Gendered risks of food insecurity among rural farming households in Indonesia

Abstract

Despite the critical role of gender and poverty in shaping household food security, only few studies have systematically distinguished the causes of food insecurity based on the intersection of gender and socioeconomic status. This study addresses this gap by examining gender-related risks of food insecurity among farming households in rural Indonesia. Specifically, it investigates differences in food insecurity between female- and male-headed households in the agricultural sector and identifies the socioeconomic determinants of food insecurity for each group, incorporating the influence of regency-level social protection expenditure. The analysis combines microdata from the 2022 National Socioeconomic Survey with fiscal data from the Ministry of Finance on social spending, applying an ordered probit model to capture household food insecurity across four ordered categories, ranging from food secure to severely food insecure. The findings reveal that female-headed households face a significantly higher likelihood of food insecurity than male-headed households across all socioeconomic strata, including poor/vulnerable and middle-to-upper-class groups. Key determinants that mitigate food insecurity include access to productive resources, education, employment, and government social assistance, while demographic and household characteristics such as age, disability, household size, and energy poverty, exacerbate vulnerability.