The Impact of Ramadan on Food Security

The term food security has different definitions and which generally have the pillars of availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability.

The availability encompasses production, distribution and exchange of food. It generally means food to be available to people by these means.

The other pillar accessibility portrays having access to food (adequate, safe and nutritious) which could be by directly producing ones food or being able to access food not only having the economic means but the food also affordable.

Utilization refers to how people use the foods they have access to that ensures appropriate and optimum absorption of nutrients.

The last pillar entails these other pillars being constant as that is what ensures food security. The definition of food security by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations embodies all these.

‘Food Security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.’

I have chosen to first provide definition for food security and its pillar because they are relevant to the topic of discussion and also that Ramadan impacts every aspect of these pillars, one way or the other.

However, before delving fully into the article let me first narrate what made me embark on it in the first place.

I was to have an impromptu business meeting Friday in the penultimate week of February in Kano and Abuja, communicated late a day prior. I rushed down to the Lagos local Airport early in the morning the same Friday. The flights were fully booked for all airlines albeit with space for the next day but not for two people and a round trip I had wanted.

If not for the impromptu communication I could have booked the flight earlier. It turned out that the Ramadan to start on Saturday meant Northern Muslim residents in Lagos were flying back to the north to observe the first Ramadan prayer and to begin Ramadan. This gives insight into how Ramadan impacts economic activities.

Later on the same day, a friend that supplies me live catfish for smoked fish-making phoned in to inform me of changes in procurement price arrangement. I asked why and emphasized food prices have been falling across board. He held Ramadan and hoarding act by fish producers liable for the price hike. Thus, at that point I thought to write about the Impact of Ramadan on Food Security.

I begin with the food supply and availability component of food security. To discuss this it is important to understand what Ramadan is.

Ramadan is a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community for Muslims. It entails acts of worships, prayer, voluntary charity and restraint from food and water from dawn to sunset, and from things considered impure and unkind to self and others –smoking, drinking, lust, bad thoughts and actions harming self and others. In this period, special effort is made to reach out to people in need and also connect with communities. It is a frequent occurrence in this month to see Muslims giving alms and part of their wealth (for the rich), sitting together to end their fast, and sharing foods, water and fruits. The month instills reflections on a life with less or nothing to eat and having the feelings of those who have nothing or little to eat.

In the wake of Ramadan there is usually changes in food supply dynamics. Muslim stock up their homes for foods like starchy foods (rice, yam, potato, plantain, garri and fufu, etc.), protein (beans, beef, egg and milk) and soup ingredients (peppers, tomato, onion and oil) that would have them with energy and hydrated to adequately undertake fast and vitamins and minerals-rich foods to help them stay healthy for instance, vegetables and fruits.

In anticipation of this demand and wanting to seize opportunities at this time farmers grow these foods timely to be harvested and supplied into the market as Ramadan begins. As such, the mentioned foods are usually available in the period, influencing food types present and food availability at this period, for not only (fasting) Muslims but also non-Muslims.

The focus on these particular food types however affects other foods, where they are not given much attention until Ramadan ends. This on the one hand is responsible for food price hike in Ramadan, but for the foods not more demanded in the holy month.

Nonetheless, there have been reports of the foods sought in Ramadan also costly despite an increased supply. Thus on the other hand, while supply for these foods appear to increase, they are more produced to service a select part of the population (Muslims) in this period, whereas broader categories of the population buy these foods –especially the starchy foods, legumes and vegetables. Hence, we have a case of demand higher than supply and which pushes up food prices.

Nevertheless, there are other factors that influence prices of foods during Ramadan, increased transportation cost with rising demand to transport foods, seasonal availability especially impacting fruits and vegetables and uncontrollable by farmers, rising production cost to anticipation of Ramadan, and traders wanting to seize opportunity of a once-in-a-while market, and uncertain economic occurrences.

These all show that the food supply chain, food supply and prices are impacted by a host of factors in Ramadan (many peculiar to the period) and therefore shape food availability and security.

Having discussed food availability the next thing is to discuss food access. As it has been established, food production to serve Ramadan is usually demand-driven as it is the demanded food types for that period are what is produced. This helps with managing wastages but it does not prevent it because those foods are produced to type/classes but not according to how many tons or ration required.

Wastages contribute to what makes some people not to have  food to eat because rather than excess foods going to people in need they are wasted. Ramadan however discourages this by promoting restraint of appetite and giving out of one’s excess to people having little or nothing to food.

Indeed, many Muslims perform charity act for instance giving foods to the needy and when meals containing different classes of food are given it not only assists with access to calorie by others but also to diverse classes of food enabling hunger and malnutrition eradication and reaching food security.

Muslims have also been known to invite non-Muslims over for iftar and for Eid (Islamic celebration of Ramadan end) and/or share foods with them, which could extend positive impact of Ramadan on food security and could also promote non-Muslims adoption of lived by healthy food practices, community ideals, and ways of life that benefits food security.

Also, Muslims give zakat (obligatory charity) and sadaqah (voluntary charity) through wealth or money (especially for the former) distribution to the less privileged which enables their economic access to their most preferred foods that best meet their food needs.   

In tandem with food wastage being discussed previously, a survey of Muslims reported that 58% of the respondents informed they often have food remnants in Ramadan and 96% of these 58% maintain they often reserve their remnants for consumption for the following day. 98% of the total Muslims surveyed affirmed that they would like their children see food waste an important issue.

However, food wastages are being continually reported in Ramadan. It is estimated that 20%-30% of food bought or cooked in Ramadan end up in the bin or dump and more food wastes are generated in Ramadan than in other months. It is even reported that both rich and poor Muslim countries generate food wastes and at almost similar tons in the discussed month.

The surveyed Muslims are reported to take more meals than usual at Iftar (break of fast) and the affluent Muslims organize elaborate gatherings where food is wasted.

Equal giving to the needy without consideration of gender and status enable equality of access to food, an element that serves to break the power dynamics that impact who has access to food and to what food.

All these therefore portray the volatile nature and intricacies of food waste and access and not necessarily of Ramadan but of the faith adherent’s variability with sticking to the teachings of the month but which in turn affects food availability and access.

Ramadan promotes the access to nutritious foods as we have come to see with food availability encompassing the 5 classes of foods important for a balanced diet and proper growth and development and general wellbeing.

This is however counteracted by overconsumption we have talked about, with excess food cooked, consumed and thrown away when Muslims do not adhere to food restraint. Overconsumption even when it involves eating the 5 classes of food but in excess is a type of malnutrition by overnutrition that often leads to obesity, overweight, diabetes and some other cardiovascular diseases.

In the prior survey cited, 62% of the respondents believe that 80% of Muslim families cooked excess food at least once during Ramadan even though 72% of the survey respondents reported that the proportion of their meal for breaking fast was equal or lesser to the meal they usually have.

Ramadan enables the utilization part of food security with cooked food shared for iftar or given to the needy allowing for easy consumption, digestibility and utilization. Other times, in the form of compelled or voluntary giving foods are giving with cooking ingredients and sometimes cooking utensils/equipment that facilitate easy cooking and readiness for consumption and utilization.

There is also a way Ramadan facilitates utilization and not from the cooking aspect but the metabolism of fasting.

Fasting enables the breakdown of stored energy and fat in storage tissues to energy depletion in the body catalyzed by food absence and promoting glucose absorption by correcting insulin insensitivity and opening up muscle cells with exercise in the form of solat (Muslim daily prayers) and Tarawih (long prayer in the evening during Ramadan).

Fasting thus not only increases glucose metabolism and assimilation but also prevent high blood sugar levels, fat deposits and toxin build up that cause diabetes, obesity and overweight conditions, insulin malfunction to abdominal fat accumulation, and high blood pressure, cardiac arrest and other heath related diseases to plaque formation and dislodge in the blood vessels, which affects food absorption, food security and health.

Non-Muslims, people who fast, and healthcare research have found fasting beneficial to metabolism diseases and especially Type 2 diabetes of correctable insulin insensitivity and as such prescribe it as a non-drug therapy.

Ramadan enables and influence the fourth pillar of food security, stability where with its 30day duration it ensures consistent availability of the discussed (nutritious) classes/types of foods over that period, enable their access through distribution by teaching to avoid wastages and giving to the needy, and ensuring utilization by promoting optimum metabolism and nutrient absorption and facilitating equipment and ingredients that enable cooking, consumption and digestibility.

Also, Muslims are expected to continue to live by the teachings of Ramadan in other months, and their abiding by such would mean a prolonged positive impact on food security.

Overall, it would be concluded that Ramadan has influence on food security –directly and indirectly –and more positively that encompass diverse categories of people and even non-Muslims, enabling equality and discouraging discrimination.

There are however also some unintended negatives impact but which especially emanate from Ramadan observers; their neglect or nonchalance to the holy month’s ideals.  

Therefore, Muslims adherence to the teaching of Ramadan (and even adoption by non-Muslims) would enable food security, this includes equality; as food security portrays ‘…when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.’