Distribution by region Afghanistan - National Risk and Vulnerability Survey 2011-2012, Living Conditions Survey NRVA 2011 12 report

61 FOOD SECURITY Table 7.4: Households, by livelihood group, asset holding and food insecurity in percentages Livelihood activity Percentage engaged in activity of which with poor asset holding food insecure Borrowing 3 55 57 Food processing, street market sales and other service work 5 29 30 Shepherding and Zakat 4 61 30 Shopkeepersmall business and other trade 11 20 29 Remittances and rental income 3 38 29 Other wage labour 21 63 28 Carpet weaving, sewing and other handcraft 3 42 27 Military, police and security 5 33 26 Production and sale of livestock 5 46 26 Production and sale of ield crops 15 41 26 Teacher and government ofice work 6 23 25 Doctor, medical worker, non-Government, NGO, UN work 4 15 25 Taxitransport 8 17 25 Mechanics, road construction and other production work 2 29 25 Agricultural wage labour 4 71 23 Production and sales of orchard products 2 21 22 Production and sale of opium and opium labour 1 17 12 Total 100 40 28

7.5.2 Characterization by asset ownership

Households dependent on agricultural wage labour, other wage labour, shepherding and borrowing are among those with the highest proportion of asset poverty. However, the ownership of household assets such as refrigerators, bicycles, tractors, etc., does not seem to closely correlate with the level of food insecurity, as some of these livelihood groups have a high percentage of households with poor asset holding, yet the proportion of food-insecure households among them is relatively low. For example, 71 percent of households dependent on agricultural wage labour are asset poor, while the percentage of food-insecure households among them is as low as 23 percent. Meanwhile, households dependent on the production and sale of opium and on opium labour have the second lowest proportion of the asset poor at 17 percent, and also have the lowest food insecurity rate at 12 percent Table 7.4.

7.5.3 Characterization by demographics

Food insecurity tends to increase with household size. Households with more than eight members are more food- insecure than smaller households with less than three people Table 7.5. This trend is similar across all population groups. The age of the household head does not seem to be related to food insecurity status, except among the Kuchi where households headed by adults under 19 years of age tend to be more food insecure. This could be related to lower livestock ownership among young household heads. On marital status of the household head, the widowed and divorced in urban and rural areas tend to be more food insecure compared to other groups.