Measurement Needs of Food Security during Flood Disaster in Bera, Pahang

Abstract

Food preferences with dietary needs for an active and healthy life were achieved when there have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food in all time. It is also known as food security. It comprises of food utilization, food availability, food access and food stability. This paper studies the flood situation in Bera district area, Pahang by assessing the intensity of flood damages and its impacts on food security, which comes out with the measurement of needs of food security during the flood. A cross sectional study was performed on 100 samples of the population living in the affected area by using questionnaires adapted from Cambodia Post-Flood Relief and Recovery Survey 2012 and District and Community Questionnaire. These samples were selected randomly regardless of gender and age category. This study reveals that household composition and family income was affected the food composition in household food security. There is a significant effect on the number of meals and quantity of the food consumed which shows less than usual, in particular among the low-income family and more household composition in the family. Therefore, further studies on measurement of needs of food security during a disaster are required to find out better coping strategies of food insecurity faced by flood victims.