Food Security of Poor Households in Mai Chau District, Hoa Binh Province: Situations and Solutions

Food security at household level is ensured when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Based on this definition, four food security dimensions can be identified as: food availability, food access, food utilization, and food stability. Ensuring food security is an urgent demand of poor households in Mai Chau -a poor district whose undernourishment prevalence in between-crop periods reaches to 24.1% of total poor household. Surveying 203 poor households, 22 local authorities at 5 sampled communes, the research indicates that fragmentation and small scale of agricultural production on slopping relief lessens the food availability of poor households. Those households usually face with difficulties in food access due to low transportation and economic conditions. Additionally, capability of income generation from agricultural and non-agricultural activities is pretty low and unstable. Therefore, present solutions should focus on improving agricultural production, enhancing market access capacity, and diminishing risks in food access and food utilization of poor households in Mai Chau.