Food Security Determinants of Qashqai Nomadic Households in Fars Province

Food security has a significant role in measuring the quality of people’s lives and is an essential index for evaluating economic development. It is the cornerstone of the developed society's intellectual, mental, and physical health. Meanwhile, Qashqai tribe nomadic households based on pastoral livelihood produce 30% of country’s red meat and have important roles in food security. While the study of food security of these households to achieve the quality of their life has less attended. This study evaluated th food security of Fars Qashqai tribe nomadic households with the largest nomadic population in two sections. At first food security of Qashqai tribe nomadic households was determind by FCS index and finally determinants of food security were determined

Method

Using Random sampling and 250 questionnaires from the studied households in 2021 were achieved .The FCS index determined was calculated and determinants of food security were determined using the order logit model.

Result

The results of food security by FCS index indicated that 33.6% of the households have high food security, 29.2% low food security, and 37.2% suffer from food insecurity. Also, with the increase of FCS, the share of dairy products, animal proteins, and legumes in households' diets increased, and sugars and fats shares in the diet decreased. Fish consumption was observed only in the group of high food security households. Therefore, these households pay most attention to improving the quality of the diet. Vegetables and fruits have the lowest share in all three food security groups, but in the high food security, dairy products, and the low food security and insecurity households, basic foods, including cereals and starches, have the largest share in the household food basket. The results of the food security determinants by ologit model showed that the variables of income, number of livestock, income diversity, access to infrastructure, head of household education, personal vehicle, and percentage of people educated in the household directly have related to food security. The variables of household size, dependency ratio, and distance from the nomadic area to the food market are inversely related to household food security. The marginal effects of variables indicate that income diversity (-0.149) and access to infrastructure (-0.132) have the most positive impact, and the variables of dependency ratio (0.181) and household dimension (0.094) have the most negative impact on the food security of these households.

Discussion

Developing and increasing access to key infrastructures such as sustainable water, electricity, mobile health homes, and mobile phones is proposed in policies and planning for this community. Improving the level of education and promoting and developing non-livestock occupations to diversify income will also help increase the food security of these productive households.