Food Security in Developing Countries: Gender and Spatial Interactions

Food security in developing countries is an essential component of welfare. However, the food security of households can be constrained by the lack of access to international markets, gender inequality, weak agricultural policies and institutions, climate change, and poverty. Smallholder farmers living near one another may face similar economic and environmental conditions, but may have different levels of food security. Neighbors can potentially ease economic constraints and promote food security by acting as channels of resources and information. This research estimates three spatial effects on food security: i) a spatial autoregressive effect - how neighbors’ (edges’) food security influence a farmer’s food security; ii) how neighbors’ food security affects differently the food security of men and women; and iii) how the food security of neighbors of the same gender affect their own food security. Our data contains a wide range of food production and consumption information from 1500 households located across seven countries in Africa and Asia. We find that neighbors have a powerful influence on food security, which accounts for an increase of 17% in own food security. This effect is larger for women (49%) than for men (15%). We also find that women benefit more from their female neighbors (68%) than their male counterparts (16%).