Chapter 4


Subsistence production, by definition, does not enter the market. It contributes directly to
household food entitlements, or in other words access to and availability of food are
identical. The volume of subsistence production depends on household decisions to allocate
(part of) its productive resources (labour, land, other assets) to this purpose.

On the supply side, a distinction is made between subsistence production (see above),
market supplies and non-market transfers. Market supplies refer to domestic market
production and food imports that are channelled through the market, hence to the issue of
availability of market supplies to be absorbed by effective demand.

Transfers refer to food distribution to beneficiaries outside the marketing channels, such as
free relief assistance or child feeding programmes. As in the case of subsistence production,
access and availability are directly linked. The commodities for the free food transfers could
either stem from food aid deliveries, bypassing the local market, or from locally procured
food. In the latter case, there are meso-economic linkages between the social infrastructure
and the food market (the food subsidy programme as demand factor on the food market).

There also exist indirect linkages between non-market supplies and the food market. In
response to subsistence production or freely received food, households are likely to spend
less on food purchases on the market, hence market demand for food will go down. If the
recipients of non-market transfers (beneficiaries of free food rations) sell part of food
received, this will not only increase their income but also the market supplies of food. Such
linkages affecting household food demand, household income (from the sale of relief food),
and the food market (via increasing market supplies and/or reduced demand) are indicated as
dashed lines.

Both the supply and the demand factors determine the level of household food entitlement.
Food security is achieved if subsistence production, transfers and market supplies are
sufficient to meet the household food requirements (condition of availability), and if the
household has the means of access to the food it needs by expressing its food requirements
(beyond subsistence production and possible transfers) as effective demand.

 After establishing the main linkages between the macro-policy sphere and the factors
 determining food production, demand, and entitlement at the household level, the question
 can be asked how the various population groups, in particular those vulnerable to food
 insecurity, are affected by the parameter changes induced by macro-policies.

 Almost all policy changes create gainers and losers, very few policy changes benefit everyone
 in practice. It is important to examine whether the losers from the policy change are amongst
 the most food insecure. Any policy which penalises the most vulnerable is likely to create
 greater problems of food insecurity. The time horizon of the poor is very short. Even if they
 will benefit in the medium term, some immediate intervention may be necessary. Analysing the
 political economy of a policy change means that the policy analyst concerned with food
 security is more likely to be able to identify practical and acceptable alternatives to cushion the
 immediate impact of policy change on the poor.

 As an example, it is useful to set out the analytical process in a table. The left-hand column
 shows the most important functional groups in the population with particular emphasis on the


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