FOOD SECURITY OF SMALL FARM HOUSEHOLDS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION IN A WATER SCARCE AREA OF NAOGAON, BANGLADESH

Abstract

Food security remains a key development challenge for many developing countries in the world. In Bangladesh, agriculture is the mainstay of livelihoods of the rural population which provides employment for around 52% of the workforce counting for 63% of households of which the majority are small farm households. Although small-scale farmers play a vital role in food production, their households are mainly affected by the event of food insecurity, especially in the area where water is scarce for agricultural production. This study, therefore, sought to investigate household food security status through two measurement techniques named Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS) among small farm households in Khajur union under Mahadevpur Upazila of Naogaon district, Bangladesh which was identified as a water-scarce area for the farmers. The estimated results of the HDDS based on the previous 24 hours recall reveals most of the households followed medium (55%) or low (27%) dietary in the study area. On the other hand, HFCS based on the previous 7 days of food consumption reveals that 83% of households had poor consumption levels. The major consumed food by households is rice followed by potato, oil, and sugar. The cross-tabulation analysis shows that 27% of households were completely food insecure while 55% were vulnerable to food security and 18% were food secure. The main coping strategy adopted by the sample households was taking a loan from NGOs when they face food shortages. It is recommended that government should provide support to the farm households through properly targeted income transfers, credit programs, and insurance mechanisms in times of crisis. Several food aid programmes such as Vulnerable Group Feeding or Social Security Policy Support programmes may have very high payoffs in improving food security status in the water-scarce areas.