Tackling Food and Nutrition Insecurity among Rural Inhabitants: Role of Household-Level Strategies with a Focus on Value Addition, Diversification and Female Participation

Shamsheer Ul Haq,Azhar Abbas,Zahira Batool,Abou Traore,Pomi Shahbaz,Bader Alhafi Alotaibi

doi:10.3390/land11020254

Abstract

Ensuring food and nutrition security (FNS) is a formidable challenge under increasing population pressure. Governments around the globe have been striving to achieve this goal, but a major impact is attainable once the masses opt for measures at the household level. We conducted this study to explore household-level practices aimed at ensuring FNS and their association with FNS in rural Pakistan. Using cluster analysis, we divided a sample of 200 randomly selected rural households into high and low FNS groups, the majority of which belonged to the low FNS group. Logistic regression was applied to explore the association between household-level measures with the FNS of rural households. The households in the high FNS group adopted a greater number of measures for ensuring FNS. Households headed jointly by a male and female showed to have a higher likelihood of FNS. Similarly, households adopting diversification strategies on their farms were more likely to have high FNS. Moreover, households with working women exhibited a greater probability of experiencing high FNS. Similarly, households’ adoption of value addition in dairy products decreases the probability of food and nutrition insecurity. This study concludes with an emphasis on women’s empowerment, off-farm income diversification, and on-farm enterprise diversification to address FNS challenges.

Highlights

Food and nutrition insecurity is one of the greatest problems faced by humanity due to limited resources and an increasing population, especially in developing and low-income countries
The majority (69%) of the rural households belonged to the low food and nutrition security (FNS) group (Table 2)
This may be due to the prevalence of high poverty and large family sizes in the rural areas of Pakistan, which limits the ability of rural households to attain sufficient FNS

Summary

Introduction

Food and nutrition insecurity is one of the greatest problems faced by humanity due to limited resources and an increasing population, especially in developing and low-income countries. More than 820 million people globally were not able to fulfill their energy requirements in 2015–2018 [1], and the majority of these people belonged to low-income, developing countries. To add to this complexity, the global population is expected to reach about 9.8 billion by 2050. The COVID-19 pandemic will increase the number of poor people in the world, but will make it more difficult for many people in developing countries to maintain food and nutritional security (FNS) [2]. Governments around the globe are facing tremendous challenges in ensuring the FNS of their populations [3]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion