Food insecurity in the rural Ganges Brahmaputra delta: the impact of soil salinity and households' socio-economic characteristics

Szabo, Sylvia, Hossain, Md Sarwar, Matthews, Zoe, Lázár, Attila N., Ahmed, Sayem, Adger, W. Neil and Ahmad, Sate (2014) Food insecurity in the rural Ganges Brahmaputra delta: the impact of soil salinity and households' socio-economic characteristics. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference: Integrative Risk Management - The Role of Science, Technology and Practice, IDRC Davos 2014, , Davos, Switzerland. 24 - 28 Aug 2014. pp. 691-694 .

Abstract

Ensuring food security in Bangladesh has been amongst the country's greatest challenges and priorities since gaining independence (Faisal & Parveen, 2004; BCAS, 2010). The unique combination of socio-economic and environmental factors, including climate change, is likely to exacerbate the existing risks of food insecurity, especially in the densely populated Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta. The agriculture and fisheries sectors are particularly threatened in the southern coastal regions and the situation is likely to be aggravated due to increasing salinity intrusion (Islam et al., 2011). In this context, the present study aims to provide estimates and determinants of food insecurity in the rural delta with a particular focus on investigating the impact of soil salinity. The study makes use of the data from the most recent 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) and focuses on nine administrative districts (zilas) - all of which are located in the Khulna and Barisal administrative divisions and form part of the tidally active delta. The methodology applied follows the approach suggested by Smith and Subandoro (2007) and uses two key indicators of food insecurity, i.e. calorie availability and household expenditure on food items. The preliminary results show that salinity intrusion has a significant positive effect on household food insecurity. However, this impact becomes statistically insignificant when household's wealth quintile is accounted for. The results further suggest that education, household size and whether or not household has been receiving remittances, are all significant predictors of food security in the study area. Given the geographical interconnectedness of the issues under investigation, the results are likely to be of interest to researchers and policy makers working on other delta regions and beyond.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Zoe Matthews

Author: Attila N. Lázár

Download statistics