scholarly journals FOOD SECURITY AND LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS IN THE MALAYSIAN EAST COAST ECONOMIC REGION: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mahmudul Alam ◽  
Chamhuri Siwar ◽  
Abu N.M. Wahid ◽  
Basri Abdul Talib
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mahmudul Alam ◽  
Chamhuri Siwar ◽  
Abu N.M. Wahid ◽  
Basri Talib

This research aims at analyzing the level of food security among some selected poor and low-income households in Malaysia. The study area is located in the East Coast Economic Region of the country. It uses primary data collected during the July-October months of 2012 and 460 sample families were chosen from the E-Kasih poor households database based on cluster random sampling technique. In this sample survey, households’ food security has been measured by the USAID-HFIA model. The findings of the study indicate that 52.8% of the households are food secure, that of 23.3% are mildly food insecure, 14.3% are moderately food insecure, and 9.6% are severely food insecure. The findings on the current situation of household food security among different economic groups is very important for the policy makers to achieve Vision 2020 and the targets of Malaysian National Plans regarding food security, socioeconomic development and poverty alleviation. In order to ensure food security in Malaysia, especial focuses are needed for those who are severely food insecured and those who are food insecured but marginally above the poverty line. Here the involvement of private sector and community based organizations are also important to combat the short run, seasonal, and event related risk of food insecurity as well as for the development of appropriate mitigation and adaptation options to ensure sustainable food security at household level in Malaysia.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mahmudul Alam ◽  
Chamhuri Siwar ◽  
Basri Talib ◽  
Abu N.M. Wahid

Purpose: Sustainable food security at the household level is one of the emerging issues for all nations. Several factors such as social, economic, political, demographic, natural, and livelihood strategies cause vulnerability in the status of household food security. This study is an attempt to examine the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility and its linkage with the climatic changes in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on primary data collected in the months of July – October, 2012 through a questionnaire survey on 460 low-income households from the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) in Malaysia. The samples were selected from E-Kasih poor household database, based on the cluster random sampling technique. The questionnaire uses a five-point Likert scale, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA F statistics for Chi-Square Two Sample Test.Findings: The study finds that the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility has increased statistically and significantly over the last five years in Malaysia, whereas the contributions of climatic factors are low on these changes. This study suggests that the food security programs in Malaysia need to be integrated with the climatic change adaptation programs to ensure more effective and sustainable household food security in the future.Originality/value: This study is an original work based on primary data that empirically measures the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility, one of the important dimensions of household food security, and its linkage with climatic changes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mahmudul Alam ◽  
Chamhuri Siwar ◽  
Basri Talib ◽  
Abu N.M. Wahid

Sustainable food security at household level is one of the emerging issues for all nations. There are several factors such as social, economic, political, demographic, natural, and livelihood strategies that causes to the vulnerability of the status of household food security. Therefore examining the vulnerability of these factors is essential to identify the reason and recognize the most vulnerable communities. This study is an attempt to study on the vulnerability of the factors of household food utilization and its linkage with climatic changes in Malaysia. The study is based on primary data collected in the months of July – October, 2012 through a questionnaire survey on 460 low income households from East Coast Economic Region (ECER) in Malaysia. The samples were selected from E-Kasih poor household database, based on cluster random sampling technique. The study found that the vulnerability of the factors of household food utilization has increased statistically significantly over the last five years period due to difference between rural and city food quality, occurrences of natural disasters, incidences of mosquitoes, insects, pest, etc., and diseases like dengue, malaria, heat stretch, cold, skin disease, etc. This study suggests that the food security programs need to be integrated with climatic change adaptation programs to ensure more effective and sustainable household food security in future, especially among the poor and low income group.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5294
Author(s):  
Boglárka Anna Éliás ◽  
Attila Jámbor

For decades, global food security has not been able to address the structural problem of economic access to food, resulting in a recent increase in the number of undernourished people from 2014. In addition, the FAO estimates that the number of undernourished people drastically increased by 82–132 million people in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To alleviate this dramatic growth in food insecurity, it is necessary to understand the nature of the increase in the number of malnourished during the pandemic. In order to address this, we gathered and synthesized food-security-related empirical results from the first year of the pandemic in a systematic review. The vast majority (78%) of the 51 included articles reported household food insecurity has increased (access, utilization) and/or disruption to food production (availability) was a result of households having persistently low income and not having an adequate amount of savings. These households could not afford the same quality and/or quantity of food, and a demand shortfall immediately appeared on the producer side. Producers thus had to deal not only with the direct consequences of government measures (disruption in labor flow, lack of demand of the catering sector, etc.) but also with a decline in consumption from low-income households. We conclude that the factor that most negatively affects food security during the COVID-19 pandemic is the same as the deepest structural problem of global food security: low income. Therefore, we argue that there is no need for new global food security objectives, but there is a need for an even stronger emphasis on poverty reduction and raising the wages of low-income households. This structural adjustment is the most fundamental step to recover from the COVID-19 food crises, and to avoid possible future food security crises.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 2079-2089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P Miller

AbstractObjectiveAlmost no previous research has examined the impact of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service Program and related Seamless Summer Option, which provide meals and snacks to low-income children over the summer. The present study investigated whether geographic accessibility of summer meals programme sites (a proxy for programme participation) was associated with food insecurity for low-income households.DesignThe study used data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and administrative data on summer meals sites in California. Geocoding was used to calculate driving time between CHIS households and nearby summer meals sites. Geographic accessibility was measured using a gravity model, which accounted for the spatially distributed supply of and demand for summer meals. Food insecurity and very low food security were measured using a standard six-item measure from the USDA.SubjectsLow-income families with children (n5394).SettingA representative surveillance study of non-institutionalized households in California.ResultsGeographic accessibility was not associated with food insecurity. However, geographic accessibility was associated with a significantly lower probability of very low food security in the full sample and among households with younger children and those living in less urban areas.ConclusionsThe USDA’s summer meals programme may be effective at reducing the most severe form of food insecurity for low-income households with children. Expanding the number of summer meals sites, the number of meals served at sites and sites’ hours of operation may be effective strategies to promote nutritional health over the summer months.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 877-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mahmudul Alam ◽  
Abu N.M. Wahid ◽  
Chamhuri Siwar

Purpose Sustainable food security at the household level is one of the emerging issues for all nations. It is expected that the patterns of household resilience factors and adaptation practices have a strong linkage with household food security. The purpose of this paper is to seek an effective technique of adaptation for food security and the required types of support for adaptation to food insecurity among the poor and low-income households in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach This study was based on primary data that were collected in July-October 2012 through a questionnaire survey among 460 poor and low-income households from the Pahang, Kelantan, and Terengganu states of Malaysia. The samples were selected from E-Kasih poor household database based on a two-stage cluster random sampling technique. The study considered household food security as household food availability and food accessibility, and ran ordinal regressions to find out the linkages of household food security with household resilience factors, adaptation practices, and expected support for adaptation to food security. Findings The study concludes that several resilience factors and adaptation practices were statistically significant to household food security, and several external supports were statistically and significantly needed to ensure household food security. Therefore, to ensure sustainable household food security in Malaysia, the food security programs need to be integrated with sustainable development goals (SDGs) and climatic changes adaptation programs, and the involvement of relevant stakeholders are crucial. Originality/value This study is a pioneer work based on primary data that empirically measured the linkages of household food security with household resilience factors, adaptation practices, and expected support for adaptation to food security in Malaysia. This study also discussed some issues related to the climate change linkage, which would help future climate change research. The findings of the study will be beneficial for all the stakeholders, including policy makers related to the food security and climate change adaptation.


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