Identifying the effective factors on food insafety in Iranian Rural Households:Application of generalized ordered logit model

Food security is the first step and cornerstone of maintaining the intellectual, mental, physical and vital health of the society, so that the people of the society can perform their duties effectively in the economic, cultural, political and social fields.The quality of people’s lives is an important index for evaluating the economic development in any country, and a lot of factors including nutrition levels and food security have significant roles in measuring the quality. Based on this, the food security of 19266 rural households in Iran’s provinces and the effects of the qualitative and quantitative variables on it, have been evaluated. To achieve this, the effect of these factors on prevalence of food security in a family has been identified by using the Calorie consumption index and application of the generalized ordered Logit model. The results indicated that 76% of the rural households had food security and only 24% have experienced food insafety. Also, the variables of the number of literate members of the household, the age of the guardian, the status of the guardian's education, the job and marriage of the guardian, having a personal home, home infrastructure, personal car and family dimensions have a significant effect on food insecurity. Also, Kerman province has the highest food security and Kermanshah has the lowest food security in terms of calorie consumption. Since two high-risk groups from the point of calorie intake have been recognized in the society, it’s suggested to apply right targeted policies for balancing these two groups and changing consumption patterns.