Journal of Food Security, 2014, Vol. 2, No. 3, 87-91 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfs/2/3/3 © Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/jfs-2-3-3 Assessing the Impact of Consumer Behaviour on Food Security in South West Cameroon Mukete Beckline 1,* , Monono Samuel Kato 2 1 Department of Forest Management, Beijing Forestry University 35 Qinghua Dong Lu, Haidian District Beijing, China 2 Community Service for Environmental Protection (COSEP), Cameroon; P. O. Box 76 Tiko, South West Region, Cameroon *Corresponding author: munasawa@gmail.com Received October 09, 2014; Revised October 30, 2014; Accepted November 27, 2014 Abstract Food security is a major global issue with over a billion people believed to lack sufficient dietary energy access while others suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Estimating food insecurity prevalence and patterns is tenuous since there exist no known direct methodology. This paper explores the factors that influence consumer food preferences hence exposing them to food insecurity. It draws on primary oral field data, livelihood surveys and documented socioeconomic activities that combine to create a range of different household livelihood outcomes. Over 400 respondents in six localities of Buea district, Cameroon were interviewed and cultural background, seasonal changes (variation), gender and purchasing power were strong factors driving consumer food preferences hence exposing them to food insecurity. Keywords: food insecurity, consumer behaviour, Buea, purchasing power, socio-economics and foodstuff Cite This Article: Mukete Beckline, and Monono Samuel Kato, “Assessing the Impact of Consumer Behaviour on Food Security in South West Cameroon.” Journal of Food Security, vol. 2, no. 3 (2014): 87-91. doi: 10.12691/jfs-2-3-3. 1. Introduction Within the past decades, food security has remained a major global issue especially in less developed countries (FAO, 2007; Barret et al., 2010). More than 1 billion people are estimated to lack sufficient dietary energy availability while at least twice that number suffer micronutrient deficiencies(Barret et al., 2010; Sunderland and Pottinger, 2011). The attainment of global food security is described as a situation in which all people and at all times, have access to adequate, affordable, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary requirements and food preferences for a productive and healthy life (World Bank, 2011; Pinstrup- Andersen, 2009:5). For many developing countries such as Cameroon, food security is commonly conceptualized as resting on three pillars; food availability, accessibility and utilization (Barrett, 2002). While food availability refers to the physical presence of food where it is needed, food accessibility is the means by which people acquire the food they need and food utilization refers to the way in which people make use of food (Barrett, 2002; Pinstrup- Andersen, 2009: 5). These three pillars function in a nested hierarchical way and are greatly intertwined. For instance, adequate food availability is necessary but it does not ensure universal access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food since it is mostly related to social science concepts of the range of individual food choices, income, prevailing prices and access via safety net arrangements (Fogel, 2004; FAO, 2006). Thus access reflects the demand side of food security, as manifest in uneven inter and intra-household food distribution and in the sociocultural limits on what foods are consistent with prevailing tastes and values within a community. Therefore, the relationship between food security, poverty, socioeconomic and political disenfranchisement is clearly discernable through access. Meanwhile, the concept of utilization explores whether households make good use of the food to which they have access while fostering greater attention to dietary quality, especially micronutrient deficiencies associated with inadequate intake of essential minerals and vitamins (Devereaux, 2009; Barret et al., 2010). Food security is presently being undermined by a number of challenges such as rapidly growing demand and changes in consumption patterns, competition for agricultural lands for other uses, the effects of global environmental change, serious degradation of agricultural soil, erosion of the genetic base of agricultural biodiversity, water scarcity and poor governance (Goomes and Petrassi, 1996; Batisani and Yarnal, 2010; Yengoh et al., 2010). The 2007–2008 world food crisis (including in Cameroon), tested the resilience of the global food system and revealed deficiencies in its capacity to efficiently adjust to and absorb shocks that show many signs of growing in the future (Yengoh et al., 2010; FAO, 2011b; FAO, 2012sss). The present study attempts to find out if consumers actually do modify their food preferences, the factors that push consumers towards this modification, how consumers overcome this changing vulnerability, if this