Household perceptions with respect to food security: evidence from the rural-urban continuum in Cameroon

Sub-Saharan African countries have experienced sustained rapid urbanization in the last few decades. Urbanized areas provide opportunities for better health needs and services, educational infrastructure, and livelihood diversification but deplete forest and agricultural lands by converting them to other uses to meet the needs of ever-growing urban population at the expense of environment and natural resources integrity as well as food security. It is projected that by 2030, 2 out of 3 Cameroonians will live in urban areas which induces new dynamics in the food security pillars. This paper compares the food and nutrition perceptions of households along the rural-urban continuum of Limbe and Bamenda in Cameroon. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using focus group discussions with 48 participants and commented walks with 36 households. Encoded data were subjected to Chi-square and Fisher's tests. Seasonal variations in abundance, availability and variety of food were observed, but there was no statistically significant difference across urban, peri-urban and rural zones of both cities. Conversely, food access for urban households was significantly higher than for peri-urban and rural households, suggesting that urbanization improves food access considerably in Cameroon.