Author(s): Paul Virginia, Singh Pallavi and Shamim Neda

Abstract:
Food security remains a problem for most of the rural population in India. The State of Food Insecurity in the World (2012) estimates that India is home to more than 217 million undernourished people. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) for India in the year 2010 was 24.1, which placed it in the “alarming category”. Various studies have been conducted to assess food insecurity at the global level; however, the literature is limited as far as India is concerned. Lack of sufficient studies on the burden of the problem poses a hurdle in formulating strategies to combating this epochal issue. Taking all this into consideration this present study was conducted to assess the household food insecurity among the rural population of Allahabad district. The data were collected through semi-structured questionnaire among 600 households from the villages belongs to Jasra and Chaka block of Allahabad district. The results of the study shows that 26.6% mildly insecure about worry about food while 63.3% households mildly insecure regarding eating their preferred food. 60% households were moderately insecure regarding variety of food and 33.3% moderately insecure regarding consumption of undesirable food due to unavailability. 36.6% households feel severely insecure regarding consumption of less amount of food and fewer meals in a day. Selected households were severely insecure regarding no availability of food in the household (31.6%) followed by go to sleep hungry (40%) and go a whole day and night without eating (31.6%). So there is a need to formulate the strategies to combat this level food insecurity at household level by strengthening the Public Distribution System and through nutritional awareness regarding indigenous food processing practices which represents local solutions to the food security in food shortage and stressed condition like drought.