Food Insecurity Drains Household Income In Rural Communities

By Catherine Dumbuya

71% of survey households allocate more than 75% of their total expenditure to food, highlighting significant economic vulnerability; according to the July 2025 FSMS survey, with 13% of households classified as severely food insecure.

The WFP food security, monitoring system made it known in the report that the share of food insecure dropped from 28% in 2023 to 13% in 2025, with this percentage point in reduction cutting the figure by more than half.

The report stated that Climate Change increases the frequent change  of drought, floods and coastal erosion, which threatens livelihood and food production, with Sierra Leone facing repeated climate shocks, including devastating floods in 2022, 2023 and 2024, damaging crops and leaving so many displaced.

Despite the progress,Sierra Leone remains deeply vulnerable, with 54-56% of the population living in poverty and 78% of citizens still food insecure, and such crisis is far from being resolved. Continued inflation raises the prices of food, thereby eroding household purchasing power.

26.2% of children are stunted (impaired growth). Malnutrition remains high and is classified as a serious public health concern, and is affecting poor households, especially in rural communities, who are so dependent on rain fed agriculture and open to climate shocks, further undermining food stability, Such strain is not only limited to women, girls, children, but people with disabilities and rural households face hightened risk, not only poverty and food security, but also gender based violence, child marriage, and absence of equal access to education, health facility and livelihoods. For policy makers and donors, the challenge is clear, as food insecurity has halved in two years drastically, with the overall 78% underscoring systemic fragility. This food crisis is not only humanitarian, but fundamentally fiscal, without any structural investment to expand government capacity and stabilise household incomes.

Analysts warn that without the expansion of fiscal space, gains in reducing severe food insecurity may stall, leaving the majority of households trapped in chronic vulnerability.