Chapter I


1 Concepts of Food Security


1.1 Food security at different levels of analysis

FAO has defined the objective of food security as assuring to all human beings the physical
and economic access to the basic foods they need. This implies three different aspects:
availability, stability and access. This definition is clearly stated in terms of food security for
each individual, and it can be argued that this is the most, indeed some would say the only.
meaningful definition of food security. The definition of household food security accepted
by the Committee on World Food Security refines this definition as follows: "physical and
economic access to adequate food for all household members, without undue risk of losing
such access". This introduces the concept of vulnerability.




 Figure 1.1 Different levels of food security


However, it is sometimes useful, particularly when discussing national economic policy
options, to define food security, or more usually, food insecurity, at other levels such as the
national/regional level and the household level. Figure 1.1 shows the most important
interactions between all three of these levels of analysis.

Food security at the national level is perhaps best described as a satisfactory balance between
food demand and food supply at reasonable prices. This may seem a rather vague definition,
but it is intended to indicate a situation where there have been no major upheavals in food


Supply Demand NATION REGION Supply Demand
Demnd x Needs and/or
 Demand < Needs
 Markets
 Government


 Demand > Needs HOUSEHOLD Demand < Needs


 Itrahousehold
 relationships


Consumption Needs I I- Consumption < Needs
 INDIVIDUALS
 0 D D