Agricultural City: Exploring Vulnerability in Dschang, Cameroon

Abstract

AbstractCameroon is rapidly becoming an urban society and much of the urban population growth is taking place in secondary cities. Dschang is one of these growing secondary cities. A former administrative centre and market hub for an agriculturally productive area, Dschang has expanded and diversified since the establishment of a national university in the 1990s. A household food security survey in 2017 found that two-thirds of households were severely food insecure, even amid high rates of participation in food production and livestock rearing and a robust informal food marketing system. This chapter documents the findings of the survey and outlines three important factors driving household food insecurity in Dschang: the limited power of the local government; the consequences of the political conflict in neighbouring Anglophone regions of Cameroon, and Dschang’s role as a supplier to the regional food system.