Food insecurity is a widespread problem in Sierra Leone, with 63% of the country’s population experiencing some level of food insecurity as of June 2020. Despite having a primarily agriculture-based economy in which two-thirds of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, the country is a net importer of food.
This problem is exacerbated by frequent seasonal shortages in rice and a handful of other staple crops, which account for the vast majority of the country’s agricultural production but cannot be produced for a few months out of the year due to Sierra Leone’s seasonal climatic fluctuations. The resulting food scarcity and high prices during this “lean season” lead low-income families who are already spending the majority of their income on food to have to adopt emergency coping strategies like borrowing money or selling their houses in order to eat.
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