Zeitschrift für Lebensmittel- und Ernährungsstörungen

Rural-Urban Transfers and Household Food Security in Harare's Crisis Context

Godfrey Tawodzera

Rural-Urban Transfers and Household Food Security in Harare’s Crisis Context

This paper is based on research carried out in 2009 in the low-income residential area of Epworth in Harare, Zimbabwe. The paper assesses the contribution of rural-urban linkages to the food security of urban households in a crisis context. Research findings demonstrate that in conditions of extreme economic distress such as those that were besetting Zimbabwe at the time, the socio-cultural linkages that exist between the city and the village, as well as the economic relations of reciprocity embedded within these interactions are crucial to the survival of distressed urban households.