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because most commodities are purchased from the market, an easier access to commodities, as well as the higher cash income levels
– and, therefore, a better purchasing power – compared to rural areas and among the Kuchi
.
Apart from limited purchasing power to afford protein-rich and micronutrient- rich foods, poor dietary habits due to limited nutrition awareness of the importance of vegetables and
fruits may also likely play a role in the commonly low consumption of vegetables among the rural and Kuchi households where vegetables are believed to be cultivated and available many months a year.
Households in some regions of Afghanistan are particularly prone to poor dietary diversity. The reasons for this probably relate to issues of availability, security and access. In the central highlands,
northeast and west regions, more than half of the population consume a diet of minimal diversity. More than 70 percent of households in Badakhshan, Daykundi, Ghor, Bamyan and Badghis provinces
consume diets with low dietary diversity.
Table 8.7: Dietary Diversity Score mean and percentage of households with low dietary diversity and lack of consumption of selected food groups, by residence and region and sex of household head
Residence and region Dietary
Low In the past week household
and sex of household Diversity
Dietary did not consume any
head Score
Diversity meateggs
dairy vegetables
Score Mean
Percentage Percentage
Percentage Percentage
National 5.0
36.4 32.4
36.0 36.5
Residence Urban
5.7 20.0
21.6 40.4
14.8 Rural
4.8 41.7
35.7 36.1
43.6 Kuchi
5.0 40.8
36.6 12.5
40.7 Region
Central 5.7
19.7 23.0
35.9 18.2
Central Highland 4.3
55.7 45.4
32.4 75.5
Eastern 5.7
16.1 34.0
25.5 8.7
North 5.0
37.7 21.3
38.7 44.2
North-east 4.5
54.2 45.0
39.5 55.4
South-east 5.3
30.7 46.1
30.4 11.9
South-west 5.4
28.2 33.9
39.4 10.7
West 4.5
52.0 30.8
38.7 53.0
Sex of household head Male
5.1 36.2
32.2 35.8
36.3 Female
4.1 63.2
48.2 54.1
55.1
8.6.2 Food Consumption Score FCS
As explained in section 8.1, the Food Consumption Sore FCS combines food diversity and food frequency the number of days each food group is consumed, weighted by the relative nutritional
importance of different food groups. Nationally, only 41 percent of the households were found to have acceptable food consumption, while
23 percent have poor food consumption and 36 percent borderline food consumption
Table 8.8.
Households with borderline food consumption are vulnerable to slipping into the poor food
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consumption group if their situation were to deteriorate. By the same token there is an opportunity to raise their level to acceptable consumption with the right set of interventions.
Kuchi households have relatively better food consumption than households in urban and rural areas, with a lower proportion of poor consumption households 11 percent than among the urban 16
percent and rural counterparts 26 percent. There are substantial differences in terms of food consumption by region. North-east and central
highlands regions have higher levels of poor food consumption, with more than one third of households having poor food consumption. The proportion of poor food consumption households is substantially
higher among female-headed households compared to male-headed households 51 percent and 23 percent, respectively.
Table 8.8: Households, by food consumption group, and by residence and region and sex of household head in percentages
Residence and region Poor
Borderline Acceptable
and sex of household =28
28 - 42 42
head National
23.1 35.9
41.1 Residence
Urban 16.1
38.1 45.8
Rural 26.3
34.8 38.9
Kuchi 11.0
39.4 49.6
Region Central
12.1 40.2
47.6 Central Highland
33.3 26.4
40.3 Eastern
3.8 41.0
55.2 North
28.9 37.5
33.6 North-east
38.1 28.6
33.3 South-east
20.9 40.1
39.0 South-west
24.9 40.4
34.7 West
25.6 33.2
41.2 Sex of household head
Male 22.8
35.9 41.3
Female 51.4
28.0 20.5
Households with a poor consumption patterns tend to eat almost no fruits, dairy products and meateggs, and nutrient-rich foods such as pulses only occasionally. Their diet predominantly consists
of wheat, oil and sugar only. Households with borderline consumption eat fruits, dairy products, meateggs and pulses on average one day a week of each item. Households with acceptable food
consumption eat meateggs and pulses approximately two days per week, while dairy products four days a week
Table 8.9
.
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Table 8.9: Average number of days of protein consumption in the household, by food consumption group
Food consumption Average number of days household consumed
group protein-foods during past 7 days
Meateggs Dairy product
Meateggs or Pulses
dairy product Total
1.3 2.4
3.3 1.3
Poor =28 0.4
0.2 0.6
0.5 Borderline 28 - 42
1.1 1.4
2.4 1.2
Acceptable 42 2.0
4.5 5.8
1.8
It should be emphasised that it is not possible to assess trend information for the FCS, although the FCS was reported in the NRVA 2011-12 report. This is due to substantial differences in the food
security module between the ALCS 2014 and the NRVA 2011-12 and the way the data for the FCS were collected. The data are therefore not comparable and the conclusion that the food security
situation has significantly deteriorated or improved on the basis of the FCS calculation is not valid. To allow trend analysis of the FCS it is recommended to include a standard FCS module in each ALCS
data collection round.
8.6.3 Household Hunger Scale HHS
