Agrarian Transition and Food Security in the Village of Nahle, Northern Bekaa

Abstract

My thesis addressed agrarian transition and livelihood diversification and how they contribute to remarkable changes in the survival of rural households in parts of the developing world, in Lebanon and particularly in the Lebanese village Nahle. It included these issues in the rural African countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia, in the Vietnamese rural area, and in the rural communities in Rwanda and Honduras. Literature reviews on livelihood diversification identified many reasons behind its prevalence amongst rural households in developing countries. Agrarian transition and its accompanying livelihood diversification can have various impacts on the agricultural sectors and food and nutrition security of most developing countries including Lebanon. In this regard, agricultural transformation and livelihood diversification can strengthen food and nutrition security and livelihood resilience to predicaments such as pandemics, wars and economic crises and be pro-poor. To test the validity of this hypothesis, a sample of 150 heads of households in the Lebanese village of Nahle was selected. The following survey tools were used based on a system of indicators for assessing food and nutrition security: 1) Livelihood Questionnaire, 2) Food Consumption Score (FCS), 3) Household Expenditure Module, and 4) Food Insecurity Experience Scale. Using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software, the results were statistically analyzed. The findings indicate that most of the permanent residents in Nahle shifted from full-agrarian to non-agrarian sources of livelihood between the 1960 period and the recent crises’ period which extends from September 2019 and June 2021. The village of Nahle witnessed a decline in the cultivation of wheat and barley used for the preparation of staple foods in the Lebanese diet. The study also found out that using both scales, the Lebanese scale and the global scale categories’ grouping of FIES raw scores, about 70 percent of the sample studied in Nahle experiences food insecurity. Thus, this decline negatively impacted the food security and the socio-economic status and well-being of Nahle villagers. Therefore, to combat the prevalence of food insecurity in the village of Nahle, it is highly recommended to revitalize the Bekaa valley, especially Nahle village, with cereal and legumes cultivation. In addition, there was no significant association between livelihood sources and the heads of households’ (HH) food security according to their food consumption neither between livelihood sources and food security (through testing global and Lebanese FIES scales) of Nahle residents; nevertheless, results showed a significant relationship between the FCS and FIES variables: those who had higher affirmative answers in the FIES were more likely to have significantly low scores in the FCS. Moreover, results also showed a significant positive association between total expenditure and income and the correlation between the two indicators is almost moderate; income significantly explains observed variations in expenditures: those who had higher income were more likely to have significantly high expenditures. In the retrieved results and its analysis, food insecurity was found more prevalent among the studied heads of households in the village of Nahle. As a conclusion, the null hypothesis was rejected and Lebanon National Agricultural Strategy (NAS) (2020-2025) was recommended.