Developing Food Security Index for Vulnerable Sections of Rural Households in the Perambalur District of Tamil Nadu

In the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the proportion of undernourished people in developing countries has been largely constant since the mid-1990s. Further, the growing populations have strained international food markets and this would lead to rising food prices and increasing price volatility. Improving food security ought to be an issue of great importance for India where one-third of the population is estimated to be absolutely poor and one-half of children were malnourished. The present study focuses on developing a food security index for the vulnerable rural households of Perambalur district in Tamil Nadu. Findings have revealed that food security is highly influenced by food availability, food access and food consumption. It was found about 87.02 per cent of cereals in the food basket was subsidized and it was high among agricultural labourers (93.82 per cent) followed by farmers (87.05 per cent) and non-agricultural labourers (75.67 per cent). Vegetables and milk were found accounting for a maximum share (47 per cent) in the food expenditure basket. Overall the food security index was found to be 72.82 and it was comparatively low among non-agricultural labourers (51.54). Further, it was found that income inequality was comparatively higher than consumption inequality implies that consumption pattern does not affected by the income pattern of rural households.