Rural residents are still more affected by food insecurity

Responsible for the production of cereals, meat, fruits, vegetables, oilseeds and legumes, rural residents continue to face more food insecurity than those who live in Brazilian cities.

Data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad), referring to the last quarter of 2023, show that while food security in urban areas reaches 73.3% of households; in the countryside, this percentage drops to 65.5%.

The data was released this Thursday (25), by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Mild food insecurity affects 21.8% of rural households (compared to 17.7% in cities). The same occurs with the most severe degrees of insecurity.

Moderate food insecurity affects 7.2% of families in the countryside (compared to 5% in cities), while severe insecurity affects 5.5% of households in rural areas (compared to 3.9% of urban households).

Methodology and concept

The research methodology included a questionnaire about the household’s food situation in the 90 days preceding the interview. The classification is made into four levels, according to the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale.

The degree of food security demonstrates that that family has regular and permanent access to quality food, in sufficient quantity. Mild food insecurity represents concern or uncertainty regarding food in the future, in addition to consuming food of inadequate quality so as not to compromise the quantity of food.

Moderate insecurity means quantitative reduction of food among adults and/or disruption in eating patterns resulting from lack of food among adults.

While severe insecurity demonstrates a quantitative reduction in food and disruption in eating patterns resulting from a lack of food among all residents, including children.

Despite still following the historical trend of presenting more food insecurity than the city, the countryside presented, last year, its best situation since the survey began to be carried out by IBGE, in 2004, both in relation to food security and in relation to to moderate and severe insecurities.

The previous survey, carried out in 2017 and 2018, for example, pointed to food security in 53.6% of households in rural areas. Moderate and severe insecurity affected, in 2017/2018, 12.2% and 7.1% of rural households, respectively.

Supply

According to IBGE researcher Andre Martins, the issue of food insecurity in the countryside is derived from a series of factors, which include supply.

“You have to have access to food, you have to be able to get to food. There is also the issue of income, which is closely associated with food security. And income standards in urban areas are higher than in rural areas. Even though rural areas produce their own food, this is something we cannot see in urban areas”, explains the researcher.

IBGE research, in fact, shows that income is a fundamental element in ensuring food security. While households with a per capita monthly income of a quarter of the minimum wage make up just 8.3% of Brazilian households, they represent 24.1% of those with moderate or severe food insecurity.

Families with a per capita income of more than two minimum wages represent 21.1% of the country’s total, but are only 2.6% of those with moderate or severe food insecurity.

Children and adolescents are more prone to food insecurity than adults or the elderly. According to the research, 10.8% of children up to 4 years old and 11.4% of people aged between 5 and 17 live in homes with moderate or severe food insecurity.

Among adults and the elderly, the percentages of those living in households with the same degrees of food insecurity are as follows: 18 to 49 years old (9.1%), 50 to 64 years old (10%) and 65 years old or more (6 .9%).

Regional differences

According to IBGE, the proportions of households with moderate or severe food insecurity in the North and Northeast regions are much higher than those found in other regions. In the North, the percentage is 16%, more than double that of the Central-West (7.9%) and Southeast (6.7%) and more than triple that of the South (4.7%). In the Northeast, the percentage is 14.8%.

Among the states, the negative highlights are the states of Pará, where 20.3% of households have moderate or severe insecurity, Sergipe (18.7%) and Amapá (18.6%).

On the other hand, the states of Santa Catarina (3.1%), Paraná (4.8%), Rondônia (5.1%) and Espírito Santo (5.1%) have the lowest rates of moderate or severe food insecurity. ).

Gender and color

In households headed by women, the share of those with moderate or severe food insecurity is 10.8%, compared to 7.8% in households whose main heads are men. The difference is 3 percentage points.

The disparity, however, decreased, if we compare with the 2017/2018 survey, when moderate or severe insecurity affected 15.3% of households whose heads were women, that is, 4.5 percentage points more than what was observed in the households headed by men (10.8%).

There is also inequality with regard to color or race. Black and brown people (blacks) are responsible for 56.7% of the country’s households, but they account for 74.6% of households that live with severe food insecurity.

Instruction

In relation to the level of education, households whose heads have no education or have at most incomplete primary education represent 33.2% of the total number of Brazilian households.

Evaluating only households that face severe food insecurity, those headed by people with no education or with incomplete primary education represent 58.6% of the total.

Households whose guardians have completed higher education account for 19.1% of the country’s total, but are only 2.9% of those with severe insecurity.