A Snapshot of Food Accessibility and Dietary Diversity of Households in A Marginal Farmer Dominant Economy: A Study in Birbhum, West Bengal

Abstract

"Not even a decade remains to achieve the goal of ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030, adopted in the UN Summit of September 2015. In this perspective the present study, based on the field survey conducted during 2018, i.e., much before the COVID-19 pandemic, intends to analyse the extent of food accessibility of the households across different land-size classes in six villages of the district of Birbhum, West Bengal. The study reveals that the problem of food inaccessibility is faced mainly by households with no operational land, and by marginal and small farmers, who unfortunately constitute more than 97 percent of the sample households. Since dietary diversity of the households indicates their economic capability, the study also probes into that. It comes out from the study that there exists an inverse relation between the extent of food inaccessibility and dietary diversity scores of the households. Creation of sustainable employment opportunities is the only solution to overcome this misery."