Measuring food security in survey rounds
Food security is determined in terms of levels of grain calorie consumption. This will be measured by the daily dietary energy and protein intake levels, adjusted for household size, age and composition as recommended by FAO/WHO. However, since in Tanzania foods other than cereals contribute about 20% of energy in the diet, it will be taken that cereals supply 80% of energy in diets of the people of Rufiji District. Since maize is the main cereal, food security will be determined based on maize and maize equivalent energy content of other non-maize carbohydrate foodstuffs. The average daily calorie requirement for a moderately active adult equivalent (AE) is 2850 kcal/day. According to WHO, a safe minimum daily intake should not fall below 80% of the above calorie requirement, which means that the minimum intake should be 2,280 kcal/AE/day. Based on the above data, the minimum daily maize requirement per adult equivalent per day is 568 grams, which is equivalent to 207.3 kg of maize (or any grain expressed in maize equivalents) per year.
To measure food security at household level, all household members will be converted into adults using the formula:
AE = (A + 0.5 C) 0.9,
where:
AE= Adult equivalent units;
A= Number of adults, grains bought, and grains received from relatives or other sources.
C= Number of children.
Based on estimates given earlier, households with AE of less than 2,280 kcal per day or those consuming less than 568 grams of maize per day per adult equivalent will be considered as food insecure. Eventually, all household members will be converted into adult equivalents, then maize and other grains consumed by household members per adult equivalent will be compared with the above minimum of 207.3 kg of maize and maize equivalent per year to isolate respondents into food secure and food insecure households. Maize and other grains consumed include a sum of grains produced by respondent household.
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