The important link between formal education and food security was underlined by the CFSVA, indicating that the71% of households heads with poor food consumption and 66% of those with borderline food consumption had no or incomplete primary education. Among the remaining households only 49% have no or incomplete primary education. Furthermore, food insecure households tend to have a lower literacy rate than food secure households. Whereas 61% of the heads of household among the food insecure households can read and write simple messages, 77% of the food secure households can do the same.
Spouses' literacy may be even more important to become food security. While 67% of Lao-Tai spouses are literate, only 5% of Sino-Tibetian spouses report the same. This shows the limited human capital that the minority groups have at their disposal. The lack of formal education and ability to communicate through reading and writing hinder these spouses from participating in society and acquiring knowledge of ways in which to improve their livelihoods.
In 2001, UNDP carried out a study in an attempt to analyze the effects of low education on the population and the opportunity costs of an inadequate education on the household. This study [10], supported by the results of international research, suggests that literacy and numeracy enable farm households to adopt innovations and new agricultural techniques more easily, to better cope with risk, and to better respond to market signals and other information. These households may also have better access to credit and an improved chance of obtaining more secure land titles. Therefore, education is important for food security. Other studies indicate that education of rural women to the threshold increases the productivity of all agricultural inputs [9].