An Examination of Household Poverty Affecting Food Insecurity in Turkey (Mus Province)

Abstract

Quality of life in a society depends on the extent to which people’s basic needs have been met. Having access to foodstuff is one of the basic human needs. Following globalization in the second half of the 20th Century, although the level of affluence is claimed to have increased all over, inadequacy of food and its access, is not only a problem in underdeveloped countries, but also in developed and developing countries. This study attempts to determine the extent of food insecurity in Turkey, which is considered a developing country. With this aim in mind, the study was carried out on households in Malazgirt county of Muş province and its villages in the Eastern Anatolia region, where poverty is very intensely experienced (both in urban and rural areas). In order to collect data, “United States Household Food Insecurity Access Scale” (HFIAS) was used. Based on this study, 71.0% of the sample group accepts “extreme hunger food insecurity” rarely, 16.8% accepted “partial hunger food insecurity” rarely and 12.2% frequently accepted “slight (without hunger) food insecurity”. In this study, the relation between food insecurity was also examined. It was determined that women accepted food insecurity without hunger (p<0.001) and with partial hunger (p<0.01) more compared to males. It was found that food insecurity was strongly related to all income levels (p<0.001). On the other hand, monthly food expense was partially related (p<0.05) with hunger. It was determined that food insecurity with extreme hunger was experienced more intensively as the number of household increased (p<0.05).