Food accessibility in Central America and the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Food accessibility is linked to food insecurity. Likewise, poverty is the main underlying determinant of household food insecurity and increases the consumption of products of little nutritional value, which has consequences due to the poor use of food (for example, malnutrition), reducing the quality of life of the population. The objective of this study was to analyze food accessibility in Central America and the Dominican Republic; and identify the consequences of misuse of food. This study was based on the measurement of the solvency of the basic food basket and other variables, as well as the analysis of the data that measure the use of food for the region. The results showed that the countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic need an average of 1.26 times more than the minimum wage to pay for the basic food basket. These countries must allocate, on average, 60% of their average monthly income and 126.3% of the minimum wage to the basic food basket, being Nicaragua the most affected, since the basket costs on average 3.4 times more than what they have available. minimum wage for people and 1.5 times more than the average income. Undoubtedly, the countries of Central America studied, and the Dominican Republic are very vulnerable in terms of accessibility to food. The evidence from this study provides new and relevant information to understand the issue of food accessibility in the region.