Who suffers from food insecurity in Indonesia?

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to clarify the socioeconomic determinants of household food insecurity in Indonesia using individual household data obtained from the 2015 nationwide household socioeconomic and expenditure survey called Survei Sosial Ekonomi Nasional.Design/methodology/approachA stereotype logistic regression model is applied to detect factors determining household food security.FindingsThe results from the cross-analysis between calorie consumption and share of food expenditure to total household expenditure (Engel coefficient) indicate that 20.8 percent of households were in the “food insecure” category, 21.5 percent in the “lack of food” category, 26.6 percent in the “vulnerable” category and the remaining 31.2 percent in the “food secure” category.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation relates to the data set because the collection was conducted in March 2015. Furthermore, the analysis is restricted because of the limited availability of information on socioeconomic factors of respondents. Further research based on the latest data set with more detailed information on respondents is necessary to deepen the discussion.Originality/valueResearchers have not specifically discussed the factors determining household food security in Indonesia using reliable nationwide household survey data. The estimation results clearly indicate that a household fulfilling one or more of the following conditions is more likely to be in the “food insecure” category: many members, low education level of household head, divorced household head, household head is a smoker, household head engages in agriculture or construction work and residence is in rural or backward regions.