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Abstract
This paper reports on two methods used for identifying alternative indicators of chronic
and acute food insecurity. A need for alternative indicators exists since many of the
"benchmark" or "gold standard" indicators (such as household income or dietary intake) are too
cumbersome to be of practical use in food aid targeting. The ideal alternative indicator should be
statistically reliable, yet straightforward to collect and analyze.
The study uses data collected in four villages in the Indian Semi-Arid Tropics to illustrate
two methods for identifying the alternative indicators. A qualitative methodology included
ethnographic case studies of at-risk households, participatory mapping of vulnerable households
within a community, food charts, and seasonality charts. The quantitative methods included both
economic and nutrition surveys. The data were collected over three rounds in 1992-93 from 324
households in south-central India.
For the qualitative work, we used both the villagers' perceptions of food insecurity as well
as the ethnographers' observations to generate a list of indicators for these areas. Triangulation
among the various qualitative methods was used to validate the indicators suggested. For the
quantitative study, we used statistical methods to test the strength of association between each
indicator and six benchmark measurements of food security. The benchmark measurements were
derived from dietary recall, anthropometric, and blood data. The dietary data were used to
generate a benchmark for chronic and acute households' food insecurity. The anthropometric
data were used to construct benchmarks of chronic and acute preschooler food insecurity.
Finally, serum measures of vitamin A and iron adequacy were used to generate benchmarks of
household micronutrient insecurity.
We tested a core set of alternative indicators against each of these benchmarks. The
majority of the alternative indicators were drawn from a review of the food security literature as
well our own qualitative work in the study sites. Other indicators were included as they
represent information that is typically available in secondary data sets collected by governments
and research institutions.