Puspita Dewi, Ali Khomsan, Cesilia Meti Dwiriani, Dadang Sukandar
Introduction: Food security is essential for a country’s development. This is emphasized in the SDG’s goal of zerohunger. Food security means that a house hold can consistently access sufficient quantity and quality food. Geographical location influences access to food. This research aims to analyze food security and diversity in different agroecological regions (highlands and coastal) in West Java.
Methods: The design used in this research is a cross-sectional study. This research was conducted in Cianjur Regency (highlands) and Karawang Regency (coastal) West Java Province, Indonesia. The population in this study were house-holds with children aged 12-24 months. The total number ofhouse holds sampled in this study was 154. Data on children’sfood consumption was collected using the 1x24-hour food recall method, while other data was collected by interviews using questionnaires. Descriptive analysis and the Mann-WhitneyTest SPSS version 26.0 was used.
Results: As many as 63.6% of subjects in the highlands were aged 12-18 months and 49.4% in coastal area. Maternal education in the highlands was higher than in the coastal (p less than 0.05). Family members of less than or equal to 4 people were more commonon the coastal (p less than 0.05). As many as 62.3% of house holds inthe highlands and 81.8% in the coastal areas allocate food expenditure less than 60% of total spending. There is no difference in household food security in the highlands and the coastal ( pless than 0.05), but the food consumption of toddlers in the highlands was more diverse than in the coastal area (p less than 0.05).
Conclusion: Mothers in the highlands generally have avhigher level of education than mothers on the coastal and sowas the household income. The number of households in thevhighlands with food secure was higher than in the coastal butit was not significantly different. And children’s food consumption is more diverse in the highlands than in the coastal.