Abstract

Participatory action research (PAR) techniques were used to research application of vulnerability poverty analysis (VPA), specifically to identify farmers’ exposure to health risks in the farming season and their levels of coping ability in three chiefdoms in Sierra Leone. This research also provides an understanding of the long-term factors affecting farmers’ ability to respond to coping mechanisms and their susceptibility to crisis as well as their resilience for survival or recovery from the crisis. In Sierra Leone, famers’ health is a crosscutting issue affecting development as measured by increasing or decreasing agricultural productivity, yet improvement of health is often overlooked in policy strategies. In agricultural communities, poor health reduces income and productivity, further decreasing people’s ability to address poor health, thus inhibiting rural household livelihood improvement. The objective of this research was to apply PAR techniques involving famers’ responses from self-organized group discussions and questionnaire administration. Many variables were analyzed including: village profiles, types of vulnerability, underlying causes and consequences, and the coping strategies, as well as opportunities for action. Key issues identified include lack of mutual assistance to ensure productive pursuits; access to agricultural inputs; health risks due to unfavourable climatic conditions (extremely hot in the dry season and flooding in the wet season); unsafe drinking water; and the prevalence of diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, typhoid fever, etc. Involvement of village members found that the months of June to September, and February to May were indicated as hungry seasons and were periods of the highest vulnerability risk. During periods of inadequate food supplies and lack of clean water, active household farmers faced increased infections such as bronchitis, conjunctivitis and malaria. Costly visits to peripheral health units (PHU) and traditional healers perpetuate the vicious cycle of poverty. Communities recommend that goals of future programs include enhanced higher agricultural productivity, increased family earnings and nutrition, improved labor productivity and better health and well-being. Policy strategies by local governments must be all inclusive planning for health care interventions in critical period of farming calendar at rural level.

Key words: Participatory poverty analysis, health, agricultural productivity, farmer efficiency.