The Factors Affecting Food Security in the Eastern Region of Afghanistan

Household food insecurity has become a significant problem in recent years in Afghanistan particularly in the eastern region which is caused by numerous factors. Hence, the purpose of this paper was to examine and analyze the factors that affect food security at the household level in the eastern region of Afghanistan. Government and international organizations have jointly conducted the household survey in the Eastern Region of Afghanistan containing 9774 households over 99310 individuals in 49 districts. The result showed that the critical factors of food insecurity were caused by insecurity, poverty; unsustainable livelihoods, lack of job opportunities; low wage and income, landlessness in rural areas, and a huge influx of refugee and internally displaced people (IDP) migration. The study found that 46.9% of households were food insecure while 49.6% faced hunger in the last one month and 48% of households had poor and borderline food consumption score. Furthermore, 46.2% of households had moderate to extremely reduced copy strategy index.