Livelihoods and Food Security of the Migrant Households in the rural community of the Lower-northeastern Region of Thailand

Abstract

Dusadee Ayuwat and Nattapon Meekaew

The migrant household has considered as the marginal household that is facing with fluctuated socio-economic changes and climate change which challenges their livelihoods, especially the food security. This paper investigates factors influencing on food security among the migrant households in the rural community of lower-northeastern Thailand. Sequential mixed-method methodology was implemented in research design. A qualitative study was firstly applied to investigate community background and challenges in food security among the migrant households, and then followed by a quantitative study in order to examine factors influencing on food security among the migrant households. Sample group was 385 migrant households who lived in the provinces of Surin, Buriram, and Srisaket, and the samples were selected by multistage cluster sampling method. Interview schedule was implemented in data collection and data analysis was done by descriptive statistics and the path analysis. The results revealed the challenges in food security that the migrant households had been dealing with. The challenges included 1) limited land holding, 2) climate change, and 3) household labor shortage. Quantitative study presented the fairly poor level of food security among the migrant households (59.5 percent), and factors influenced on food security consisted of remittance, land holding, human capital, social capital, physical capital, natural capital, and household risk. Research implication was engaged as a guideline of improving quality of life of the migrant households, especially on food security which directly affected to rural households.