Food Insecurity in Pakistan Prevalence and Correlates

Abstract

Our current study aimed at three main objectives. The foremost objective is to measure the extent and depth of food insecurity while the second objective is to explore of the distribution of food insecure population with respect to various dimensions. The third objective is to explore the factors that causes food insecurity. Study is based on microdata of Household Integrated Economic Survey (2018-19) which is a country representative survey covering 24,789 households (160,095 Individuals) from all regions of country. Food insecurity is measured using three approaches across Pakistan, at regional and at provincial level. In the first approach we have taken the gross calories, in the second approach we have adjusted the calories with loss. While in the third approach we have excluded the gift or assistance from food basket. Head count ratio and food insecurity gap was used to determine the status and depth of food insecurity. Findings has shown that overall, 42.54% of households and 45.89% of the population in Pakistan suffers from food insecurity. It was interesting to explore that a significant household are marginally food insecure, and a minor subsidy / support can take them out of the trap. Rural – Urban comparison revealed that urban areas are relatively more prevalent to food insecurity. In addition, at the provincial level, Sindh has the highest food insecurity, while Punjab has the lowest. Study’s second main goal is to examine the distribution of food insecure population with respect to different dimensions such as household size, number of earners and dependency ratio. Findings from the distribution of food insecure population with respect to household size, number of earners and food gap increases, proportion of food insecure households also increases. We found that in general large households, households with least earners and high dependency ration are more prone to food insecurity. The last objective of our study is to explore the determinants of food insecurity in Pakistan. For this purpose, binary logistic model technique was used. Results has shown that all the independent variable i.e., region, head gender, head education, proportion of graduates, rooms, house occupancy status, dependency ratio, inequality and mean calories consumed showed the significant impact on food insecurity status.