Food security status in rural areas of Mizoram, Northeast India

01/04/2017

Abstract Rural areas of the Mizoram state, India practice subsistence agriculture where shifting cultivation dominates the farming systems. As a result, output from crops is very low and thus, the rural areas suffer from food insecurity. This paper analyses food security status in the rural areas of Mizoram and suggests the measures to attain food security. A case study of 16 villages, lying in all the eight districts of Mizoram, was conducted in 2014 and 1527 households (76%) out of total 2010 households were surveyed through purposive random sampling method. Structured questionnaire was constructed and questions on three food security components and 13 indicators were asked. We used Z score technique to calculate data and finally got a composite score of all the components of food security. Our result shows that food availability in the study villages is very less as composite score stands for 0.003 whereas food accessibility is comparatively higher, mainly due to availability of fair price shops (mean value is one), high agricultural working population (40.1%) and high literacy rate (70.6%). Therefore, its composite score is 0.236. Food stability scores only -0.062 and finally overall food security stands for 0.178, which is inadequate. We have suggested that ‘system rice intensification’, which is already in practice, should be given priority. Adequate irrigation facilities, proper public distribution system, cultivation of fruits and vegetables, value addition in farm products and access to market may achieve food security.