Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 2012 Jul;43(4):1042-52. Household food security and buffering mechanisms in Thai and non-Thai households in Nong Loo Sub-district, Sangkhla Buri, Thailand. Cho MM1, Knowles J, Atwood S.

1. Dr. May Myat Cho
2nd International Conference and Exhibition on Nutrition
Science and Therapy.

2. What is food security?
• Food security exists when all people, at all times, have
physical and economic access to enough safe and
nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle (World
Food Summit, 1996).
2

3. Factors influencing food security
3
Food Availability
Access to food
Psychological feeling for
food
-worry about running
out of food
-worry about income
- Worry that the child
wont have enough food
Buffering
Mechanisms
Food Security

4. 4
Buffering Mechanisms
What are the
buffering
mechanisms?

5. Background on Thailand’s agriculture
and it’s food security 1
• Thailand- an agricultural
country
• Effect of rapid
urbanization and
industrialization
reduced the farming
area in Thailand with
rapid deforestation
• Changing pattern of
farming in Thailand
5

6. Background on Thailand’s agriculture
and it’s food security 2
Land degradation and changing pattern of farming
led to decrease crop yield for household food which
cause the household food insecure (Viboon, 2009).
reduced in income had a decrease in access to health
service and food provision
Household food security in urban poor in Thailand -
only 44.2 percent had food security (Piaseu N and
Mitchell P, 2004)
6

7. Study context
Nongloo sub-district, Sangkla Buri
390 Km from Bangkok
mountainous area
one of the three sub-districts in Sangkla Buri
the town location - the main route of illegal migration
to larger cities in Thailand as well as major route for
deporting migrants back
7

8. Study Purpose
The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the
prevalence of food insecurity and the association
between food insecurity and buffering mechanisms
8

9. Methodology
Research Design
cross-sectional study of household food security and
the impact of buffering mechanisms on household food
security
Sampling Procedure
Villages were selected by Probability Proportional to
Size method
Households are selected randomly
Site of Study
in Nongloo sub-district, Sangkhla Buri, Thailand
9

10. Methodology
• Instruments
– Main instrument for the research was structured
interview (quantitative data collection)
• Section I
• Raedimer-Cornell food insecurity items
• Section II
• 2nd section of the interview dealt with awareness of state and
local buffering mechanism
– Qualitative data collection by interviewing with key
informants (semi-structured open ended qualitative
questionnaire)
10

11. Methodology
• Data Analysis
– Data were coded and entered accurately in the
computer and cleaned, verified in the field day by day
after collecting data by using SPSS (16.0 version)
– Descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages
– Analytic statistics using Chi-square and logistic
regression for analyzing prevalence and correlations
– Qualitative Data
– analysis of qualitative data by coding responses and
using a manual analysis method
11

12. Results
Prevalence of food insecurity
the prevalence of household food insecurity in Nongloo
sub-district was 75.8 percent (p<0.001)
individual food insecurity was 75.35 percent (p<0.001)
and the prevalence of child food insecurity was 75.28
percent (p<0.001)
HH food insecurity -60.8 percent for Thai and 95.6
percent for non-Thai population
12

13. Knowledge of presence of buffering
mechanisms
% of
people
who
have
knowle
dge
80
67
32
13

14. Percent of Thai and non-Thai citizens who have access to the
programs
Thai Non-Thai
No access (%) Access (%) No access (%) Access (%)
Access to community kitchen 100 0 100 0
Access to food aid 90 10 87.9 12.1
Access to specific food
96.7 3.3 100 0
subsidies
Access to Loan program 94.2 5.8 94.5 5.5
Access to food stamp/voucher 100 0 100 0
Access to food for work 95.8 4.2 96.7 3.3
Access to saving program 92.5 7.5 94.5 5.5
Access to community shop 95 5 98.9 1.1
Access to 30 Baht health care 45.8 54.2 63.7 36.3
14

15. Correlates of household food
insecurity
OR P value
95%CI
Lack of access to food aid 0.487 0.342 0.111-2.149
Lack of access to specific food subsidies
0.160 0.250 0.007-3.620
Lack of access to Loan program 0.505 0.557 0.052-4.944
Lack of access to food for work 1.433 0.801 0.088-23.380
Lack of access to saving program 2.044 0.461 0.306-13.641
Lack of access to community shop 0 0.999 0.000-.
Lack of access to 30 Baht health care 0.547 0.207 0.214-1.396
Nationality 22.67 0.000 7.010-73.307
Knowledge of food related programs 2.332 0.103 0.842-6.462
Knowledge of health care program 0.922 0.877 0.331-2.568
15

16. Perception on food security status and food and health
care programs by key informants
Food security – an important issue, non-Thai are
more vulnerable
Landownership
Food programs – Pattanarak, TBBC, ARC, Food
donation
Education on agricultural skills
Enhance food production by demonstration
No food and agriculture policy targeted for non-Thai
population
16

17. Perception on food security status and food and health
care programs by key informants
Health care programs by different organizations such
as ARC, Pattanarak, small NGOs
Access is determined by presence of Thai card
17

18. Discussion and Conclusion
• High prevalence of food insecurity overall and non-
Thai population has a higher prevalence than Thai
population
food insecurity in non-Thai (96%) was higher because
of lack of access to land, protection of forest area
mobility of migrant population (60% of migrants)
Agricultural skills (attitude of non-Thai)
No statistical association between household food
insecurity and buffering mechanisms could be the
following reasons:
18

19. Discussion and Conclusion
Factors influencing Food insecurity according to
the key informants
NGOs
19
Poor Knowledge
on Food/Health
Care Program
Land Ownership Household Food
Insecurity
Language barrier
between the
provider and the
beneficiary
Nationality
/ Migrant
Status
Shortage of
human
resource in
information
circulation

20. Thank You