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Household Food Security Status of Marginal Farmers in Selected Storm Surge Prone Coastal Area of Bangladesh

Md. Ektear Uddin
Dept. of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Dumki, Patuakhali – 8602, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The objective of the study was to understand and describe the household food security status of the marginal farmers in a selected storm surge prone coastal area of Bangladesh. The study also assessed the extent of livelihood vulnerability and coping strategies of the storm surge affected marginal farmers. To collect data from the 30 randomly selected respondents a pre-tested structured interview schedule was administered during 01 to 10 October 2010. The finding reveals that maximum marginal farmers were food insecured (56.67%), while 30% were moderately food secured and only 13% were food secured. Though adequate food was available in local markets those were beyond affordability. The partial food security was due to poor food utilization in marginal farmers’ family. The most three vulnerable options of livelihood for the marginal farmers were crop farming, fish farming and livestock farming. The respondent farmers adopted six self coping strategies and three assisted coping strategies to cope with the vulnerability and food insecurity. The self coping strategies were decreasing the number and size of daily meals, consumption of wild food, selling labour at very low rate, selling fixed and movable household assets, contracting new loan at a high interest rate and cultivation of short duration crop. On the other hand, assisted coping strategies include relief food, social network and begging.

Keywords: Coping strategy, Food security, Livelihood vulnerability, Marginal farmers, Storm surge

Location: Charkhali and Golkhali of Mirjagonj Upazila under Patuakhali District

Start Date: 01-10-2010

End Date: 10-10-2010

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Income generation

Objectives:

(i) To assess and describe the household food security status of marginal farmers of a selected storm surge prone coastal area.

(ii) To determine the extent of livelihood vulnerability of marginal farmers due to storm surge.

(iii) To determine the coping strategies of marginal farmers in food vulnerable situation caused by the storm surges.

Methodology:

The study was conducted in two severely storm surge affected village- Charkhali and Golkhali of Mirjagonj Upazila under Patuakhali District. A list of 100 marginal farmers were made in advance. From the list, 30% farmers were selected randomly as the sample of the study. To collect data from 30 respondents a structured interview schedule was used together with a case study. Data were collected by the researcher himself during 1 October to 10 October 2010. For measuring food security, three dimensions were considered- food availability, food accessibility and food utilization. Four statements were set against each dimension as indicators of food security. Status of food security was measured on the basis of one’s representation on a five point continuum of very high, high, moderate, low, not at all. A weight of 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0 were assigned for very high, high, moderate, low and not at all, respectively. Hence, food security score of a respondent varied from 0 to 48, where 0 indicated highly food insecured and 48 indicated highly food secured. However, a Food Security Index (FSI) was also prepared based on the basis of frequency distribution of the respondents on 12 statements of the dimensions of food security. FSI = {(f_VH x 4) + (f _H x 3) + (f _M x 2) + (f _L x 1) + (f _NA x 0)} Where, f_VH = Frequency of ‘very high’ opinion f_H = Frequency of ‘high’ opinion f_M = Frequency of ‘moderate’ opinion f_L = Frequency of ‘low’ opinion and f_NA = Frequency of ‘not at all’ opinion Thus, total FSI score for 30 respondents could range from (30 x 0) = 0 to (30 x 4 x 12) = 1440 and of individual dimension it could vary from (30 x 0) = 0 to (30 x 4 x 4) = 480. FSI was prepared with a view to compare the food security status among three dimensions of food security as well as to find out the most vulnerable dimension of food security of the respondent. During data entry, a series of checks were made for keystroke errors, duplicate entries and to ensure that the data were collected and enumerated correctly. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software of 11.5 version.

Source of Information: The Agriculturists 10 (1): 98-103 (2012), ISSN-1729-521

Article Link (Online Journal): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v10i1.11070

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The finding reveals that maximum marginal farmers were food insecured (56.67%), while 30% were moderately food secured and only 13% were food secured. Though adequate food was available in local markets those were beyond affordability. The partial food security was due to poor food utilization in marginal farmers’ family. The most three vulnerable options of livelihood for the marginal farmers were crop farming, fish farming and livestock farming. The respondent farmers adopted six self coping strategies and three assisted coping strategies to cope with the vulnerability and food insecurity. The self coping strategies were decreasing the number and size of daily meals, consumption of wild food, selling labour at very low rate, selling fixed and movable household assets, contracting new loan at a high interest rate and cultivation of short duration crop. On the other hand, assisted coping strategies include relief food, social network and begging.

Knowledge Management: Journal