Current food security Afghanistan - National Risk and Vulnerability Survey 2011-2012, Living Conditions Survey NRVA 2011 12 report

60 FOOD SECURITY The proportion of very severely- and severely-food insecure people shows a pronounced increase from 13.7 percent in 2007-08 to 17.9 percent in 2011-12. This increase is reported across all population groups, but is more noticeable in urban and rural areas. Figure 7.1: Population, by level of food security, and by residence, survey year in percentages 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 2007 -08 2011 -12 2007 -08 2011 -12 2007 -08 2011 -12 2007 -08 2011 -12 Urban Rural Kuchi National 7.7 8.7 6.0 8.6 5.8 6.2 6.3 8.5 6.9 10.8 7.5 9.1 7.7 7.7 7.4 9.5 13.6 14.9 14.8 11.3 14.1 11.6 14.5 12.2 15.8 16.1 16.9 13.5 20.0 15.4 16.9 14.3 55.9 49.5 54.8 57.4 52.5 59.0 54.9 55.6 Very severely food insecure Severely food insecure Moderately food insecure Borderline Food secure 7.5 Characteristics of the food-insecure population 7.5.1 Characterization by main income source Income sources are assessed and classiied according to the proportion the source contributed to the total household income. In general, income that contributes at least 50 percent of total household income is considered as the main source of income. Some households in urban areas have income sources which include rural activities such as agriculture, because of the inclusion of the Nahias peri-urban locations as urban centers. Three main income sources from which the majority of the households earn their income include unspeciied wage labour 21 percent of the households, production and sale of ield crops 15 percent, and shop keepingsmall business and other trade 11 percent. Other activities are engaged in by less than 10 percent of the households. On average, doctors, medical workers and non- government workers have the largest average main income level. Following this group are mechanics, road construction workers and other people engaged in other production work. Among those with the lowest average amount of main income source are those dependent on agricultural wage labour, shepherding, Zakat, other wage labour, borrowing, production and sale of livestock, and ield crops. The main source of household income is related to food security status. Households dependent on borrowing, followed by those relying on food processing, street market sale and other service work, shepherding and Zakat have the highest proportion of the food insecure, at 57 percent and around 30 percent, respectively. After these are households whose main income source is shop-keeping, small business, remittance, rental income, other wage labour, carpet weaving and other handicrafts with around 27-29 percent of the population in each group being food insecure. Households with the lowest proportion of the food insecure from 12 to 23 percent are those who depend on production and sale of opium and opium wage labour, production and sale of orchard products, and agricultural wage labours Table 7.4. 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.