Analysis of Food Security Status and Coping Strategies of Rural Households in Assam, India

Abstract

The study was attempts to estimate the food security status and access the coping strategies utilized during food shortages among the rural households of Assam. Data were collected in the year of 2016-17 from 120 farmers, who were selected using a stratified random sampling method and were classified according to their possession of land. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, food security index and tabular and percentage analysis. The study revealed that in Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone, 30 % of sample households were food secure while 70 % households were food insecure. Moreover, 76.92 % of medium farmers were food secure and 77.78 % of marginal farmers were food insecure which indicates that the farm size could be a significant factor to the food security status of farming households. Average daily calorie intake of food secure households was 2318.10, 2443.58, 2355.37 and 2600.37 kcal which was higher than the national average calorie intake and for food insecure households was 1754.94, 1856.43, 1862.46 and 1845.11 kcal which was much lower than the national average calorie 2,200 kcal intake by the marginal, small, semi medium and medium households respectively. It indicates that size of household is dependent to average daily calorie intake by the households in the both district. The study also revealed that the most important way of obtaining food when stocks run out was to purchase food on credit from the market followed by selling productive assets like land or livestock during the food shortages. Other options like reduce quantity, consume seed stock held for next season, take money from money lenders etc. were also adopted by rural households during shortage period. Therefore, there is need to increase the volume of food production as well as improvement on income generating activities on sustainable basis.