How do agricultural households in Africa cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, and how does this affect land-use decisions? This question motivates the new article “Agricultural households in times of crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic, livelihoods and land-use decisions, published in the Journal of Land Use Science authored by Kerstin Nolte, Kacana Sipangule and Niels Wendt.
We conceptually extend models of (smallholder) land-use decision-making to assess how the pandemic affects the underlying drivers of land-use decisions. Based on phone surveys from eight African countries and a literature review, we find that the COVID-19 pandemic affects households’ livelihoods substantially, for instance through reductions in various income sources and the loss of access to education. Households' coping capabilities are weak and have been further weakened by the pandemic. Livelihood diversification is likely to become harder and agriculture becomes a more important source of livelihood. In many contexts, the pandemic is likely to result in a more labour-intensive expansion of agriculture with important consequences for land use. Vulnerable households need support to cope with the long-term impacts of COVID-19.
This article is part of a Special Issue "Women in Land Use Science" and is available Open Access.
