Determinants of household food security in Nepal

Authors: Keshav Lall Maharjan Niraj Prakash Joshi

Publish Date: 2011/05/26

Volume: 8, Issue: 3, Pages: 403-413

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Abstract

The study reveals that 102 of the sampled households in Nepal suffer from chronic food insecurity ie neither are they able to produce sufficient food from their farms nor earn the food security threshold income for deficit months With the highest and the lowest exponential value of coefficient obtained from binary logistic regression model it is concluded that any program targeting occupational caste and small landholding farm category or landless will contribute significantly to reduce food insecurity The provision of employment opportunities for economically active age group thus reducing dependency ratio from 12 economically active population to 07 economically active age group can also contribute significantly to reduce food insecurity Significant positive coefficient of family size squared shows the increase in the probability of being foodinsecure with the increase in family size In addition an increase in irrigation availability can contribute significantly to reduce food insecurity A significant proportion of maleheaded households and households residing in Tarai are foodsecure This justifies the need to target femaleheaded households and households residing in Mountain and Hill in any program aimed at resolving food insecurity A negative and significant association of household’s participation in community organizations and food insecurity fortifies the need for inclusion of vulnerable groups such as occupational caste femaleheaded households households with illiterate heads small landholding farm category or landless and households residing in Mountain and Hill including some target communities in Tarai in community organizations Furthermore making these communities a target of food security programs can help significantly to reduce the incidence of food insecurity

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