


































Economics, Law and Policy 
ISSN 2576-2060 (Print) ISSN 2576-2052 (Online) 

Vol. 3, No. 2, 2020 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elp 

26 
 

Original Paper 

Assessing the Determinants of Food Security Status in 

Bangladesh: A Micro-Econometric Analysis 

Tithy Dev
1
, Elias Hossain

1
 & Morteza Haghiri

2* 

1
 Department of Economics, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh 

2
 School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University-Grenfell Campus, Canada 

*
 Morteza Haghiri, School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University-Grenfell Campus, 20 

University Drive, Corner Brook, NL, Canada 

 

Received: September 14, 2020  Accepted: September 24, 2020   Online Published: October 27, 2020 

doi:10.22158/elp.v3n2p26                 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elp.v3n2p26 

 

Abstract 

Food security is an intricate issue which includes diverse aspects as well as many linkages. In 

Bangladesh, food security is tried to be achieved by increasing the production of rice both by 

employing modern agricultural technology as well as by increasing the area under rice production. 

Despite the impressive gains in increasing domestic food grain production, problems of food and 

nutrition security still remain. Bangladesh is yet to achieve comprehensive food security that resolves 

the problems of inadequate food intake and chronic malnutrition among those who are poor and 

vulnerable. The main objective of this paper is to the contribution of different factors behind household 

food security status of 180 households in three Northern districts of Bangladesh. The study area was 

chosen because relatively little energy consumption data are available concerning this geographical 

area. The study used both primary and secondary data. Food security status of each household was 

assessed on the basis of the food security line using the daily calorie intake recommended by FAO. This 

method has proven to be efficient in measuring food security at household level. Additionally, the use of 

a logistic regression model identified the factors that plays crucial role in determining the food security 

status of the households. Results from the food security index revealed that more than 60 percent of 

households were with food insecurity. In addition, we found that total monthly household income, age 

of household head, education level of household head, household size, farm size, gender of household 

head, livestock ownership and quantity of cereal production had significant influence on food security 

status at the household level.  

Keywords 

food security, food security index, dichotomous models 



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1. Introduction 

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to 

maintain healthy and productive lives (FAO 2002). There are three major components of food security 

such as food availability, food access and food utilization. The concepts of these of food security’s 

components are availability of food from domestic production and imports, access of the people to food 

all times at their available income or financial resources, and that the food ensures enough safety and 

nutrition to maintain good health (Omonona & Agoi, 2007; Kuwornu et al., 2013). Recently nutrition, 

food safety and quality have attained considerable importance in food security issue. Because food 

intake related problems are not only hunger and malnutrition, but underweight, obesity also. However, 

safety food is a part of food utilization, impacted by the preparation, processing and cooking of food in 

the community and household (Nath, 2015). A household is food secured if it has enough food, 

distributed by dietary needs and ages, and ensured to nutritional needs of all members of the household. 

Bangladesh is an agriculture dependent country in South Asia with a total population of around 163.7 

millions (BBS 2018). The major source of livelihood of the people in Bangladesh is agriculture. 

However, rapid population growth, increased food demand, natural disasters and urbanization are the 

main reasons which have created tremendous pressure on agricultural land, making it an increasingly 

scarce resource. As a result agricultural land per capita has been decreasing over the years in the 

country. Food security, therefore, remained as an important concern in Bangladesh and nearly 22 

percent of the population, in fact, still cannot afford an adequate diet (BBS 2018). 

An adequate food intake, in terms of quantity and quality, is essential for healthy and productive life. 

Although enough food is available in the world, a huge population, about 822 million people are 

affected by hunger in the world and 11.3 percent of it live in the Asian countries, and the trend is not 

falling quickly enough to achieve the goal of food security (FAO 2019). Ensuring the availability of 

food requires enough production or import of food in terms of calories available per day for every 

person in the population. The Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen pointed out in his analysis of 

famines that it occurs not because of unavailability of food, but due to non-accessibility to the food 

(Sen, 1981). In the last several years, the overall condition of the Bangladesh economy keeps getting 

better and the economy begins to find some stability. For example, Bangladesh is one of the fastest 

growing economy in the world with a rate of 7.9 percent real GDP growth and per capita income US$ 

1909 (BBS 2018). More importantly, the incidence of absolute poverty decreased from 31.5 percent in 

2010 to 24.3 percent in 2016 (HIES 2016). However, food security still remained as an issue to the 

people of Bangladeshi because, in spite of important economic progresses achieved, the country 

remains highly food-insecure. In fact, Bangladesh is ranked 88th out of 117 countries in the 2018 

Global Hunger Index (GHI 2019).  

The core food items in Bangladesh are rice, pulse, edible oil, wheat (coarse flour and flour), powered 

milk, salt, sugar, potato, chick pea/gram, fish and fish products, livestock and livestock products, onion, 

garlic, ginger, etc. (Muzaffar & Haszn, 2009). In Bangladesh, food security is tried to be achieved by 



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increasing the production of rice both by employing modern agricultural technology as well as by 

increasing the area under rice production. Despite the impressive gains in increasing domestic food 

grain production, problems of food and nutrition security still remain. Bangladesh is yet to achieve 

comprehensive food security that resolves the problems of inadequate food intake and chronic 

malnutrition among those who are poor and vulnerable. Addressing these problems satisfactorily would 

not only require rethinking of strategies and policies to promote food security in the country but also 

require decisive actions by all stakeholders-the government, the NGOs, the private sector and 

individual households. In fact, ensuring food security through physical availability and economic 

access to food would continue to be a major challenge for Bangladesh in the coming years. Food 

security has been emphasized on the policy agenda of the government of Bangladesh and the 

government has been making efforts to augment domestic production of food grain through 

technological innovations and investments in irrigation, infrastructure development and subsidies. Food 

security is an intricate issue which includes diverse aspects as well as many linkages. Thus, the 

objective of this study is to assess the contribution of different factors behind food security status of 

Northern Bangladesh. 

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly reviews the most recent published 

articles that discuss the concept of food security in Bangladesh and in other countries in the world. 

Section 3 provides the methodology used in the empirical analysis of the study including data 

collection, research method, and micro-econometric model. Section 4 presents the results with required 

discussions and Section 5 concludes the study. 

 

2. Recent Studies of Food Security 

First, we present a brief review of those studies that examined factors that affected food security in 

Bangladesh. Second, we discuss the issue in other developing countries, such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, 

Ghana, Mozambique, and Pakistan.   

2.1 Evidence from Bangladesh 

Food security in Bangladesh is one of the important issues that have been analyzed comprehensively by 

different studies. For example, Chen and Lu (2018) studied key influencing factors of the food security 

situation in the country using the Food Security Index (FSI) and measured the food security level 

during 1990-2013. They found that although the grain production increased significantly, the food 

demand was in shortage by around 10 percent in most years prior to 2008. Because, the grain 

production increase was mainly driven by the improvement of crop yield, while the grain consumption 

increase stemmed from increasing in the rate of population growth. Chen and Lu (2018) suggested that 

it was essential to improve the irrigation and drainage systems, and crop management to increase the 

land use efficiency and crop yield to meet the ongoing increase in the demand for food. In addition, the 

adaptation of appropriate policy for family planning could be very important to slow down the rapid 

change in the rate of population growth and, in turn, the demand for food. Ara and Ostendorf (2017) 



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analyzed that the regional variation of food security in terms of food availability, food access, and food 

utilization under natural and socio-economic circumstances people became vulnerable to low food 

security in Bangladesh. They suggested that development of food polices would contribute to improved 

food security by considering regional food security conditions, region-specific deficits, climate change, 

other future risks, and devised actions related to the respective components. 

In another study, Hossain et al. (2013) investigated the link between internal migration and food 

security in Bangladesh. The results of their study showed that the number of migrants at household 

level had significantly positive impact on the per capita calorie intake which was found to be increased 

by 2.2 percent for one unit increase in number of migrants. The researchers concluded that food 

security outcome was highly appreciable both at the origin and destination of migration. Anik et al. 

(2013) analyzed the impact of farm level corruption on households’ food security using survey data 

collected from 210 Bangladeshi rice farmers. The researchers specified a regression model by using a 

multi-stage sampling technique and found that an average daily calorie intake for the sample 

households was 2,693 kilocalorie per person, whereas the national daily average for 2005 was 2,238 

kilocalorie per person. The results showed that the cost of corruption adversely affected households’ 

calorie consumption as the marginal effect of corruption was higher for the low expenditure households 

relative to the high expenditure households. Furthermore, variables such as the women education level 

and land ownership positively contributed to solving the problem of food security in the country.  

Rahman and Islam (2012) explored the nutritional status and food security of farm households under 

different land use patterns. The study revealed that households of alternate shrimp and rice farming 

consumed the highest amounts of food followed by year round shrimp farming whereas the highest per 

capita calorie intake was observed in households of alternate rice and wheat production. Large 

households consumed the highest amount of food and protein followed by medium, small and marginal 

households, respectively. Ahmed and Garnett (2011) examined the challenges of food security and 

found that rice monoculture could not provide a sustainable food supply without harming the 

environment in the long run. The authors suggested that higher yields might be achieved by increasing 

inputs in the integrated farming system. Using a Cobb-Douglas production function, the researchers 

suggested that higher yields might be achieved by increasing inputs in the integrated farming system. 

Ahmed and Garnett (2011) concluded that rice and fish production should be increased to meet the 

demand for food in the country. Kashem and Faroque (2011) focused on the availability of food as an 

essential element of food security and the role of government to get food sufficiency. The researchers 

found that Bangladesh attained self-sufficiency in food production which marginally met the country’s 

per capita on a daily basis in 2010-2011. Kashem and Faroque (2011) concluded that the government 

was trying to integrate all the elements associated with food security to achieve the target of the 

Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set for Bangladesh by the United Nations Millennium Summit 

in 2000.  

 



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Kazal et al. (2010) analyzed the determinants of food insecurity and formulated the strategies to 

overcome the food insecurity problem in the Haor basin using both multiple binary and logistic 

regression models. The result showed that the decrease in landholdings increase the risk of food 

insecurity significantly irrespective of scale and the household level of education. Furthermore, the 

researchers concluded that an increase in the level of household income reduced the risk of food 

insecurity significantly for all the scales. Faridi and Wadood (2010) investigated factors that affected 

households’ food security using a logistic regression model. The result of the study indicated that (i) 

food security indicator was highly sensitive to changes in the price of rice, and (ii) wage earners 

(permanent and temporary employees) were worse off in terms of food security status compared to 

self-employed in all economic sectors. Islam et al. (2009) analyzed that farmers changed their land use 

crop patterns and introduced new products along with rice in different areas of Bangladesh which 

increased households’ income and helped them chose appropriate food items that increased nutritional 

status of households. Khanam et al. (2009) observed that mushroom cultivation was a potential source 

of food security for small households in the country. The result of their study showed that mushroom 

cultivation was profitable and increased farmers’ annual income. Chowdhury (2009) investigated 

physical and economic access to food by exploring the link between landlessness and access to food in 

rural Bangladesh and found that landlessness of the farmers led to their insufficient purchasing power 

to buy adequate nutritious food for their families.  

2.2 Evidence Outside Bangladesh  

There are some studies which examined the determinants of household food security using different 

quantitative techniques. For instance, Osabohien et al. (2018) explained that the efficiency of credit 

facility positively contributes to agricultural sector of the agro-based economy in Nigeria by the 

Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) econometric approach on the time series data. The results of 

the study showed that commercial banks’ credits and agricultural credit guaranteed scheme fund 

(ACFSF) increased food security by 8.12 and 0.002 percent, respectively, while the rate of population 

reduced food security by 0.001 percent. They recommended that population growth rate should be 

controlled through family planning and adequate financing of the ACFSF by the government and 

monitor commercial banks lending interest rates on credit facilities. Fawole and Ozkan (2016) 

investigated the food security status at the household level in Nigeria using daily per capita calorie 

consumption method. The researchers found that 54 percent of the households surveyed were food 

insecure implying that their daily per capita calorie intake fell below the recommended daily per capita 

calorie requirement and food insecurity gap of 0.0038. The main limitation to this study was the 

inability to collect data on the income distribution, budget share on foods and socio-economic 

characteristics of the households which could affect households’ food security status. Endalew et al. 

(2015) examined the factors that affected food insecurity in Ethiopia. The authors found that poverty 

was not the only reason that caused food insecurity, but also population pressure, drought, shortage of 

farmland, poor soil fertility, and poor farming technologies had significant impacts on the food security 



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situation in the country (see also Mohamed 2017). Iorlamen et al. (2014) found that household size and 

income, and the prices of food commodities were major factors influencing urban household food 

demand decisions in Nigeria. Kuwornu et al. (2013) examined the food security status of farming 

households in the forest belt of the Central Region of Ghana. The study applied a multistage random 

sampling method to obtain a sample of 134 farm households. The result of the research showed that 60 

percent of farmers were food insecure. In addition, the researchers concluded that an increase in 

household’s income, having access to credit as well as an increase in the quantity of own farm 

production might have the probability of improving the food security status of farming households. 

Ahungwa et al. (2013) analyzed the food security status of farming households in Benue State of 

Nigeria. The researchers assessed the socio-economic characteristics of the households using 

descriptive statistics and measured the household food security status using the “food security index” 

set by the FAO benchmark of 2,500 kilocalorie per capita per day. The result of the research showed 

that households were profiled into food secure (36.7 percent) and food insecure (63.3 percent). 

Ahungwa et al. (2013) recommended that the government and all stakeholders should take advantage 

of existing structure such as the Fadama Development Project to improve their food security status. In 

another study, Iorlamen et al. (2013) examined factors (i.e., socio-economic variables) that affected the 

food security status of urban households in Nigeria. The result of the research showed that 67.3 percent 

of urban households were food secure in Benue state of Nigeria. In particular, the researchers 

concluded that factors such as mean age, education, household income, food expenditure, and quantity 

of food consumed by households were amongst other factors that had a positive impact on the food 

security of urban households. These results have already expressed by other researchers (e.g., 

Omonona & Agoi, 2007). McDermott et al. (2013) assessed the contribution of agriculture to 

households’ nutritional security in the context of developed economy. The researchers found that 

agriculture improved households’ nutritional and suggested producing diversified crops, highly 

nutritious crops, bio-fortified foods etc. to improve nutrition of people.  

Adeniyi and Ojo (2013) investigated the food security status of rural farming households in selected 

Local Government Areas (LGA’s) of Osun State in the South-west Geo- political zone of Nigeria. They 

estimated the extent and magnitude of food insecurity in the aforementioned region and determined 

factors that affected households’ food security. The result of the research showed that majority of the 

rural farming households were food insecure as most of them subsisted below the food security line 

which was 2,280 Kilocalorie. Moreover, food secure households had a small family size, earned a high 

monthly income and used modern farm inputs. 

Sultana and Kiani (2011) examined the determinants of urban households’ food security in Pakistan 

using a logistic regression model. The study used five main variables in addition to some other 

demographic indicators that might affect food security which were place of residence, dependency ratio, 

social capital, employment status and household’s level of education. Sultana and Kiani (2011) 

concluded that three factors were statistically significant with expected signs which were place of 



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residence (urban), dependency ratio and households’ level of education. Babatunde et al. (2010) 

investigated the nature of the relationship between income and calorie intake among farming 

households in rural area of Nigeria using both parametric and nonparametric techniques. The result of 

the research showed that the average daily per capita calorie intake in the region was 2,428 kilocalories, 

which was below the recommended intake level. Moreover, the findings of the study showed a positive 

relationship between calorie intake with income and farm size. Babatunde et al. (2010) suggested that a 

combination of policy strategies, including income growth, agricultural development and targeted food 

programs might be reduced the problems of inadequate calorie consumption among poor households. 

Finally, Khan and Gill (2009) examined the determinants of three aspects of food security, i.e., food 

availability, accessibility, and absorption in rural areas of Pakistan using district level data. The study 

found that the production of wheat, rice, maize, pulses, oilseeds, poultry meat and fish at the district 

level had a positive effect on the availability of food. The researchers concluded that all the district 

except of Sindh were more probable to be food insecure in availability. In addition, electrification and 

adult literacy emerged as the factors having negative impact in the food accessibility. Besides, child 

immunization, safe drinking water, and number of hospitals had positive effects on food absorption.  

In summary, most of the above articles focused on different issues of food security with diversified 

findings worldwide. Some studies found that total annual income, household size and level of 

educational, and quantity of food obtained from own production were the significant factors of food 

security in different countries. Most of the studies carried out in Bangladesh have analyzed the food 

security situation at the national level and not at the household level using production, import, and aid 

based data of food grains. In addition, the literature showed a few studies in the context of food security 

in the country for which strong quantitative tools were used in their empirical analysis. Moreover, 

precedent studies did not cover all part of the country, such as north western Bangladesh as it contains 

distinct geophysical and socioeconomic characteristics. Our study contributes substantially to the 

literature on the following grounds. First, we used quantitative tools in the empirical section of the 

paper. Second, the geographical area of our study is north western Bangladesh. Finally, our study is at 

the household level since the data collected at the national level were unable to identify differences in 

food security amongst the households as it is the case and data specific. 

 

3. Methodology 

3.1 Study Area 

The study is undertaken in the north western part of Bangladesh which is covered 43 percent area of 

Rajshahi Division known as Rajshahi, Natore and Naogaon districts. Geographically, this part of the 

country has been identified as the most important area for food production because of the availability of 

cultivable land. Nearly 40 percent of total population of Rajshahi Division lives in this area (see Figure 

1). 

 



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Figure 1. Study Area Map 

Source: Adopted from https://en.wikipedia.org 

 

3.2 Data Sources 

We used a multistage sampling technique to select the households and interviewed them. The first stage 

involved the selection of districts from which the participants in the survey were selected for interview. 

This was done using purposive sampling techniques where the districts were grouped into northern part 

of Bangladesh. The second stage involved selection of sub-districts, unions and villages using the 

simple random sampling method. This was achieved with the help of district’s recorded information. 

The second stage involved a random selection of two sub-districts from each of the three selected 

districts and two unions from each of the six selected sub-districts, and one village was selected for the 



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selected unions. The final stage was the selection of the households that were interviewed. We selected 

households using simple random sampling and collected primary data regarding their socio-economic 

characteristics, food production, food consumption, and other factors. The population for the study 

comprised both farm-and-non-farm households of northern part of the three districts of Bangladesh. In 

the last stage, 180 households were selected from the earlier 12 villages sampled for the study, i.e., 15 

household per village. 

3.3 Research Methods 

This research mainly relies upon primary data collected from sample households of the northern part of 

Bangladesh. With a view to fulfilling the research objectives with regards to determining the food 

security status, identifying the factors having influence on food security and drawing a comparison 

among the different households belonging to different living standards and different socioeconomic 

characteristics, the sample was selected in such a way that it covered all the aforementioned criteria. To 

identify the factors influencing food security status of the households, we carried out a two-stage analysis 

method which was as follows. First, we constructed a Food Security Index (FSI), and second we 

specified a logistic regression model to estimate the food security status of households as a function of a 

set of independent variables. 

3.3.1 Food Security and Head Count Indexes  

This study analyzed the food security of rural households by employing a quantitative approach. To do 

this some statistical techniques, such as adult equivalent unit, Food Security Index (FSI), and head 

count index were applied. A couple of methods have intensively been used in the literature which wee 

the expenditure and calorie intake methods (Maxwell, 1996). In this study we chose the calorie intake 

method, through constructing a FSI, as this method reflects the actual food consumption pattern of 

households (e.g., Adeniyi & Ojo, 2013; Ahungwa et al., 2013; Babatunde et al., 2010; Iorlamen et al., 

2013, 2014; and Kuwornu et al., 2013). Food security status of each household is a measure based on 

the food security line using the daily calorie intake recommended by FAO (2005). The average daily 

calorie requirement for a moderately active adult is 2,850 kilocalorie and a safe minimum daily intake 

should not fall below 80 percent of the above calorie requirement (i.e., 2,280 kilocalorie). This food 

security line is used in this study after converting all household members into adult equivalent units 

(e.g., May 1996, Swindale & Ohri-vichaspati, 2005).  

For construction of the index, first, we took the quantity of food consumed by the households in 7 days 

period and then estimated the obtained calorie intake. We converted the quantities to gram and 

estimated the calorie content by using the nutrient composition table of commonly eaten foods in 

Bangladesh (GoB 2005; BIDS 1997). A household whose daily per capita calorie intake was at least 

2,280 kcal was regarded as food secure household, while any number beyond that was regarded as food 

insecure household. We also calculated the head count index on the basis of the food security status of 

households (FAO, 2005; Fakiyesi, 2001; Olayemi, 1998).   

 



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3.3.2 A Micro-Econometric Model 

In addition to measuring the food security status of participants in the survey, we used a logistic 

regression model to identify the factors that determined their food security condition. To do this, 

precedent studies have used various models, such as the Cobb-Douglas production function model (e.g., 

Ahmed & Garnett, 2011), multiple regression model (e.g., Babatunde et al., 2010), probit regression 

model (e.g., Yusuf et al., 2011), and logistic regression model (e.g., Adeniyi & Ojo, 2013; Babatunde et 

al., 2007; Iorlamen et al., 2013, 2014; Kuwornu et al., 2013). We chose the logistic model in our study 

because of the nature of the dependent variable, which is dichotomous and for the fact that it can 

estimate the probability that an event occurs or not by predicting a binary dependent outcome from a 

set of independent variables (Greene, 2018). The model also accommodates both discrete and 

continuous variables, which can be ranked in a hierarchy to show which of the independent variables 

significantly affects the response variable and the relationship between the independent variables. The 

food security status of household is the dependent variable of the model that takes the value of 1 if the 

household is food secured and zero otherwise. The explanatory variables are Total Monthly Household 

Income (TMHI), Age of Household Head (AHH), education level of household head (ESHH), 

Household Size (HS), Farm Size of the household (FS), Gender of Household Head (GHH), livestock 

ownership (OL), and Quantity of Cereal Production (QCP). 

A logit model is defined as follows. Let the probability that a household is food secure can be written 

as 

Pi = E(Y=1/ Xi) = β1 + β2 Xi                   (1) 

where, Xi is the independent variable and Y=1 means that the household is food secure. By taking 

logarithm of both sides of equation [1] we wind up  

XPPL ii ii 
21

]1/ln[                   (2)
 

which means the log of the odds ratio is not only linear in Xi but also linear in the parameters. The 

parameters of the logit function (Li) are estimated using the Maximum Likelihood (ML) approach. In 

this study the empirical relationship between the dependent and independent variables is specified in 

equation [3]:  





i

i

QCPOLGHH

FSHSESHHAHHTMHIPPL ii



 

987

654321
]1/ln[

   (3)

 

where, 

Li=log odds ratio in favor of a household being secure in food,  

TMHI=total monthly household income, 

AHH=age of household head, 

ESHH=education level of household head,  

HS=household size, 

FS=farm size of the household, 

GHH=gender of household head,  



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OL=livestock ownership,  

QCP=quantity of cereal production. 

Since the collected sample data in the model was cross sectional the multicollinearity problem might 

arise. Thus, we calculated partial correlation coefficients among the independent variables used in the 

model and found that the values of correlation coefficients were less than 0.5 implying that 

multicollinearity among variables did not appear to be a serious problem in the model. Table 1 lists the 

definition of variables, their measurements and expected hypotheses. 

 

Table 1. Description of the Variables Used in the Model  

Variables Value 
Expected 

sign 
Citations 

Food security status 
1=food secure, 0=food 

insecure 
 

Omonona et al., 2007; Yusuf et al., 2011; Adeniyi 

and Ojo, 2013; Ahungwa et al., 2013; Kuwornu et 

al., 2013; Iorlamen et al., 2013, 2014 

Total monthly 

household income 
BDT + 

Omonona et al., 2007; Babatunde et al., 2010; 

Adeniyi and Ojo, 2013; Kuwornu et al., 2013; 

Iorlamen et al., 2013, 2014 

Education level of 

household head 
Years + 

Babatunde et al., 2010; Yusuf et al., 2011; Adeniyi 

and Ojo, 2013; Kuwornu et al., 2013; Ahungwa et 

al., 2013; Iorlamen et al., 2013, 2014 

Age of household 

head 
Years +/- 

Omonona et al., 2007; Babatunde et al., 2007, 

2010; Yusuf et al., 2011; Adeniyi and Ojo, 2013; 

Ahungwa et al., 2013; Kuwornu et al., 2013 

Household size 
Number (adult 

equivalent) 
+/- 

Babatunde et al., 2010 Yusuf et al., 2011; Adeniyi 

and Ojo, 2013; Iorlamen et al., 2013, 2014 

Farm size Acre + 

Ramakrishna and Demeke, 2002; Babatunde et al., 

2007, 2010; Kuwornu et al., 2013; Ahungwa et al., 

2013 

Gender of 

household head 
1=male, 0=female + 

Yusuf et al., 2011; Kuwornu et al., 2013; Ahungwa 

et al., 2013; Iorlamen et al., 2014 

Livestock ownership 1=own, 0=otherwise + Ramakrishna and Demeke (2002) 

Quantity of cereal 

production 
Quintal + 

Babatunde et al., 2007, 2010; Kuwornu et al., 

2013; Ahungwa et al., 2013 

 

 

 



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4. Results 

In this section, we presented the results of the empirical analysis on the issue of food security at the 

household level.     

4.1 Food Security Situation: Aggregate Level 

Ensuring food security for all is one of the major challenges in Bangladesh today. Despite the 

impressive achievements in food grains production during the last few decades, food security at the 

households and individual levels remains a major concern for the government. Different aspects and 

conditions of the food security at household level are described in this section. 

4.1.1 Food Expenditure Pattern in the Sampled Districts 

In general food access depends upon the price food, household income and its distribution within 

households, and household size. In addition, the sources of income and their reliability for a steady 

flow and reliable amounts are important to both individuals and households for ensuring food. Table 2 

shows the actual food expenditure scenarios in Bangladesh and selected districts in 2016. It is observed 

that the required food expenditure of household per month at the national level was 5,346.29 (Tk) with 

a food expenditure gap of 524.47 (Tk). Moreover, the average required and actual food expenditure of 

households in Natore was higher than that of in the other two regions (Table 2). When access gap is 

compared amongst the three regions the same pattern was observed (Table 2).  

 

Table 2. Food Expenditure Scenario (Tk) 

Food Consumption Indicators National Rajshahi Natore Naogaon 

Household Size 4.06 4.1 4.6 3.9 

Required Food Expenditure 5870.76 5928.6 6651.6 5639.4 

Actual Food Expenditure 5346.29 5395.6 6053.6 5132.4 

Gap/Surplus of Food Expenditure -524.47 -533 -598 -507 

Source: HIES, 2016. 

 

4.1.2 Per Capita Food Intake Per Day  

In order to achieve food security, the food ingested must be safe and enough to meet the physiological 

requirements of each individual. The daily per capita food intake is essential to ensure nutritional 

requirement of body. Figure 2 shows the distribution of food consumption on the basis of minimum 

requirement. It has been documented that an adult person in Bangladesh requires a minimum of 906 

grams of food per day, which is converted to a 2,122 kilocalorie energy (Government of Bangladesh 

2005). The suggested food combination is 47 percent of rice, 5 percent of wheat, 4 percent of pulse, 6 

percent of milk, 2 percent of oil, 1 percent of meat, 5 percent of fish, 3 percent of potato, 17 percent of 



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vegetables, 2 percent of sugar, and another 2 percent of fruits. Cereals, largely rice, are the main food 

in Bangladesh. Nearly two-thirds of the daily diet of Bangladeshi people consists of rice, some 

vegetables, a little amount of pulses and small quantities of fish. Milk, dairy products and meat are 

consumed occasionally and in a very small amount (Islam & Buysse, 2012; Kabir et al., 2018). The 

consumption of protein and micronutrient-rich foods like fish, meat, eggs, milk, dairy products, fats 

and oil is often low at the rural poor areas in Bangladesh (Lalita et al., 2007). 

 

 

Figure 2. Minimum Required Food Intake 

Source: Government of Bangladesh 2005. 

 

Figure 3 depicts the percentages of food consumption according to food items by the households per 

capita on a daily basis in the study area. It is revealed that the staple food and vegetables, respectively, 

included 50 percent and 20 percent of total consumption of food. Moreover, households received most 

of the calories from the consumption of rice and vegetables. The next important food item is wheat 

followed by potato, fish, pulse, milk and milk product, egg, sugar, oil, fruits and meat. 

 



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Figure 3. Actual Food Consumption 

Source: Sample data. 

 

4.2 Results from Indices: Micro-Level 

To assess whether a household in the sample observation was food secured or not, we calculated the 

food security index suggested by Fakiyesi (2001). We also compared the food security status of 

household in different districts which is explained as follows.    

4.2.1 Head Count Index 

We classified respondents in the survey into food secure and insecure on the basis of recommended 

daily calorie intake of 2,280 kilocalorie suggested by FAO (2005). Figure 4 shows the headcount index 

calculated for the participants in the survey. It is observed that the ratio of all sample food unsecured 

households was 0.61 indicating 61 percent (110 households) of the total participants in the survey were 

food insecure. However, this scenario was different for the three districts in the study. The headcount 

index of food secure for the Naogaon region (0.47) was higher than the other two regions. Table 4 

shows that the most food insecure district was Natore followed by Rajshahi.    

 

 

 



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Figure 4. Headcount Index for the Study Area 

Source: Sample data. 

 

4.2.2 Food Security Status at the Household Level  

We calculated a food consumption index (FSI) that enabled us to understand whether an individual was 

secured in the availability of food. Table 3 presents the mean value of FSI for a participant in our 

survey measured in kilocalorie (kcal). Table 3 shows that in case of all households in the survey the 

mean value of FSI was higher in Naogaon district than that of the other two districts. Furthermore, 

respondents in the Rajshahi district were more food secure when compared to the other regions in the 

survey.  

 

Table 3. FSI Value of Sample Households 

Region All households Food secured households Food insecured households 

Naogaon 0.999 1.03 0.91 

Natore 0.942 1.01 0.91 

Rajshahi 0.996 1.11 0.92 

All  regions 0.979 1.08 0.91 

Source: Sample data.  

 

 

 



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4.3 Estimation Results 

Table 4 presents the empirical results of the logit model obtained from collecting data from 180 

participants in the survey. We conducted our analysis in three phases to explore the influence of the key 

factors on food security status. First, we combined all the collected data and estimated the parameters 

of the regression. Second, we separated the sample observations into three districts where the data were 

collected and estimated the parameters of the regression separately. 

Finally, we compared the estimation results of the three regions to find any significant variations 

amongst the districts.  

Comparisons of regression results  

Table 4 shows the comparative analysis of food security determinants in all three districts. It is 

observed that four out of eight variables included in the regression model were statistically significant 

at the 0.01 level. These variables were total monthly income, quantity of cereal production, educational 

status of household, and farm size in all study areas. Table 4 indicates that McFadden R-squared was 

0.709 which means that 71% of variation in the food security was explained by the independent 

variables of the model. The obtained log likelihood ratio was -70.66 and the Likelihood Ratio (LR) 

statistic for the goodness of fit for the model was 99.24 which were statistically significant with 99 

percent confidence.  

 

Table 4. Comparison of Regression Results  

Variable 

Total study area 
Naogaon 

district 
Natore district Rajshahi district 

Coefficient 

C -3.5159 -0.6615 0.3052 -10.2593 

TMHI 0.0006*** 0.0005 0.0016*** 0.0015*** 

AHH -0.0164 -0.0583* 0.0656 -0.0161 

ESHH 0.1124* 0.0262 0.3535*** 0.0741 

HS 0.2161 -0.6979* -0.8195 0.6008 

FS 0.2891** 0.2973* 8.3880* 11.9347* 

GHH -0.5921 -0.8667 2.0232** 0.3104 

OL -0.4657 -0.0694 -0.9857 -1.5949 

QCP 0.1342*** 0.0998** -0.2121 0.5279* 

Note. *** Significant at 1% level; ** Significant at 5% level; * Significant at 10% level. 

Source: Sample data. 

 

 

 



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In the following we briefly provide the explanation for each of the statistically significant coefficients. 

4.3.1 Total Monthly Income  

An increase in the household income helped it afford more food for the family which made the family 

secured in food. It was found that the coefficient of the variable “monthly income” (0.0006) was 

positive and statistically significant at the 0.01 level. The coefficient of the variable monthly income 

was positive and statistically significant with 99 percent in the Natore and Rajshahi districts implying 

that the households with higher income level had the higher probability of being secured in the 

consumption of food but this coefficient was not statistically significant in the region of Naogaon. This 

result indicated that the higher the income of a household was the higher the probability that the 

household would be secured in the consumption of food. This result was consistent with Adeniyi and 

Ojo (2013), Ahungwa et al. (2013), Babatunde et al. (2010), Iorlamen et al. (2013; 2014), and Kuwornu 

et al. (2013).  

4.3.2 Age of Household Head 

The coefficient of the variable “age” had a negative sign and statistically significant at the 0.1 level 

only in the Naogaon district reflecting that household head with higher age was less likely to be food 

secure compared to the other regions. This might stem from the fact that the respondents with less than 

50 years of old were more energetic and agile to do farm work, seek off-farm income earning activities 

to improve the welfare and food security of their households (Ahungwa et al., 2013). Other precedent 

studies reported similar conclusions (e.g., Adeniyi & Ojo, 2013; Babatunde et al., 2010; Iorlamen et al., 

2013, 2014).  

4.3.3 Education Level of Household Head 

An educated household is more informative about the consumption of food. The result of the study 

showed that the coefficient of education was positive and statistically significant with 99 ercent 

confident only in the Natore district implying that respondents in the Natore district were more 

conscious about food consumption than the other two districts. This result suggested those households 

with relatively higher level of education strived better than those with lower level of education (see, 

e.g., Adeniyi & Ojo, 2013; Ramakrishna & Demeke, 2002).  

4.3.4 Household Size 

The coefficient of the household size variable was negative (-0.69) and statistically significant at the 

0.1 level only in the Naogaon district. This indicated that as the household size increased, the 

probability of food security decreased in this district than that of those respondents who lived at the 

Rajshahi and Natore districts. In other words, large size households were more likely to be food 

insecure than small size households. The result of our study was in line with the findings of Adeniyi 

and Ojo (2013) and Yusuf et al. (2011).  

 

 

 



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4.3.5 Farm Size 

The result of the study showed that a household with more cultivable land could produce more crops 

which ensure food for the family. The coefficient of farm size (0.289) was positive and statistically 

significant with 95 percent confidence.  

4.3.6 Gender of Household Head 

The result of the research showed that the gender of household head had a positive impact on the 

household food security. The coefficient of gender of household head was statistically significant at the 

0.1 level only in the Natore district. This result showed that a household with male headed was more 

likely to be secured in food compared to the one with female headed. Precedent studies concluded the 

same result as the finding of this study (e.g., Babatunde et al., 2010). However, this conclusion should 

be interpreted cautiously because the coefficients of the gender of household head were not statistically 

significant at the aggregate level and other districts. 

4.3.7 Livestock Ownership 

The coefficient of the livestock ownership was not statistically significant for the food security status. 

This finding was not in line with theoretical expectation outlined in Table 1. One reason that could 

justify this result is that most of the households participated in the survey did not own sufficient 

livestock population.  

4.3.8 Quantity of Own Cereal Production 

The result of the regression model showed that the coefficient of the quantity of own cereal production 

(0.134) was positive and statistically significant with 99 percent confidence in the region. This implies 

that those households who produced more cereal crops were more likely to have security in food 

through increasing either their purchasing power food self-consumption. 

The finding of our study was also consistent with the results of Ahungwa et al. (2013), Babatunde et al. 

(2010) and Kuwornu et al. (2013).  

 

5. Conclusions and Policy Implications 

The main objective of this study was to assess the contribution of different factors behind food security 

status of Northern Bangladesh. To achieve our research objectives we constructed a food security index 

and used a binary logit model. Finding from the food security index revealed that households in the 

study areas were nearly food-secure as the mean of the FSI value was slightly below one. Moreover, 

using the index along with the food security line based on calorie intakes we found that 39 percent of 

the respondents were food-secure. The estimation results of the econometric model showed that some 

factors such as monthly household income, level of education of household head, farm size, and quantity 

of own cereal production had positive effect on the food security of the households. Any changes in these 

factors would change the status of food security. However, the findings of the research varied across the 

districts (i.e., Natore, Rajshahi and Naogaon). It was found that four statistically significant variables 

which were age of household head, household size, quantity of owned cereal production and farm size 



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for Naogaon whereas total monthly income, educational status of household, gender of household head 

and farm size were statistically significant for Natore. In the Rajshahi district, only three variables 

namely total monthly income, quantity of owned cereal production and farm size were statistically 

significant. Moreover, food security situation at national/aggregate level and household level in the 

study area are completely different and influencing factors the food security situation in this area are 

also different. Because, at the national level, food security situation has improved in context of 

availability side, although Bangladesh remains a food insecure country in terms of access to food and 

utilization of food. Considering income and food expenditure of household it is found that the 

households lacked to achieve the ability of food expenditure which is necessary to meet food 

requirement for the members of their households.  

Based on the major findings of this study some policy recommendations might be devised. We 

recommended the government should expand alternative income generating activities for the people 

who lived in the rural regions. We also suggested that the household heads and other members who 

engaged in farming activities should be educated or trained through programmes like training and 

farmers’ field schools which would have potential to enhance their capabilities, which, in turn, would 

improve households’ productivities. Educated households will be more conscious about their dietary 

composition for better health. Furthermore, we recommended that farmers should have easy access to 

reliable and quality inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and credit support to increase production. These 

suggestions will help the marginal farmers enhance their farm production practicing. Finally, farming 

households should take advantage of the food security by increasing their farmland holding through 

government owned land distribution. However, globalization is connect with achieving food security 

because  globalization refers to the way in which developments in one country or area or region can 

rapidly come to have significant consequences for the security and well-being of communities in quite 

distant countries or areas or regions of the world. As a result, it has a positive influence on the globally 

household food security status, especially in the developing countries like Bangladesh where food 

related crises are frequently occurring. 

 

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