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 waterscarce 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