Education for Rural People and Food Security

Francesco Burchi andPasquale De Muro

Department of EconomicsUniversity of Rome Three

FAONR/ERP

Burchi and De Muro 2/12

Introduction

• According to the latest official estimates, in the world there are about 1 billion of people that are food insecure and about 800 millions of adults that are illiterate. Food crisis.

• The research project that we have carried out at University of Roma Tre with ERP/FAO shows that primary education is a key to long term food security of rural people in low-income countries

• Our attention focused on rural areas because they are traditionally more disadvantaged

• We adopted the “capability approach” and the WFS concept of food security (access to food)

Burchi and De Muro 3/12

Research hypotheses

• The hypothesis of our research is that for rural people being educated:– improves their capabilities of diversification of

economic resources– increases their productivity and income– enhances their resilience, competitiveness and

access to information– strengthens social cohesion and participation

• All those elements are essential to guarantee food security in the long term

Burchi and De Muro 4/12

Stages and methodology ofresearch

• The research has been divided into two stages• In the first stage we have carried out an

aggregate (“macro”) cross-country analysis on 48 LICs, while in the second stage we have implemented a deeper case study (“micro”) on a single country, Mozambique, by analysing more that 7000 observations (children)

• For each stage we have built an econometric model and we have utilised DHS data

Education Food security

Primary T&V training

Women Childcare

Higher

Economicopportunities

EmploymentIncomeProductivity

Entitlements

LiteracyB.knowledgeA.information

ParticipationAgency

Socialopportunities

Basiccapabilities

Skills

Child

hea

lth

Burchi and De Muro 6/12

Main results of first stage /I

1. The relation between food security and education is very strong as regards primary education, while decreases gradually when we shift toward secondary and tertiary education

2. Primary education is a crucial factor to eradicate food insecurity also compared to other factors as access to water, health, sanitation and access to economic resources

Burchi and De Muro 7/12

Main results of first stage /II

3. The econometric model shows that by doubling the access to primary education we could reduce food insecurity by about 24%

4. Given that (1) in most of LICs the largest share of population still live in rural areas and that (2) exactly in those areas is concentrated the highest percentage of poverty and hunger at global scale, we can conclude that primary education is a fundamental tool to foster food security and development at global scale

Burchi and De Muro 8/12

The second stage of the research

Three questions to be answered:1. how much important is mother’s

education to her children’s food security in the long term?

2. which educational attainment of the mother does give major benefits?

3. which are the transmission mechanisms (channels)?

Burchi and De Muro 9/12

Burchi and De Muro 10/12

Main results of second stage /I

1. Mother’s scholarisation gives an highly significant contribution• Children whose mother has completed the

entire cycle of primary education have a lower probability of suffering from hunger compared to children whose mother has an incomplete or no primary education

Burchi and De Muro 11/12

Main results of second stage /II

2. Primary education of the mother is particularly relevant because it works by increasing knowledge, both general and nutritional. Secondary education, on the contrary, does not affect directly children’s food security, but it works indirectly by increasing household income.

Burchi and De Muro 12/12

Main conclusions

The results of our research suggest that for LICs:• investment in education of good quality for

women can be an effective policy to reduce children’s food security in the long term, especially in rural areas

• given the (limited) amount of available resources to invest in education, it is more effective and efficient to direct policies toward a reduction of inequality in the access to basic education for all, rather than to foster secondary and tertiary education for a minority of population

Burchi and De Muro 13/12

An agenda for future research

• Using more available data– Observations

• Other case studies at different scales: countries, regions, provinces and districts, rural-urban

• Comparative analysis of case studies– Variables

• Additional variables. Quality?• Exploring and better understanding of “channels”

(transmission mechanisms)

• Policy analysis• Designing and implementing ad hoc surveys• Knowledge sharing, networking and research

co-operation

References

• For the first stage of research– De Muro P. and Burchi F., Education for Rural People and

Food Security: A Cross-Country Analysis, FAO and UniRoma3, Rome, 2007

– http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a1434e/a1434e00.htm• For the second stage of research

– Burchi F. and De Muro P., Reducing Children Food Insecurity Through Primary Education for Rural Mothers: The Case of Mozambique, FAO and UniRoma3, 2009

– http://www.fao.org/sd/erp/Documents2009/FAO-RomaTreFINALREPORT2.pdf

• demuro@uniroma3.it• fburchi@uniroma3.it

Burchi and De Muro 14/12