M. Mohiuddin^1,, M. S. Islam², M. T. Uddin²

The present study was conducted in Bangladesh during the years 2012-13 to know the present status of poverty, food insecurity and coping strategies adopted by marginal farm households during food crisis. The study employed mainly farm level cross sectional data collected from 150 farm households taking 50 from each upazila of three districts of Bangladesh. Descriptive statistics such as cost-of-basic need method and direct calorie intake method were used to analyze the data. About 24% of the marginal farm households lie below the lower poverty line and about 37% lie below the upper poverty line. About 19% lie below the hardcore poverty line and about 35% lie below the absolute poverty line. The study observed that on an average, the rural households were more or less secured in relation to availability of food round the year. About 62% of the respondents identified landlessness as the prime cause of their food insecurity followed by lack of income generating activities and natural calamities, respectively. About 49% of farm households relied like on less expensive food for everyday as consumption coping strategy during food shortage where about 22% took less food and about 17% cut quantity of food per meal and reduce number of meals eaten in a day. Irrespective of location, about 53% reliant upon borrowing money for coping with food insecurity followed by sale of households assets (45%), reduce food cost (40%) and seeking help from relatives (36%). It is also recommended that creation of employment opportunities throughout the year, especially in the lean season, and government supports are suggested to tackle the food insecurity problems for the study areas.

poverty, food security, coping strategy, Bangladesh