Factores que contribuem para a segurança alimentar e nutricional dos agregados familiares do distrito de Meconta, província de Nampula

Abstract

Ensuring Food and Nutrition Security in Mozambique, especially in rural areas, where there are higher levels of Food and Nutrition Insecurity is one of the biggest challenges at the present time. The design and implementation of effective measures to improve Food and Nutrition Security depends on a thorough knowledge of its covariates. O study was undertaken to assess the main socio-economic and demographic factors demographic factors affecting (positively or negatively) the Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) of the FAs in Meconta district. Specifically, FNS was described through the availability, access and utilization (availability, access and utilization), using descriptive statistics descriptive statistics and identified the main factors that contribute (negatively or positively) to FNS, as well as the positively) to FNS, and the level and type of contribution of socioeconomic and demographic socio-economic and demographic variables using the logit model. We used data from AVASAN Post-Harvest 2021 from SETSAN, with a sample of 96 FAs. The evidence indicated that about 69% of the FAs had food reserves and the reserves of many FAs lasted between 1 and 3 months. The access indicators, revealed that most of the FAs (about 92%) were classified as having an acceptable diet, and few FAs adopted coping strategies coping strategies related to food consumption. Regarding utilization, it was found that there were not good sanitary conditions, as many FAs (60%) did not had access to safe water sources, 97% did not have improved latrines and 94% did not treat water for consumption. Binary logistic regression revealed that of the 9 variables included in the model, only gender, education level and marital status of the household head, as well as family size were family size were the factors significantly associated with Food and Nutrition Security at Nutrition, at 5% level of significance (α = 0.05). The marginal effects indicated that, the probability of experiencing FNS in a household whose leader is married decreases by 6% on average; the probability of a HF experiencing SAN increases by 9% on average when the head of the HF is male; the probability of experiencing SAN in a household increases on average by 50% when the head of the household is educated; finally, the probability of a household experiencing SAN decreases on average 10% as the size of the household increases. However, it is recommended to strengthen of food reserves, the creation of optimal conditions of food conservation and sanitation, the adherence of household heads to adult education, non-discrimination of women and the adoption of family planning methods to minimise family size. (TRADUÇAO NOSSA)