Rural Women Contribution in Providing and Increasing Domestic Food and Nutrition Security. A Correlational Study of Rural Areas of South Punjab, Pakistan

Women play a crucial role in sustainable rural development and agriculture. Despite suffering severe inequalities, worldwide women are crucial for ensuring security of food. Women have a variety of roles in the food system including as producers, entrepreneurs, leaders, and consumers. It is essential to be taken into consideration when discussing gender equity and gender mainstreaming. Rural women play a significant role in each of the four components of food security: availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability. Therefore, this study explores the different contributions that rural women make as the key contributor of achieving and enhancing domestic food security. Women who currently reside in rural south Punjab, Pakistan, aged 18 to 60, make up the study's population. A well-structured interview schedule was used to obtain primary data from 200 houses in the research area. For the purpose of gathering data, a multistage random sampling technique was used. Dera Ghazi Khan and Jampur were the two randomly chosen districts. Two tehsils were randomly chosen for the second stage. In the third step, five villages were selected at random from each tehsil. The data analysis employed both descriptive statistics and the logit regression model. Results show that women contributed to domestic food security through their involvement in food production and preparation, the purchase of food products for intake and storage. According to empirical findings, 40% of households were food secure while 60% of households experienced food insecurity. The outcome also shows that household food security in the research area was significantly influenced by age, education, income, and household size. Study suggested that women's education, knowledge about food consumption and paid employment status should be improved for increasing domestic food security.KEYWORDSRural women, providing and increasing, domestic food and nutrition security, south Punjab Pakistan.