Kabupaten Kupang is highly dominated by dry land and dry climate without technical irrigation. These features limit agricultural activities and hence lower the agricultural production. Some villages have had food insecurity potential in term of rice sufficiency, but famine almost unheard from those places. This may indicate a specific pattern of food consumption that will benefit policy makers if they understand the consumption management in most likely insecure regions.
The aims of this research are as follows. First, to identify the patterns of food consumption in most-likely insecure region and second, to determine patterns that minimize food expenditure subject to nutrient contents and household income using Linear Programming.
Research locations were chose purposively i.e. villages with potential of food insecurity. Those villages were Oematnunu and Lifuleo in Kecamatan Kupang Barat (Timor Island) and Onatali and Nggadimeda in Kecamatan Rote Tengah (Rote Island). Household respondents were determined under stratified method base on farming size. Relevant categories were developed on identification of patterns of food consumption, while Linear Programming model were used to determine the optimum solution of patterns that minimize household expenses subject to nutrient and income constraints.
There were all nine patterns of consumption that exist along the year. Two out of those nine patterns are consumption models used in anticipating the shortage of food. First pattern was found in Rote Tengah composes of unfermented fan palm on breakfast, rice and vegetable and fish on lunch and unfermented fan palm with boiled papaya fruit or leaves on dinner. The other pattern was found in Kupang Barat composes of sweet coffee/tea on breakfast, corn boiled with peanuts/beans and vegetable on lunch and cassava or sweet potato with sweet coffee/tea on dinner.
Optimization with Linear Programming showed that a combination of Rote Tengah pattern (24.49%) and Kupang Barat pattern (108.75%) could minimize household food expenses.
This combination can also fulfill energy, protein and Vitamin A sufficiency standard. But, the combination cannot be implemented in Rote Tengah because its own pattern (Rote Pattern) need lower expense and can fulfill nutrient standard. Therefore in Rote Tengah, its own pattern needs to be preserved but in the rest of Kabupaten Kupang, the combination pattern should be applied.
Key words: critical region, food security, consumption pattern, nutrient sufficiency, food expenditure optimization.
 

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