Food Security and Its Determinants at the Crossroads in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This paper investigates the factors affecting rural household food security in three different regions of the Punjab Province of Pakistan. For this it used Binary Logistic regression modelling based on primary data source from 3 districts each of South and North and 6 districts of Central Punjab. According to the results, Central Punjab was found to be the most food insecure region where about 31% of the sample households were measured to be food insecure. In South and North Punjab, 13.5% and 15% of the sample households were measured as food insecure, respectively. It was found that monthly income and livestock assets improve and family size deteriorates household food security across all the three regions. In Central Punjab, education level of graduation and above had a positive impact on food security while in North Punjab both middle and intermediate levels had positive impacts. Additionally, household heads’ increasing age deteriorated food security in Central Punjab. On the other hand, total number of earners in the household improved food security in the North Punjab. Food security can be improved by targeting the neediest households.