Agricultural Economics Research Review

UGC CARE (Group 1)
  • Year: 2019
  • Volume: 32
  • Issue: conf

Vulnerability of rural households to food and nutritional insecurity in arid regions of India: some evidence from Rajasthan

1ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi-110012, India

2Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari-396450, Gujarat, India

Abstract

Using data on household consumption we have examined the incidence of vulnerability of rural households to poverty and nutritional insecurity in the state of Rajasthan, a large part of which is arid. Our findings show that ex ante poverty is less (7.7%) than ex post poverty (12.4%). Surprisingly, there appears to be a disconnect between poverty and undernourishment; the incidence of nutritional insecurity is much higher than the incidence of poverty. However, there are significant regional differences; households in the southern region, and non-agricultural and socially disadvantaged households, are more vulnerable to poverty and nutritional insecurity.

Keywords

Undernourishment, poverty, vulnerability to expected poverty (VEP), vulnerability to expected undernourishment (VEU)