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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.
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Table 7.5: Percentage of food-insecure households, by residence, and by selected household characteristics
Household characteristic Residence
Urban Rural
Kuchi National
Household size
1-2 members 13
11 11
3-5 members 25
21 18
21 6-8 members
37 27
26 29
More than 8 members 36
32 29
33 Age of head
of household Less than 20
23 18
62 23
20-44 32
24 21
26 45-64
36 31
26 32
65 and more 30
31 28
30 Marital status
of head of household
Married 32
27 23
28 Divorced or widowed
49 33
40 37
Never married 37
19 46
26
7.6 Seasonality and food insecurity 7.6.1 Afghan calendar seasonal differences
There is wide variability in the seasonal agricultural pattern in Afghanistan, particularly in areas where food availability from production relies heavily on access to irrigation. Hence, the agricultural production seasons and harvest periods
vary considerably across the country, with some areas cultivating two crops spring and winter. Wheat production comprises 78 percent of all cereal production, based on an 11-year average MAIL 2012. With this seasonal diversity,
some areas experience an interval of up to ive months between winter and spring harvests of wheat and maize, whilst in other areas the interval is less than three months. This wide variation results in differences in the start and length of the
pre-harvest lean season, harvest and post-harvest periods that ultimately have an impact on food availability, markets and food security.
In the Afghanistan calendar, Spring lasts from 21 March to 21 June; Summer from 22 June to 22 September; Autumn from 23 September to 21 December; and Winter from 22 December to 20 March. Food insecurity varies slightly within
these periods of the year. Overall food insecurity was estimated at 27 percent in the spring of 2011 and declined to 22 percent in the summer of 2011, before climbing to a peak of 29 percent in the winter of 2011. The high food insecurity
in 2011 was likely associated with the below average harvest that year, caused by a severe drought, especially in 14 provinces of the northern belt of the country. The level of food insecurity further deteriorated to 32 percent in the spring
of 2012 before improving to 28 percent in summer of 2012.
Seasonal differences also occur across the rural and urban areas, with a higher proportion of the population being food insecure in spring and winter in urban areas 35 percent and 33 percent, respectively Figure 7.2. A similar higher
proportion of food insecurity 31 percent is reported in spring in rural areas. Food insecurity signiicantly declines in spring for the Kuchi population compared to the urban and rural areas over the same period, which is probably due to
a better availability of dairy products in spring. In general, the variability of food insecurity across the seasons is not dramatic for rural and urban areas, which could be associated with the inherent high level of food insecurity across
Afghanistan.
