Households’ Consumption Vulnerability to Natural Shocks in Niger: Insights from Livestock mortality and Insect Damage

This study seeks to assess the households’ consumption vulnerability to livestock mortality and insect damage in Niger. Ordinary Least Square regression, Unconditional Quartiles regressions and a set of poverty simulations are performed on the panel data of the National Household Living Conditions and Agriculture Survey of Niger. The results indicate that livestock morality and insect damage are heterogeneously impeding households’ consumption growth. In fact, households which experienced a higher consumption growth have most felt the effect of livestock mortality; while insect damage has only a significant negative effect on households that observed a lower consumption growth. Furthermore, the simulations results reveal that these shocks are poverty drivers in Niger which calls for insurance and social protection setting up. The study reveals also that income control by women, education, livelihood diversification, fecundity reduction, access to microcredit and access to mobile phone seem to be resilience factors to natural shocks that should be strengthened.