Chapter 2


This total can be compared with the estimates of requirements as discussed in section 1.4 to
assess overall adequacy of the food supply in the country. The FBS can also provide a useful
overview of the degree of dependency of the diet on any particular commodity or on foreign
trade. For example, in the case of Indonesia as shown, it can be calculated that under 10% of
the total availability in the country is imported. However, over 50% of calories come from
milled rice. Thus examining the health of the rice economy in this country will tell the
analyst a great deal about overall food security.

Care must be taken in the use of food balance sheets. The figures themselves can be quite
crude approximations. The information necessary about rates of wastage, processing
coefficients and nutrient content can only be estimates. It would be too costly and time
consuming to re-estimate these every year and in some countries these figures are best
described as guesstimates. They do not include any measure of domestic food waste, i.e. that
which occurs in the household. If FBSs are compiled each year, then they can give a
reasonable picture of trends in food availability.

FBSs are only as good as the data which are entered into them. Thus they will reflect
existing problems with agricultural production data and even population numbers. In
particular, subsistence production data are likely to be significantly under-represented, if
they are included at all. It is fair to say that the more developed and monetised an economy
is, the better the figures in the FBS (though this may be offset somewhat by complexity in
the food processing sector).

The FBS gives no information about food supply at the regional, local or household level, in
other words it gives no disaggregated information. It is perfectly possible for a country to
have an adequate supply of food as shown by the FBS, at the national level, and yet for there
to be regions or groups of households which have severe problems of food security. The
more unequal income or asset distribution is in a country the less useful is the FBS as a tool
for investigating food security problems. Other methods of assessing food consumption
levels must be used.

2.1.2 Household food consumption surveys

To get a better picture of the variety of food consumption levels and patterns, the best
approach may be to undertake food consumption surveys. These are usually carried out at the
household level. This allows an examination of food consumption patterns within
geographical regions, by income strata and by social class. This information allows a much
more precise formulation of food security problems and, as a result, of appropriate policy
responses.

The comprehensiveness of the information is dependent on how the survey is undertaken.
Surveys may be conducted in such a way as to allow comparisons between food
consumption patterns at different times of the year, to enable the identification of problems
of seasonal food insecurity or they may have a very narrow time frame. If there is prior
information to suggest that food security problems are concentrated in certain regions or
amongst certain social groups, then it may be decided for reasons of cost to concentrate on
those specific issues. For the most part, food consumption surveys measure consumption at


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