Income Diversity and the Food Security Nexus: Tea Garden Workers in Maulvibazar District, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT Ensuring household food security is a growing concern in developing countries. Tea workers in Bangladesh are one of the vulnerable groups that lack access to basic needs and suffer from food insecurity. This study examines the impact of income diversity on the food security of tea workers' households in Bangladesh. The Simpson's Index of Diversity (SID) was used to determine income diversity, and the Food Security Index (FSI) was employed to measure food security by surveying 200 tea workers' households in the Sreemangal Upazila of Maulvibazar district. SID values uncover that over one‐third of tea workers' households do not diversify their income. However, nearly one‐fifth of them have low‐level income diversification, while about two‐fifths of households have moderate diversity, and around one‐tenth have moderately high income diversity. Based on binary logistic regression, the findings revealed that tea workers' households are more likely to be food secure with moderately diversified income than those with no income diversity. Notably, the likelihood of being food secure for female‐headed households is nearly double that for male‐headed households. Similarly, tea workers' households are more likely to be food secure with moderately high income diversity than those who do not diversify their income. The effect in that case is significantly higher for male‐headed households than the insignificant effect in female‐headed households. Moreover, educated, employed, and livestock and poultry asset‐raising tea workers' households are greatly protected from food insecurity. Therefore, the study recommends diversifying income and enhancing the scope of livestock and poultry raising, as well as educational facilities, to reduce food insecurity and improve the living standards of tea garden workers in Bangladesh.