Meaning of Food Security

Meaning of Food Security

• Food security means the availability, accessibility, and affordability of food to all people at all times.
• Food security means something more than getting two square meals.
• Food security has the following dimensions
  • Availability of food:
    • This means food production within the country, food imports, and the previous years’ stock stored in government granaries.
  • Accessibility of food:
    • This means food is within reach of every person.
  • Affordability of food:
    • This implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs.

Food security is ensured in a country only if

• Enough food is available for all the persons
• All persons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable quality
• There is no barrier on access to food.

Different Meanings of Food Security

• United Nations
  • In the 1970s, food security was understood as the “availability at all times of adequate supply of basic foodstuffs” (UN, 1975).
• Amartya Sen
  • He added a new dimension to food security.
  • He emphasised the “access” to food through what he called ‘entitlements’
  • It means a combination of what one can produce and exchange in the market along with state or other socially provided supplies.
• World Food Summit
  • The 1995 World Food Summit declared, Food security.
  • Food security at the individual, household, regional, national, and global levels exists
    • when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food
    • to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO, 1996,p.3).
  • The declaration further recognises that “poverty eradication is essential to improve access to food”.