IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uhohdp/57164.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Use of household food insecurity scales for assessing poverty in Bangladesh and Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Alcaraz V., Gabriela
  • Zeller, Manfred

Abstract

An important dimension of poverty is access to food. Household food security implies access to the food needed for a healthy and productive life. Lack of access to and/or impaired utilization of food contribute to household food insecurity. This study compares the usefulness of a standardized food insecurity scale for determining the food insecurity status of rural and urban households in Bangladesh and Uganda, and for predicting poverty status. The analysis uses data from the IRIS Composite Survey Household Questionnaire (2004), which consists of 1,587 households (approximately 800 households in each country). The coping mechanisms adopted in the presence of food shortages represent the building blocks for the development of the scale (7 items). In order to assess the suitability of the scale as an estimator of the households’ poverty status, the benchmark indicator “daily expenditures per capita” and its relation to the corresponding poverty line serves as the basis for evaluation for each country. The scale provides the means for classifying the households into 3 main groups: Non Food Insecure, Moderately Food Insecure, and Severely Food Insecure. The reliability of the scale is measured via the Cronbach’s Alpha statistic. In addition, the scale is used in regression analysis in order to predict per capita daily expenditures and the poverty incidence. The results show that food insecurity does not always reflect (income) poverty. However, the use of the scale as a predictor of poverty status produces rough estimates of poverty incidence that could be useful as background information. The differentiation of households according to their food security status may be valuable for focusing and developing improved food insecurity mitigation strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Alcaraz V., Gabriela & Zeller, Manfred, 2008. "Use of household food insecurity scales for assessing poverty in Bangladesh and Uganda," Research in Development Economics and Policy (Discussion Paper Series) 57164, Universitaet Hohenheim, Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uhohdp:57164
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.57164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/57164/files/DP012008_AlcarazV_and_Zeller.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.57164?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ruel, Marie T., 2002. "Is dietary diversity an indicator of food security or dietary quality?," FCND discussion papers 140, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Ahmed, Akhter U. & del Ninno, Carlo, 2002. "The Food For Education program in Bangladesh," FCND briefs 138, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Dufhues, Thomas & Buchenrieder, Gertrud, 2005. "Outreach of credit institutes and households' access constraints to formal credit in Northern Vietnam," Research in Development Economics and Policy (Discussion Paper Series) 8535, Universitaet Hohenheim, Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics.
    4. Nord, Mark, 2004. "Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger," Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, pages 1-1, June.
    5. Haddad, Lawrence & Kennedy, Eileen & Sullivan, Joan, 1994. "Choice of indicators for food security and nutrition monitoring," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 329-343, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. van Edig, Xenia & Schwarze, Stefan & Zeller, Manfred, 2009. "How robust are indicator based poverty assessment tools over time? Empirical evidence from Central Sulawesi, Indonesia," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51674, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Edig, Xenia van & Schwarze, Stefan & Zeller, Manfred, 2013. "Poverty Assessment by Proxy-Means Tests: Are Indicator-Based Estimations Robust over Time? A Study from Central Sulawesi, Indonesia," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Humboldt-Universitaat zu Berlin, vol. 52(1), pages 1-23, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tran, Minh Chau & Gan, Christopher & Hu, Baiding, 2014. "Credit Constraints and Impact on Farm Household Welfare: Evidence from Vietnam’s North Central Coast region," 2014 Conference, August 28-29, 2014, Nelson, New Zealand 187495, New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    2. Mark Evan Edwards & Bruce Weber & Stephanie Bernell, 2007. "Identifying Factors that Influence State-specific Hunger Rates in the U.S.: A Simple Analytic Method for Understanding a Persistent Problem," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 81(3), pages 579-595, May.
    3. Kassie, Menale & Fisher, Monica & Muricho, Geoffrey & Diiro, Gracious, 2020. "Women’s empowerment boosts the gains in dietary diversity from agricultural technology adoption in rural Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. Tiwari, Sandeep Kumar & Paltasingh, Kirtti Ranjan & Jena, Pabitra Kumar, 2020. "Caste-class association and school participation in Uttar Pradesh, India: Evidence from NSSO data," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Maxwell, Daniel & Ahiadeke, Clement & Levin, Carol & Armar-Klemesu, Margaret & Zakariah, Sawudatu & Lamptey, Grace Mary, 1999. "Alternative food-security indicators: revisiting the frequency and severity of 'coping strategies'," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 411-429, August.
    6. Munir Ahmed & Ghulam Mustafa & Muhammad Iqbal, 2016. "Impact of Farm Households’ Adaptations to Climate Change on Food Security: Evidence from Different Agro-ecologies of Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 561-588.
    7. Rashid, Dewan Arif & Smith, Lisa C. & Rahman, Tauhidur, 2011. "Determinants of Dietary Quality: Evidence from Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2221-2231.
    8. Kazianga, Harounan & de Walque, Damien & Alderman, Harold, 2009. "Educational and health impacts of two school feeding schemes : evidence from a randomized trial in rural Burkina Faso," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4976, The World Bank.
    9. Ahmed, Akhter U. & Arends-Kuenning, Mary, 2003. "Do crowded classrooms crowd out learning?," FCND briefs 149, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & McClafferty, Bonnie, 2006. "Using gender research in development: food security in practice," Food security in practice technical guide series 2, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Hoddinott, John & Yohannes, Yisehac, 2002. "Dietary diversity as a food security indicator," FCND discussion papers 136, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Mariana Romo-Aviles & Luis Ortiz-Hernández, 2018. "Energy and nutrient supply according to food insecurity severity among Mexican households," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(5), pages 1163-1172, October.
    13. Shewakena Aytenfisu Abab & Feyera Senbeta & Tamirat Tefera Negash, 2023. "The Effect of Policy and Technological Innovations of Land Tenure on Small Landholders’ Credit-Worthiness: Evidence from Ethiopia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, May.
    14. Mousumi Das & Ajay Sharma & Suresh Chandra Babu, 2018. "Pathways from agriculture-to-nutrition in India: implications for sustainable development goals," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1561-1576, December.
    15. Alison Misselhorn, 2009. "Is a focus on social capital useful in considering food security interventions? Insights from KwaZulu-Natal," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 189-208.
    16. John Kamau Gathiaka & Moses Kinyanjui Muriithi, 2017. "An Empirical Analysis of Livelihood Strategies and Food Insecurity in Turkana County, Kenya," Working Papers 338, African Economic Research Consortium, Research Department.
    17. Maxwell, Daniel G., 1996. "Measuring food insecurity: the frequency and severity of "coping strategies"," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 291-303, July.
    18. Francesco Burchi & Pasquale De Muro, "undated". "A Human Development and Capability Approach to Food Security: Conceptual Framework and Informational Basis," UNDP Africa Policy Notes 2012-009, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Africa.
    19. Baulch, Bob, 2010. "The medium-term impact of the primary education stipend in rural Bangladesh," IFPRI discussion papers 976, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Raghav Gaiha & Nidhi Kaicker & Katsushi S. Imai & Vani S. Kulkarni & Ganesh Thapa, 2014. "Dietary shift and diet quality in India: an analysis based on the 50th, 61st and 66th rounds of NSS," Chapters, in: Raghbendra Jha & Raghav Gaiha & Anil B. Deolalikar (ed.), Handbook on Food, chapter 8, pages 177-203, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Security and Poverty;

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uhohdp:57164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iahohde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.