Relationship between dietary diversity and perceived food security status in Indonesia - A case of households in the North Luwu of South Sulawesi Province

Abstract

The aim of this study is to observe the relationship between the objective and subjective measurement of household food security status in North Luwu in Indonesia. The objective measurement is done by means of the composite Dietary Diversity Score (DDS_<composite>) consisted of nine food groups, while the subjective measurement is done using the Subjective Food Security Score (SFSS). Specifically, this study estimated the probability of household for being more food secure due to their dietary diversity status and the composing food groups. For this study, the DDS_<composite> consist of nine groups: grain, tuber, animal product, oil and fat, oily seeds, nuts, sweets, fruits and vegetables, and others. Furthermore, the SFSS has five category of household food security in this measurement: insecure, somewhat insecure, somewhat secure, secure, and highly secure. The descriptive analysis shows that in all DDS_<composite> level the perceived food secure category always have the highest percentage. The household head largely regard that their household are in food secure level even thought they only consume two or three kinds of food groups. Another finding is that keeping the tuber food group, in this case sago starch, available in household will make household heads felt more food secure. From the regression estimation, the DDS_<composite> as a composite score of the availability of food groups in a household is found significantly have potency to improve the perceived food security status of the household. Furthermore, among the food groups composing the DDS_<composite>, the existence of tuber, animal products, oily seed, nuts, as well as fruit and vegetables food groups are likely to increase the probability of a household’s SFSS being in a better food security category, whereas the sweets food group give a reverse effect.

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