The role of assets for food security 

Household wealth, reflected in access to services (e.g. potable water, internet access) and in the ownership of assets like vehicle, computer, microwave, refrigerator, among others, has stood out by its role in the protection of food security. A study performed by Rimisp – Latin American Center for Rural Development found that households in the higher wealth quartiles have not only less probability to fall into food insecurity, but also less need to resort to costly coping strategies. 

The relevance of assets becomes even more critical with the accumulation of shocks that households must withstand. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in year 2020, the Latin American region has endured several shocks. Besides the pandemic, Guatemala faced hurricanes, Ecuador had to confront a surge in violence and insecurity, and the whole region experienced product and input inflation; challenges that add up to structural problems in the different territories. 

Rimisp’s study carried out two rounds of household surveys in urban, rural and rural-urban areas of 10 Latin American territories, located in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico, between years 2020 and 2023. The study’s authors analyzed the association between the context generated by the different shocks, food security and household coping strategies. 

Household assets reduce the likelihood of falling into food insecurity 

Although food insecurity varies according to household characteristics – like the number of members, the proportion of children under 5 and of adults older than 65 years of age, being indigenous or a female-headed household, having access to public programs, or being in rural areas -, the characteristic with the strongest association with food security is household wealth. This characteristic was measured through an asset index that reflects households’ relative wealth. 

Households with higher relative wealth showed larger probability of being food secure and lower probability of falling into food insecurity, especially into severe food insecurity. The household’s relative wealth is the strongest predictor of the effects of shocks on food security and it is the only variable whose association with food security held for all 10 territories and the two survey rounds. 

It is also noteworthy that the difference in the number of situations or experiences related to food insecurity between households with more and those with less assets is more pronounced in rural areas compared to urban areas (Fig. 1).

Assets contribute to the preservation of human capital 

To face shocks, most households used coping strategies like dietary modification (reducing consumption of fresh food and increasing that of processed foods), dissaving and sale of assets, reduction of spending on health or education, and migration of a household member. The use of these strategies is also associated with household characteristics. Results in this case are even more heterogeneous in the effect of the different variables, depending on the territory and survey round, but a common pattern is once again the importance of assets. 

Households with higher relative wealth have a lower probability of using the different strategies and also report a lower number of strategies used. Especially, greater wealth helps reducing the use of strategies like dietary modification and reduction of spending on health or education, hence contributing to the preservation of human capital. 

Public policies must adapt to the different territories and prioritize poverty reduction 

Given the importance of assets to face food insecurity, the study emphasizes that the best policy for reducing households’ vulnerability to diverse and ever more frequent shocks is the fight to eradicate poverty and extreme poverty, which in Latin America includes the reduction of economic, gender and ethnic inequalities. 

Likewise, the heterogeneity of results found for food insecurity and use of coping strategies in the different territories lead the authors to recommend that risk-reduction policies be flexible enough to adapt to the territories’ diverse conditions.