FOOD INACCESSIBILITY AND UNHEALTHY CONSUMPTION PATTERNS LEADS TO FOOD INSECURITY IN PAKISTAN. A CASE STUDY FROM SOUTHERN CITY OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Many national and international organizations were struggling hard to find out the exact picture of food insecurity prevailing in the country. Most of these organizations like UNICEFand FAO focus on women and infant food insecurity but the purpose of this research is to discover main features which are affectingthe under-privilege households of country. Data collection were performed by multistage random sampling and proportionate sampling technique from 349 rural households via face to face interview. The impact of different factors affecting household food security was determined by logistic regression model and food security status was determined by using cost of calorie method. This research concludes that majority of the people in this research study belong to 41-50 category of age. Majority of people had above matriculation education. The widely accepted occupation is agriculture. Most often people face issues regarding food inaccessibility and unhealthy consumption patterns. The results of cost of calorie method show that two third of the respondents were food insecure. The logistic regression model shows that demographic attributes had an impact on food security but only the respondents' income and education had a significant impact on their food security. A blend of food security assessment methods employed in this research provides a clear picture of food insecurity prevailing in Pakistan.