Status and determinants of small farming households' food security and role of market access in enhancing food security in rural Pakistan

In most of the developing countries, lack of resources and little market accessibility are among the major factors that affect small farming household food security. This study aims to investigate the status of small farming households' food security, and its determinants including the role of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-10, Vol.12 (10), p.e0185466-e0185466
Main Authors: Ahmed, Umar Ijaz, Ying, Liu, Bashir, Muhammad Khalid, Abid, Muhammad, Zulfiqar, Farhad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accessibility
Agricultural economics
Agricultural systems
Agriculture
Analysis
Costs
Developing countries
Diet
Dietary intake
Family Characteristics
Family size
Farming
Food
Food security
Food supply
Food Supply - statistics & numerical data
Households
Humans
Hunger
Irrigation water
LDCs
Nutrition
Pakistan
Plant diseases
Rural Population
Rural roads
Security
Supermarkets
Transportation
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Summary:In most of the developing countries, lack of resources and little market accessibility are among the major factors that affect small farming household food security. This study aims to investigate the status of small farming households' food security, and its determinants including the role of market accessibility factors in enhancing food security at household level. In addition, this study also determines the households' perception about different kinds of livelihoods risks. This study is based on a household survey of 576 households conducted through face-to-face interviews using structured interviews in Punjab, Pakistan. Food security status is calculated using dietary intake method. The study findings show that one-fourth of the households are food insecure. The study findings reveal that farm households perceive increase in food prices, crop diseases, lack of irrigation water and increase in health expenses as major livelihood risks. Further, the results of logistic regression show that family size, monthly income, food prices, health expenses and debt are main factors influencing the food security status of rural households. Furthermore, the market accessibility factors (road distance and transportation cost) do significantly affect the small farming household food security. The results suggest that local food security can be enhanced by creating off-farm employment opportunities, improved transportation facilities and road infrastructure.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0185466