Determinants of Household Food Security during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted national and household food security in Indonesia. The objectives of this study were to: (1) identify the socio-economic characteristics of Indonesian households related to food security, (2) analyze the factors that have affected household food security during the COVID-19 pandemic, and (3) provide recommendations for improving programs to increase household food security. The study was conducted in eight provinces in Indonesia, namely North Sumatra, Lampung, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara. Data collection was carried out from April to July 2020. The results showed that 50.63% of the households surveyed were food insecure. The binary-logit-regression-model results showed that variables of gender, age, family size, education, occupation, income, and expenditure on food had a significant effect on household food security status. Variables that had a positive influence on household food security were gender, age, education, occupation, income, and food expenditure. On the other hand, household size had a negative effect on household food security. The marginal effect of gender was 0.035, age was 0.058, education was 0.192, type of work was 0.016, income level was 0.521, and food expenditure was 0.114, while for the number of family members the marginal effect was 15.725. This study was conducted in eight provinces affected by COVID-19, using the Household-Food- Insecurity-Access-Scale and binary-logit model approaches, which had never been performed before. Policy and program recommendations for increasing household food security in Indonesia are presented.