Economic and social determinants of food insecurity among farmers in the rural region: Case study Khair village of Estahban county

1. Introduction
Food security achievement is one of the most important national and international development concerns. In general, food security is a situation which all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. According to this concept, food security is a complex, multidimensional concept. Therefore, measuring food insecurity has been an ongoing challenge for researchers. Food security defines in four basic dimensions: physical food availability, economic and physical food access, food utilization, and food stability.

2. Methodology
Physical food access is achieved when a sufficient amount of food is permanently available for all members of society. Most methods of food security measurement, such as income levels, food related expenses, production levels and caloric adequacy, have been technically difficult, data-intensive, and costly to collect. Therefore, in the present paper the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), is used to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity in the 12 villages of Estahban County (Mobarak-Abad, Sahl-Abad and Darbandan, Khane-Kkat and Qeshm-Qavi, Damaneh, Mah-Farokhan, Mohamad-Abbad and Dehooyeh, Banavan and Dastjerd). The HFIAS method is based on the idea that the experience of food access causes predictable reactions and responses that can be captured and quantified through a survey and summarized on a scale. The questionnaire consists of nine occurrence questions that represent a generally increasing level of severity of food insecurity, and nine frequency-of-occurrence to determine how often the condition occurred. The HFIAS indicator categorizes households into four levels of household food insecurity. The households are divided into food secure, mild food insecure, moderately food insecure, and severely food insecure groups. Based on the Kochran formula, a sample of 350 farmers was determined and required data and information were collected through questionnaires and face to face interviews in 2022. Food security is a function of the demographic, social, economic, and physical that determine how effectively households are able to utilize their resources to meet their food needs. Therefore, the determinants of food insecurity were investigated, using the Order Probit estimation method.

3. Results
The empirical results showed that 45% of the surveyed rural households were food secure, while 11% and 32% were mildly food insecure and moderately food insecure, respectively. Also, the remaining 12% of households were severely food insecure. Village-specific analysis shows that about 33% of the surveyed farm households in Mobarak-Abad, Sahl-Abad and Darbandan were food secure, while 36% and 56% of the households were mildly food insecure, respectively. The Khane-Ket and Qeshm-Qavi households, 40% were food-secure, while 21% and 35% were moderately food-insecure and severely food insecure, respectively. In Damaneh, 56% of the rural households were food-secure, while 16% and 25% were mildly food insecure and moderately food insecure, respectively. In terms of food security, Laykhhorami village has 100% food security. Based on the result obtained from the Order Probit method, the age of household head, family size, education, access to information, saving, bank loans, and off-farm income had a significant effect on the different categories of food insecurity. On the other hand, the subsidy has no significant effect on food insecurity in the study area.

4. Discussion
In the present study, Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) tool was used to determine household food security status in the villages of Estahban County. Also, an econometric estimation procedure that involves the use of an ordered probit model was employed to identify the factors affecting the prevalence rates of household food insecurity. The result shows that 45% and 55% of the sample households were food secure and food insecure respectively. The HFIAS showed the households’ food insecurity ranges from severe (12%) to moderate (32%) and mild (11%) levels. In addition, the empirical results indicated that food insecurity is significantly different from one village to another. Also, saving, education and access to the information play a significant role in reducing household-level food insecurity in study area.

5. Conclusion

The results indicate that there is a slight variation in the prevalence rates of rural household food insecurity across villages of Estahban County. Therefore, each village must have a separate plan for food insecurity reduction. According to the positive effect of age on food insecurity, the government can consider households with a younger head of the household as the target group for reducing food insecurity. Also, it is suggested to provide information about the occurrence of climatic phenomena through virtual channels and other information sources. Considering the impact of food insecurity from off-farm income, it is suggested that households engage in off-farm activities to increase food security.