Socioeconomic Determinants of Food Security: Evidence from Jhang District of Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan is a victim of food insecurity and poverty despite of being an agricultural country in the world for last four decades. Severe floods and droughts in different times and increasing gap between supply and demand of basic food items are accelerating to food insecurity issue around the country. Appreciable policies enforced to manage supply of basic food stuff and to control their prices, but still it is in the trouble of food insecurity. Therefore, this study will focus on key socioeconomic factors of food insecurity in district Jhang which is among 80 suffering districts of Pakistan, using logistic regression model. The data set contained 200 respondents.

Empirical outcomes depict that age of household head, negative shocks and respondents with no and up to twelve years of education have a significant and negative impact on food security with the odds of 0.725, 0.69, 0.853 and 0.74 respectively. On the other hand, number of family members between 2-6 and 7-10, rented area, owned area and more earning hands are also significantly causing more chances of food security with the odds of 15.74, 5.22, 0.082, 5.864, and 3.878 times respectively. Loans schemes at favorable interest rate, reasonable inputs prices, and timely information about supply shocks are key suggestions to meet food insecurity.