Food security assessment is complex and its multidimensional nature does not make it easy to quantify. In Cameroon, the persistence of food insecurity despite the efforts made is more worrying and its measurement constitutes an obstacle. The objective of this work was to build a proxy representative of the food situation within households. Clearly, the aim was to propose a method for estimating an aggregate proxy for food security at household level (IASA) and to analyze the determinants that result from it. Using a principal component aggregation approach, the IASA was estimated following a standardization process. The Tobit model has identified the factors that influence food security. The results revealed that the approach to estimating the IASA based on all of the components of the PCA is likely to provide a relevant proxy and more representative of the food situation than does one based exclusively on a single component. The social anchoring of the household, the workforce, the diversification of agricultural and pastoral activities and especially the agropastoral income are the main predictors of food security, while the level of vulnerability, the marital status (widower) and land conflict are the risk factors that degrade food well-being. The actors involved in the fight against food insecurity should consider the multidimensional aspect by integrating in the proxy estimate all the main components resulting from the PCA extraction, so that it accurately reflects the food situation.
