RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN UNDER FIVE IN TIGRAI: THE CASE OF KLTEAWLAELO, TIGRAI, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Nutrition is very essential for the development of our body that required to be considered in the national food security indicators. Good health can be preserved and promoted mostly by the right kind of food. One of the major constraints to the development of human capital and capacities is the impact of loss of human potential; both physical and mental, due to poor childhood nutrition. However, the most common types of assets owned such as household equipments, number of livestock, and the availability of cereals in kilograms and so on have been used as basic national food security indicators. These criteria should not exclusively use national food security indicators. In this regard UNCEF (2005) stated that “For every operation that WFP undertakes, it has to establish what type and quantity of food people need. It is not just a question of providing food, but also making sure what arrives is nutritionally appropriate to address the problem at hand’’. The main purpose of this study was then to identify the causes of malnutrition under five children and the indicators that should be considered at national level to decide the well-being of the rural households. Further more, the study was designed to show the nutritional status of children shouldn’t be measured only by the availability of food and other basic household possessions. To prove this, the researcher includes 120 households, which is 60 households per villages: 120 mothers were interviewed, and their under five (2-3) children were measured using Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) to check their nutritional status. Regarding data collection, both primary and secondary data gathering methods were used. The data obtained through these instruments was analyzed using the recent version of ENA soft ware and SPSS version 19.The findings using SPSS shows the existence of severe level malnutrition in both food secure and non-secure household. Mainly, the findings using MUAC shows 34.5% of the surveyed children have global malnutrition, 29.3 % have moderate malnutrition, and 5.2% have severe malnutrition in the food secured households. Similarly, using the same measurement MUAC for the food unsecured households, 35% of the sample populations have global malnutrition, 15.8% have severe malnutrition and 45.3% have moderate malnutrition. The study, therefore, shows that the national food security indicators should include the top determinants of nutritional status of children such as mothers’ educational background, their level of knowledge on breastfeeding, their awareness on type of food nutrients, education of their children, and their participation on community education