Food Security Assessment: Why Countries Are at Risk

Shahla Shapouri and Stacey Rosen

Agriculture Information Bulletin No. (AIB754) 32 pp, September 1999

Food insecurity in many low-income, developing countries is projected to intensify unless steps are taken to reverse the performance trend of key contributing factors: agricultural productivity, foreign exchange earnings, and population growth. For the poorest countries, an increase in agricultural productivity is the key to improving food security. In these countries, imports play a small role in the domestic food supply because of limited foreign exchange availability. This study evaluates availability and distribution of food and analyzes their trends through 2008 by projecting food gaps to maintain per capita consumption, meet nutritional needs, and fulfill requirements stemming from unequal food distribution.

Keywords: Food security, developing countries, productivity, foreign exchange availability, import capacity, income distribution, population growth, nutritional requirements, per capita consumption.

In this report ...

Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

• Frontmatter (Title page, Contents, Summary), 29 Kb
• Introduction, 24 Kb
• Food Insecurity Will Escalate, 31 Kb
• Food Problems Vary Among Regions and Countries, 26 Kb
• Degree of Vulnerability, 17 Kb
• Closing Food Gaps, 73 Kb
• Conclusion, 19 Kb
• References, 28 Kb
• Appendices, 47 Kb

• Entire Report, 167 Kb

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Updated date: September 1, 1999