American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Business

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1 Amercan Journal of Theoretcal and Appled Busness 206; 2(4): do: 0.648/j.ajtab ISSN: (Prnt); ISSN: (Onlne) Analyss of the Impact of Income Dversfcaton Strateges on Food Securty Status of Rural Households n Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rajshah Dstrct Tthy Dev, Naznn Sultana 2, Md. Elas Hossan Department of Economcs, Unversty of Rajshah, Rajshah, Bangladesh 2 Insttute of Bangladesh Studes, Unversty of Rajshah, Rajshah, Bangladesh Emal address: tthy-dev@yahoo.com (T. Dev), nslopa@yahoo.com (N. Sultana), elaseco@ru.ac.bd (Md. E. Hossan) To cte ths artcle: Tthy Dev, Naznn Sultana, Md. Elas Hossan. Analyss of the Impact of Income Dversfcaton Strateges on Food Securty Status of Rural Households n Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rajshah Dstrct. Amercan Journal of Theoretcal and Appled Busness. Vol. 2, No. 4, 206, pp do: 0.648/j.ajtab Receved: October 4, 206; Accepted: November, 206; Publshed: January 7, 207 Abstract: The strategy of ncome dversfcaton has sgnfcant mplcaton on the food securty status of the rural farmng households n Bangladesh. Income dversfcaton has been dentfed as essental strategy for rasng ncome and reducng rural poverty. The level and type of ncome dversfcaton depends on the accessblty and avalablty of dfferent ncome sources. Smlarly the status of food securty depends on average Kcal per day consumed by all members of a household. Ths paper examnes the mpact of ncome dversfcaton on food securty status of the rural farmng households n Rajshah dstrct. For ths purpose a survey was conducted n dstrct Rajshah of Northern Bangladesh coverng three Upazlas wth 38 households. The Smpson Index of Dversty (SID), Food Securty Index and Bnary Logstc Regresson model are employed to analyze the data. To estmate the model data has been collected from sample households from three upazlas Putha, Paba and Mohonpur. The Smpson Index of Dversty (SID) s used to measure the extent of ncome dversfcaton and the Food Securty Index s used to measure the household food securty status. The results of SID revealed that dversfcaton of ncome sources (SID = 0.25) s very low and the value of the food securty ndex s 0 to. It s also found that the mean value of FSI s 0.9 for the food nsecure households whereas.06 s the mean value of FSI of food secure households. Three factors are found to be statstcally sgnfcant whch are age of household head, educatonal status of household and household sze. The analyss found that ncome dversfcaton has postve but nsgnfcant mpact on household food securty status n the study area. Fnally, the obtaned results have mportant polcy mplcatons whch mply that programs targeted to engage people n other ncome generatng actvtes would augment ther ncome sources whch are made to ncrease the food securty status of household level n Bangladesh. Keywords: Income Dversfcaton, Food Securty Index, Rural Households, Logstc Regresson, Northern Bangladesh. Introducton One of the fundamental rghts of the ctzens of Bangladesh s food securty for all whch s stpulated n the consttuton of the country. Food securty exsts when all people, at all tmes, have access to suffcent, safe and nutrtous food to mantan healthy and productve lves [57]. The key elements of food securty are avalablty of food from domestc producton and mports, access of the people to food all tmes at ther avalable ncome, and that the food ensures enough safety and nutrton to mantan good health. Bangladesh s an agrculture dependent country n South Asa wth a total populaton of around 60 mllons. The major source of lvelhood of the people of Bangladesh s agrculture. Bangladesh s blessed wth alluval sols and huge water resources of upstream flow, ranfall and groundwater. Ths has contrbuted to development and expanson of agrculture n the country. However, mbalance n avalablty of water n dfferent seasons s a barrer for ts proper utlzaton n crop farmng though wth an expanson of groundwater rrgaton system, a huge amount of food gran producton n dry season has promoted the country to

2 47 Tthy Dev et al.: Analyss of the Impact of Income Dversfcaton Strateges on Food Securty Status of Rural Households n Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rajshah Dstrct reach at a level of ts self-suffcency under favorable clmate [5]. Bangladesh has an advantage of growng dversfed crops n summer, monsoon and wnter seasons but the clmate often becomes unfavorable [45]. The crop farmng became ntensfed wth expanson of groundwater rrgaton and the croppng pattern remarkably changed after adopton of rce n wnter season. Gradually rsng pressure on groundwater became an ssue for food securty of ever growng populaton n the country. Moreover, ths lower rparan country of Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basn faced a paradoxcal stuaton of too much and too lttle water n dfferent seasons. Therefore, adopton of new crops wth larger ncome dversfcaton opportunty has mportant polcy mplcatons to uphold the food securty status of the rural households. At the natonal level, agrculture sector employs about 5% of the total labor force of the country and provdes over 90% of the rural employment [0]. Although the relatve share of agrculture n the GDP has been declnng n the recent past, t stll contrbutes around 9% to the total gross domestc product of the country []. However, rapd populaton growth, ncreased food demand, natural dsasters and urbanzaton are the man reasons whch have created tremendous pressure on agrcultural land, makng t an ncreasngly scarce resource. As a result agrcultural land per capta has been decreasng over the years n Bangladesh. Food securty, therefore, remaned as an mportant concern n Bangladesh and n the real sense, nearly 30% of the populaton stll cannot afford an adequate det [2]. As a remedy to these problems ntegrated rural development strategy along wth the Green Revoluton technologes have been adopted n last several years amng to reduce poverty through ncreasng agrcultural productvty n rural areas. However, ths approach has seen lmted success and lttle attenton was gven on ncome dversfcaton and ther mpacts on rural household food securty. In most cases ncome dversfcaton and food securty are closely related. Income dversfcaton can be acheved by producng a varety of crops or pursung off-farm employment. In case of the rural based developng countres, n addton to a rapd economc growth, a sustaned and wdespread growth n rural household ncome through dversfcaton of crops as well as adoptng off-farm actvtes s a necessary condton for any developmental strategy for rural areas [44]. Income dversfcaton also refers to an ncrease n the number of sources of ncome or the balance among the dfferent sources [35]. Food Securty s a stuaton n whch people do not lve n hunger or fear of starvaton. Two commonly used defntons of food securty come from the UN s Food and Agrculture Organzaton (FAO) and the Unted States Department of Agrculture (USDA): Food securty exsts when all people at all tmes have access to suffcent, safe and nutrtous food to meet ther detary needs and food preferences for an actve and healthy lfe (FAO). Food Securty for a household means access by all members at all tmes to enough food for an actve, healthy lfe. Food securty ncludes the mnmum avalablty of nutrtonally adequate and safe foods, an assured ablty to acqure acceptable foods n socally acceptable ways (USDA). After ndependence, sgnfcant changes n the volume and pattern of producton has been observed whch s manfested by a manfold ncrease n producton of dfferent crops as well as ntroducton of many new crops along wth some new varetes exstng n Rajshah regon. Moreover, over the past years farmers have been cultvatng many new crops wth rotaton n the same land. It was found that crop dversfcaton has happened n an unplanned and unscentfc ways whch would not brng any beneft for the rural households. Convertng the crop land to ponds or orchards has reduced the producton of cereal crops whch s acts as a barrer for achevng food self-suffcency. To solve ths problem more crtcal study s needed to dentfy the approprate dversfcaton of crops whch wll be helpful for future generaton. Focusng specfcally on Rajshah dstrct t s learnt that agrculture, lvestock and some farm related actvtes are the mportant sources of ncome for the people, especally for the landless and small landowners. Most of the households n the developng countres lke Bangladesh derve the bulk of ther ncome from a sngle source (Broad Agrculture Sector) but at present n rural areas of Bangladesh, dversfcaton nto non-farm ncome sources s growng over tme but stll the share of ths ncome s not accountable. It has found that an average non-farm ncome share to total ncome s 42% n Afrca, followed by 40% n Latn Amerca and 32% n Asa [53]. In Bangladesh, non-farm ncome source n rural areas dd not expand everywhere and for ths reason the share of non-farm ncome n Bangladesh s less than 32 percent. There s no substantal analyss found as to why non-farm ncome share s less n Bangladesh compared to that n Afrca and Latn Amerca. The development of new ncome sources has drect as well as ndrect mpact on mprovng the condton of food securty status of the rural households. Some households dversfy ther ncome through swtchng from farm to non-farm sources (for example, agrculture to garments sector) or wthn the farm sources (for example, crop cultvaton to lvestock or fsh cultvaton) for ther lvelhood. Food access depends upon ncome avalable to the households, on the dstrbuton of ncome wthn the households and on the prce of food. It s ensured when households and all ndvduals wthn them have adequate resources to obtan approprate foods for a nutrtous det. Therefore, the sources of ncome and ther relablty for a steady flow and relable amounts are mportant to ndvduals and households ensurng food. In Bangladesh, per capta ncome remaned low untl the end of the 980s due to slow growth n Gross Natonal Product (GNP) and hgh growth n populaton. Income growth accelerated snce 990 and t reached above 6.0% n the recent years. The per capta ncome of the people of Bangladesh s now US$ 34. It s ncreasngly beleved that dversfcaton of ncome

3 Amercan Journal of Theoretcal and Appled Busness 206; 2(4): sources of the households and wdenng of crops optons by the farmers durng cultvaton have postve mpact on the food securty level of rural households [3]. Evdence from varous studes also ndcates that f households have dversfed sources of ncome t ncreases ther total monthly ncome and ths has a postve mpact on food securty level of the households. Dversfcaton of ncome sources has been put forward as one of the strateges that households employ to mnmze household ncome varablty and to ensure a mnmum level of ncome dversfcaton whch reduces poverty and enhances the natonal food securty as well as the securty of rural farmers [6]. The objectves of the study are to examne the contrbuton of ncome dversfcaton strategy on household food securty and to dentfy the factors nfluencng the food securty status of households. 2. Lterature Revew Extended studes have been done on dfferent aspects and ssues of ncome dversfcaton and food securty. The lteratures are found to focus manly on measurng the level of household food securty and nvestgatng the determnants of food securty [8; 27; 39; 7; and 58], dscuss the ssue of poverty, nequalty and gender aspects of food securty [28; 34; 48; 3; 37; 5; 43; 46; 26; 49]. It showed that most households were nvolved n ncome dversfcaton actvtes such as petty tradng, mat makng and talorng [54; 4]. It examned the effects of ncome dversfcaton on poverty reducton [40; 55; 20; 2; 9; 7; 38]. They focused on emprcal relatonshp between ncome dversfcaton and ts welfare mpacts on rural household. Agan, t studed the mpact of ncome dversfcaton strategy on household food securty [3; 33]. The avalable lteratures whch the researcher has revewed are syntheszed n the followng sectons. The prevous study examned the determnants of ncome dversfcaton n rural farmng households n Konduga local Government Area of Borno State [4]. Both descrptve and multple regresson analyss were employed to acheve the objectves of the research. The result show that age, educatonal level of households head and ownershp of assets nfluence ncome dversfcaton whle household sze, access to loan and martal status dd not. Ths also shows that most households were nvolved n ncome dversfcaton actvtes such as petty tradng, mattng and talorng. To enhance ncome dversfcaton, t s mportant to mprove rural nfrastructure n terms of provson of electrcty and mprovng access to markets. It s found that there are two aspects of dversfcaton [54]. They used a Tobt model to evaluate the determnants of non farm ncome dversfcaton. Ths shows the soco-economc status and the access to formal fnancal markets have a postve mpact on ncome. As a measure of dversfcaton they appled the Shannon Equtablty ndex, whch ncreases wth the number of ncome source and ther evenness. They also shows the access to socal captal and the occurrence of crop falure both have a postve mpact on the Shannon Equtablty ndex, whereas the soco-economc status and the dstance to roads have a negatve nfluence. The study examned the determnants of ncome dversfcaton among rural households usng cross sectonal data collected from Feds Dstrct of Eastern Hararghe zone, Ethopa [40]. Multnatonal logt model was used to pnpont factors nfluencng households partcpaton n non-farm actvtes whle the determnants of non-farm ncome were analyzed by Tobt model. Partcpaton n non-farm employment actvtes and the level of ncome derved are found to be nfluenced by human captal related varables (gender and age of household head, number of economcally actve famly members, educaton level of household head and presence of chldren attendng school), lvelhood assets (lvestock holdng, sze of cultvated land), lvelhood dversfyng strategy (crop based dversfcaton through number of crops grown harvested) and nfrastructure related varable (proxmty to market). The results mply that these factors need to be consdered by polcy makers n the plannng of agrcultural and non agrcultural ntatves n ths study area. Earler study examned the food securty status of farmng households. The study appled a multstage random samplng technque to obtan a sample of 34 farm households [39]. The study exposed that 60% farmng households n the study area are food nsecure. The bnary logstc regresson results revealed that an ncrease n household s ncome, havng access to credt as well as ncrease n the quantty of own farm producton may have the probablty of mprovng the food securty status of farmng households n the study regon. It was examned the factors nfluencng food securty status of rural farmng households [8]. Usng the calore ntake approach, they found that 36% and 64% households n the study area are food secure and food nsecure, respectvely. In ther study, the shortfall or surplus ndex showed that the food nsecure households fell short of the recommended calore requrement by 38%, whle the food secure households exceeded the recommended calore ntake by 42%. They also used a logstc regresson model whch found that total annual ncome, household sze, educatonal status of household heads and quantty of food obtaned from own producton are the sgnfcant factors of food securty status of farmng households n the study area. The study nvestgated physcal and economc access to food n rural Bangladesh [5]. It revealed that even though 75% food producton comes from the rural areas, due to landlessness and some assocated factors, the small and margnal farmers n the rural areas are stll deprved from ther access to food. It was explored the nutrtonal status and food securty of farm households under dfferent land use patterns n Bangladesh [50]. The study revealed that households of alternate shrmp and rce farmng consumed the hghest amounts of food followed by year round shrmp farmng whereas the hghest per capta calore ntake was observed n households of alternate rce and wheat producton. The study of the progress of food and nutrton securty n Bangladesh

4 49 Tthy Dev et al.: Analyss of the Impact of Income Dversfcaton Strateges on Food Securty Status of Rural Households n Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rajshah Dstrct found that 40% populaton lve below the poverty lne and ncome nequalty has been worsenng whch affect food producton, avalablty of food and ther mpact on nutrton outcomes [28]. It was found a lnk between food nsecurty status of farmng households n Osun State of the southwestern Ngera to ther ncome dversfcaton strateges [3]. Households were classfed nto four categores based on how they obtan a lvng. Descrptve statstcs, Cost of Calore Functon (COC) and Analyss of Varance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Income dversfcaton strateges have sgnfcant nfluence on food nsecurty at x2<0.00. Households that depend more on off farm ncome ranked the best, The head count rato shows that 82% of ndvduals n ths group are food secure whle 8% are food nsecure. Results have shown that food nsecurty among farmng households n the study area was nfluenced by Income dversfcaton strateges. General Household Survey-panel data that adopt the World Bank Lvng Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) technque was used to look at the mpact of non-farm ncome generatng actvtes on food securty status among the rural household n Ngera [33]. A natonally representatve sample of 3380 rural households was explored n ths study. The results of the descrptve statstcs showed that 66.64% of the households were engaged n farmng as ther man occupaton. Ch-square analyss and t-test revealed that dversfed households were relatvely food secure than undversfed at 0.05% level of sgnfcance. The propensty score matchng technque that takes care of selecton bas and probt regresson analyss was employed to analyze the mpact of partcpaton n non-farm ncome generatng actvtes on food consumpton expendture and food securty. The result suggested that dversfed households had a hgh probablty of beng food securty than undversfed households. 3. Methodology The present study manly reles upon prmary data collected from the households of three upazlla Putha, Paba and Mohanpur from Rajshah dstrct n Bangladesh. Wth a vew to fulfllng the objectves of the present study of determnng the mpacts of ncome dversfcaton on food securty status of households and dentfyng the factors havng nfluence on food securty and drawng a comparson among the dfferent households belongng to dfferent lvng standard and dfferent socoeconomc characterstcs, the sample has been selected n such a way that t covers all such households. To dentfy the factors nfluencng the food securty status of the households, we carry out a two-stage of analyss. Frst, we construct Smpson Index of Dversty usng ncome sources and food securty ndex (Z) and second, we use a Logstc regresson model to estmate the food securty status of households as a functon of a set of ndependent varables ncludng ncome dversfcaton. 3.. The Smpson Index of Dversty It s generally found that the researchers have measured the level of ncome dversfcaton usng dfferent measurng ndces. Shannon equtablty ndex [54] and Composte Entropy Index (CEI) [] were used as a measure of dversfcaton. Herfndal Index of Dversfcaton was used to dentfy the level of ncome dversfcaton [9]. Some studes used Smpson ndex of dversty (SID) [50; 8; 30; 29; 32]. Thus, ths study used the Smpson ndex for measurng the level of ncome dversfcaton n the rural households of the study area. The Smpson ndex s expressed as follows; = () Where, P = proporton of ncome comng from source The value of SID always falls between 0 and. In case of ncome, f there s just one source of ncome p = so SID = 0. As the number of sources ncrease, the shares of p declnes, as does the sum of the squared shares, so that SID approaches. If there are k sources of ncome, then SID falls between zero and -/k. The closer the SID s to zero, the more the specalzaton, and the further t s from zero, mples the more dversfcaton Food Securty Index For measurng food securty status of households two methods have been wdely used n earler studes [4]. The frst method s called expendture method the ndex s: Food securty = (food expendture of th household two-thrd of the mean per capta food expendture of all study households) [48]. The second method s called calore ntake method [2; 47]. Daly calore ntake method s better than food expendture method because daly calore ntake method represents the actual food consumpton pattern of households. Therefore, ths study used the daly calore ntake method. Food securty status of each household s measured based on the food securty lne usng the daly calore ntake recommended [22]. The average daly calore requrement for a moderately actve adult s 2850 kcal and a safe mnmum daly ntake should not fall below 80% of the above calore requrement, whch means that the mnmum ntake should be about 2280 kcal per adult equvalent per day. Ths food securty lne s used n ths study after convertng of all household members nto adult equvalent unt [42; 56]. The formula for convertng all household members nto adult equvalent s as follows. ADEQ ( A C 0.9 = 0.5 ) (2) Where, ADEQ = Adult equvalent unt, A = Number of adults above the age of 5 years, C = Number of chldren below the age of 5 years n a household. There are two steps to construct a food securty ndex such as dentfcaton and aggregaton [36; 6]. Identfcaton s the process of defnng a mnmum level of food necessary to mantan a healthy lfe and ths s known as the food securty

5 Amercan Journal of Theoretcal and Appled Busness 206; 2(4): lne whch s 2280 kcal. Aggregaton s the process of dervng the food securty statstcs for the households. The household daly calore ntake s obtaned from the questonnare and from there the quantty of food consumed by the household s estmated n the 7 days perod. The quanttes are converted to gram and the calore content s estmated by usng the nutrent composton table of commonly eaten foods n Bangladesh [23; 9]. Weekly per capta calore s calculated by dvdng estmated total household calore ntake by the famly sze (all adult equvalent) and to get the household s daly per capta calore ntake we dvded the household s per capta calore ntake by seven [8]. A household whose daly per capta calore ntake s at least 2280 kcal s regarded as food secure, whle those wth less than 2280 kcal are food nsecure. The food securty ndex as appled [2] s gven by the formula as F = Y R (3) / Where, F =Food securty ndex = Food securty status of th household Y = Daly per capta calore ntake of the th household R = Recommended per capta daly calore ntake (2280 kcal per day per adult equvalent). When, F, the th household wll be food secure [Y R] F <, the th household wll be food nsecure [Y < R] A food secure household s that whose daly per capta calore ntake s above or on the recommended per capta daly calore ntake lne. On the other hand, a food nsecure household s that whose daly per capta calore ntake falls below the recommended per capta daly calore ntake lne. Based on F, other related measures are calculated and these are the HCR (head count rato), shortfall/surplus ndex (P), and the food nsecurty gap [2; 22; 47]. The Headcount Rato (HCR) Index The head count rato measures the fracton of the populaton who are food secure or food nsecure and t s calculated as: M HCR = (4) N Where, HCR = Head count rato M = Total number of food nsecure households N = Total study households The Shortfall or Surplus Index (P) A household may consume more or less than recommended calores whch s necessary to lead a healthy lfe. The shortfall or surplus ndex measures the extent to whch households are above or below the food securty lne. The shortfall or surplus ndex s measured by the followng formula. P = M m G n n = Where, M = the number of nsecure (or secure) households G n = Per capta calore ntake defcency (or surplus) of the (5) n th household G n = (Y n R)/R [Y n s actual calore ntake by households and R s recommended ntake 3.3. The Logstc Regresson Model Logstc regresson analyss s based on predctng a bnary dependent outcome from a set of ndependent varables. When the dependent varable s bnary, the lnear probablty model (LPM), Logt and Probt models can be used [52; 24]. The Logt model s usually used n preference to the probt [25]. Snce the dependent varable s dchotomous, the present study has appled the Logstc regresson model to analyze the relatonshp between the dependent (food securty ndex) and explanatory varables (determnants of food securty). Let, the probablty that a household s food secure can be wrtten as P = E (Y=/ X ) = β β 2 X Where, X s the ndependent varable and Y= means that the household s food secure. The formulaton of the regresson starts as follows: p = Ε( Υ = ) Χ = e ( Z) = β β Χ) e ( 2 (6) Where, Z = β β 2 X Ths equaton (Equaton 5) s known as the (cumulatve) Logstc dstrbuton functon. Here p s the probablty of the th household beng food secure, and (-p ), s the probablty of the household not beng secure n food It can be wrtten that, p p = p p e e = e z ( Z ( Z Where, s the odds rato n favor of beng food secure of a household,.e. the rato of the probablty that a household s secure n food to the probablty that the household n not secure n food. To fnd an approprate functon, t s convenent to start wth the earler logstc functon and modfy t. Takng natural log the logstc functon, Equaton 6 can be wrtten as L ln[ P / P ] = β β 2 X ) ) (7) = (8) That s, the log of the odds rato s not only lnear n X but also lnear n the parameters. L s called the Logt. As Z ranges from - to, p ranges between 0 and and p s non-lnearly related to Z (.e. X ), one cannot apply OLS

6 5 Tthy Dev et al.: Analyss of the Impact of Income Dversfcaton Strateges on Food Securty Status of Rural Households n Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rajshah Dstrct technque to estmate the parameters. Therefore, the Maxmum Lkelhood method s used to estmate the parameters of the model Emprcal Specfcaton Based on the household food securty ndex (F ), the logt model s estmated to fnd the effects of the factors of food securty at the household level. The model used food securty status of households as a dchotomous dependent varable. The emprcal relatonshp between dependent varable and explanatory varables s specfed usng the followng relatonshp. L = ln[ P / P ] β GHH β OL µ 7 8 = β β ID 2 β AHH 3 β ESHH 4 β HS 5 β FS 6 (9) Where, L s the log odds rato n favor of beng a household secure n food, (ID) ncome dversfcaton, (AHH) age of household head, (ESHH) educaton level of household head, (HS) household sze, (FS) farm sze of the household, (GHH) gender of household head, (OL) owned lvestock, (QCP) quantty of cereal producton. β s constant, β 2, β 3,..β 9 are regresson coeffcents and u s the random error term. The coeffcents of the regresson model are estmated by applyng the maxmum lkelhood estmaton (MLE) technque Selecton of the Study Area and Collecton of Data A multstage samplng technque s used to select the households that are ntervewed. The frst stage nvolved the selecton of upazla from whch respondent households are selected. Ths s done by usng purposve samplng technque, where the dstrcts are grouped nto northern part of Bangladesh. The second stage nvolved the selecton of unons and vllages from the selected dstrcts usng smple random samplng. Ths s acheved wth the help of recorded nformaton by the dstrcts. Ths stage nvolved a random selecton of three upazlas from the selected dstrcts, gvng one unon from each of the three selected upazlas, gvng a total of nne vllages and fnally, three vllages from each selected unon. The selected upazlas are Putha (Puthaunon), Paba (Horan unon) and Mohanpur (Mougas unon) of Rajshah dstrct. The thrd and fnal stage s the selecton of the households whch are ntervewed. For collectng the data, a multstage random samplng technque s used. Sources from the dstrct level offce of agrculture showed that, about 90% of the households n the study area depend on farmng. After lstng the farmers n each vllage, a total of 38 respondents were randomly selected from the vllages usng smple random samplng procedure. Durng the data collecton, a well structured questonnare was used where questons were focused on the above mentoned varables. 4. Results and Dscusson 4.. Income Dversfcaton Strateges and Food Securty Status of the Respondents The people n the study area manly earn ther ncome from farmng, petty tradng, wage labor, servce, constructon labor, and truck, rckshaw, van puller etc. However, most of the people n the study area are nvolved n agrculture. Households were classfed nto fve categores based on how they obtan ther lvng. Fve ncome dversfcaton strateges were dentfed among the households, namely, farmng, petty busness, wage labor, servce and others (truck drvng, rckshaw and van pullng etc). Majorty of the households 59.42% household members derved ther lvelhood by farmng. About 5.94% of the households are engaged n petty busness. The people who have no land to grow agrcultural products support ther famly by wage labor. It s found that.59% members of the households n the study area earn ncome through wage labor. Another mportant source of ncome s servce n publc and prvate organzaton but the percentage s very low that s 7.97%. In addton, drvng vehcles, pullng rckshaw, and van are also found as ncome sources of the study household. Around 5.08% members of the study households earn ncome as truck drver, and rckshaw and van puller. Table shows household food securty status by ncome dversfcaton strateges n three selected Upazlas. Accordng to the above table household that have more dversfed sources of ncome are more food secured. The level of dversfcaton has three dfferent categores ndcates low dversfcaton, ndcates moderate dversfcaton and ndcates hgh dversfcaton. The households who fall n the low dversfcaton zone among them 3 (0.4%) are food secured where 44 (0.59%) are food nsecure. Smlarly n the moderate dversfcaton zone 23 (0.47%) are food secured and 26 (0.53%) are food nsecure. But n case of hgher dversfcaton the rate of food secured household (0.79%) s hgher than the food nsecure household 3 (0.2%). Among the total sample household about 65 (0.47%) households are food secured where 75 (0.53%) households are food nsecure. Ths s because the average value of ncome dversfcaton ndex n the study area s 0.25 whch s very low Household Food Securty Status by Income Dversfcaton Strateges The shortfall and surplus ndex of food secured and nsecured households of the study area are also represented n Table. The shortfall and surplus ndex of total study area are 8.90 and 6.30 whch ndcate that the food nsecured households falls below the food securty lne by about 8.90% and the food secured households le above the food securty lne by 6.30%. In case of Putha Upazlla, the calculated

7 Amercan Journal of Theoretcal and Appled Busness 206; 2(4): shortfall ndex s.00 and surplus ndex s 6.90 whch ndcate that the food nsecured households fall below the food securty lne by about % and the food secured household exceed the food securty lne by only 6.90%. From Table t s found that n Paba Upazlla the food nsecured household fall below the food securty lne by 3.60% whereas food secured households stay above the food securty lne by 5.40%. Agan, n Mohanpur Upazlla the food nsecured households fall below the food securty lne by about 5.7%, whle the food secured households exceed the food securty lne by 5.8%. Based on the level of consumpton of food t s possble to fnd whether a household s secured n food. On the bass of feld survey data collected from three Upazlla of northern Bangladesh a food consumpton ndex s calculated whch enabled us to understand whether an ndvdual s secured n the avalablty of food. Table presents the mean of food consumpton of an ndvdual of sample households n the study area measured n kcal. From Table t s found that the mean value of food securty ndex s 0.98 n the study area whereas the value of food securty ndex s 0.97 and.0 of the Putha, Paba and Mohanpur Upazlla for the sample households. From Table t s found that the average per capta calore ntake n the area s kcal. Based on the recommended daly calore ntake of suggested [22], an ndvdual s secured n food f he/she can consume 2280 kcal per day. Therefore, t s clear that study ndvduals of sample households are almost secured n the avalablty of food on the average. Agan, form the dsaggregated analyss t s observed that the average calore ntake of ndvduals of the household of Putha Upazlla s kcal ndcatng that the ndvduals of the upazllas are not secured n food on an average. The mean calore ntake of the ndvduals of Paba Upazlla s 2303 kcal whch ndcates that the households of the upazllas are nsecured n the avalablty of food. The daly mean calore ntake of ndvduals of the households of Mohanpur Upazlla s 2300 kcal whch s lower than the daly calore ntake suggested by FAO. Therefore, the people of Mohapur are nsecured n food on an average. Table. Upazlawse Households Food Securty status by Income Dversfcaton Strateges. LD ( ) MD ( ) HD ( ) Total Putha Food Secured Household (HCR) 20 (0.42) (0.38) 6 (0.67) 37 (0.43) Food Insecured Household (HCR) 28 (0.58) 8 (0.62) 3 (0.33) 49 (0.57) Total Mean Kcal (Value of FSI) (0.97) Mean Kcal of Food Secured Household (Value of FSI) (.07) Mean Kcal of Food Insecured Household (Value of FSI) (0.89) Surplus Index (Shortfall Index) 6.90% (.00%) Paba Food Secured Household (HCR) 7 (0.44) 7 (0.54) 2 () 6 (0.52) Food Insecured Household (HCR) 9 (0.56) 6 (0.46) 0 5 (0.48) Total Mean Kcal (Value of FSI) 2303 (.0) Mean Kcal of Food Secured Household (Value of FSI) (.05) Mean Kcal of Food Insecured Household (Value of FSI) (0.90) Surplus Index (Shortfall Index) 5.40% (3.60%) Mohanpur Food Secured Household (HCR) 4 (0.58) 5 (0.83) 3 () 2 (0.57) Food Insecured Household (HCR) 7 (0.42) 2 (0.7) 0 9 (0.43) Total Mean Kcal (Value of FSI) 2300 (.0) Mean Kcal of Food Secured Household (Value of FSI) 243 (.06) Mean Kcal of Food Insecured Household (Value of FSI) (0.94) Surplus Index (Shortfall Index) 5.8% 95.7%) Total Sample Household Food Secured Household (HCR) 3 (0.4) 23 (0.47) (0.79) 65 (0.47) Food Insecured Household (HCR) 44 (0.59) 26 (0.53) 3 (0.2) 73 (0.53) Total Mean Kcal (Value of FSI) (0.98) Mean Kcal of Food Secured Household (Value of FSI) (.06) Mean Kcal of Food Insecured Household (Value of FSI) (0.9) Surplus Index (Shortfall Index) 6.30% (8.90%) Source: Author s Own Calculaton The daly calore ntake of food secured households s hgher compared to food nsecured households. Therefore, the daly mean calore ntake s measured separately for food secured and food nsecured households. The daly mean

8 53 Tthy Dev et al.: Analyss of the Impact of Income Dversfcaton Strateges on Food Securty Status of Rural Households n Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rajshah Dstrct calore ntake of food secured households s gven n Table. From Table t s observed that the average calore ntake of food secured households n the study area s kcal. However ths mean calore ntake s kcal for Putha Upazlla, for Paba Upazlla and 243 kcal for Mohanpur Upazlla. From Table t s also found that the mean value of food securty ndex s.06 n the study area whereas the value of food securty ndex s.07,.05 and.06 of the Putha, Paba and Mohanpur Upazlla for the food secured households. The households whose members consume 2250 kcal or less than 2250 kcal of food daly are consdered as food nsecured households. Table shows that the average calore ntake per day s less than 2280 kcal. The mean calore ntake of food nsecured household n the study area s kcal. Ths fgure s lowest for Putha (2028.6) compared to kcal for Paba and kcal for Mohanpur. From Table t s found that the mean value of food securty ndex s 0.9 n the study area whereas the value of food securty ndex s 0.89, 0.90 and 0.94 of the Putha, Paba and Mohanpur Upazlla for food nsecured households. Ths result suggests that the people who lve below the benchmark of kcal ntake n study area cannot afford enough food for ther famles because of not havng enough famly ncome sources earned from farm, off farm and non-farm sectors Regresson Results Table 2. Regresson Result of All Sample Area. The estmaton results of the logstc regresson analyss are presented n Table 2. Ths result manly justfes the relaton between ncome dversfcaton and household food securty n Rajshah dstrct of Bangladesh. From the table, t s observed that three varables out of seven ncluded n the regresson model are statstcally sgnfcant, whch are age of household head, educatonal status of household and household sze. However, ncome dversfcaton, farm sze, gender of household head and owned lvestock are not statstcally sgnfcant. Table 2 revealed that R-squared s whch means that 52% of varaton n food securty s explaned by the consdered explanatory varables. Varable Coeffcent Std. Error t-value Prob. C ID AHH.053*** ESHH.02766*** HS.244*** FS GHH OL R-squared=0.525, Adj. R-squared = Source: Author s own calculaton. Note: *** Sgnfcant at % level; ** Sgnfcant at 5% level; * Sgnfcant at 0% level One of the mportant fndngs of ths study s that ncome dversfcaton has postve but nsgnfcant mpact on household food securty n Rajshah Dstrct. Ths s contrary to the pror expectaton. The reasons are, frstly, the study s conducted n rural areas of Rajshah dstrct, where the people have no dea about extent and strategy of ncome dversfcaton, so that, the average value of ncome dversfcaton s very low n the study area. Secondly, most of the people of the study area are workng n the agrcultural sector and t s the major sources of ncome of the people. Due to lack of ndustral and servce sectors, there s lmted scope to dversfy ther sources of ncome. 5. Concluson and Recommendaton Income Dversfcaton s consdered as the most mportant strategy for rasng ncome and food securty status n Bangladesh. From the above fndngs t s clear that ncome dversfcaton has sgnfcant mpacts on households food securty status n Rajshah Dstrct. However, the extent of ncome dversfcaton s comparatvely low n the study area. The reason behnd ths s that most of the people lvng n the rural area are vulnerable as they depend only on agrculture related actvtes for ther lvelhood and they are subject to dfferent types of rsks (natural dsaster) lke drought, scarcty of rrgaton water, non-avalablty of other ncome sources, etc. Although, forestry, gardenng, fsh culture, lvestock rearng and petty busness are the new sources of ncome emerged to the rural households, these actvtes are mostly run by the rch farmers. Usng the food securty ndex, the mean value of FSI (0.98) ndcates that households n the study are not food secure. Secondly, the mpact of dfferent factors on food securty s analyzed on the bass of regresson analyss and t s found that age of household head, educatonal status of household and household sze are sgnfcant factors that affect the food securty of households n the study area. Ths result means that change n these factors results n changes n the status of food securty of the households n the study area. However, ncome dversfcaton has postve but nsgnfcant mpact on household food securty that s contrary to the pror expectaton. The reasons are, frstly, the people have no dea about extent and strategy of ncome dversfcaton, so that, the

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