The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food security status of the Banda district in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. The study area was chosen because this region is facing consecutive droughts since one and a half decades and nearly four-fifth of the population in the district is rural and engaged in agricultural and allied activities. Thus there was a serious shortage of food at the household level. The study is mainly based on the primary sources of data. The suitable household sample was chosen by multi-stage stratified random sampling technique. The methodology employed to group the households into severe food insecure, moderately severe food insecure and least severe food insecure is the composite z-score index. Composite z-score has been obtained on the basis of extent, depth and severity of food insecurity in the study area. The study shows that the extent of food security is alarming because three out of sixteen villages were suffering from severe food insecurity, eleven villages were experiencing moderately severe food insecurity and two villages were experiencing least severe food insecurity.
Food insecurity, Hunger, Drought, Bundelkhand region
