Highlights

• Food insecurity is still a global threat despite advances in research and policies.

• Africa has more food insecure people than any other region.

• There is increased food insecurity in urban areas due to rapid urbanisation.

• It is necessary to use multiple indicators to measure food insecurity in order to capture its complexity.

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a global threat despite advances made to mitigate its effect on human suffering. Numerous indicators have been developed, tested and validated to measure specific aspects of food security, which may likely present different results. This study uses Household Dietary Diversity Scores (HDDS) and Household Food Insecurity Scale (HFIAS) to compare food accessibility status between rural and informal urban dwellers in Buea municipality and Poisson regression to analyse the determinants of food insecurity among the two groups. The two food insecurity measures present different results. HFIAS shows about 97% food insecurity of the sampled population of Buea Municipality and a significant difference of p < 001 between the rural (99.3%) and urban areas (94.7%), the HDDS shows a food insecurity status of 25.8% and an insignificant difference between the rural (24.8%)and urban (26.7%) areas. This difference affirms that multiple indicators should be used to measure food security in detail. The high incidences of food insecurity presented by HFIAS for both the rural and urban areas indicate that policies to curtail food insecurity should be of a broader focus on improving production capacity, training and employment opportunities.