Climatic Changes and Vulnerability of Household Food Accessibility: A Study on Malaysian East Coast Economic Region

Purpose: Sustainable food security at the household level is one of the emerging issues for all nations. Several factors such as social, economic, political, demographic, natural, and livelihood strategies cause vulnerability in the status of household food security. This study is an attempt to examine the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility and its linkage with the climatic changes in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on primary data collected in the months of July – October, 2012 through a questionnaire survey on 460 low-income households from the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) in Malaysia. The samples were selected from E-Kasih poor household database, based on the cluster random sampling technique. The questionnaire uses a five-point Likert scale, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA F statistics for Chi-Square Two Sample Test. Findings: The study finds that the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility has increased statistically and significantly over the last five years in Malaysia, whereas the contributions of climatic factors are low on these changes. This study suggests that the food security programs in Malaysia need to be integrated with the climatic change adaptation programs to ensure more effective and sustainable household food security in the future. Originality/value: This study is an original work based on primary data that empirically measures the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility, one of the important dimensions of household food security, and its linkage with climatic changes.