Full Picture Of Food Security And Nutrition

Talking about FS, there are lots of people misunderstanding on that. Some think that “Food Security is agriculture”. In fact, it is correct but only 50%. Why am I saying that? I am saying that because FS has a larger scope than agriculture. So let me explain to you.

First of all, let’s look at its definition. Based on World Food Submit 1996, food Security is defined as “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food, and meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

So according to the definition, if we break it down, we will see 4 basic dimensions- Food availability, Food accessibility, Food Utilization and Food Stability.

Food availability addresses the “supply side” of food security and is determined by the level of food production, stock levels and net trade which agriculture contribute to this dimension.

An adequate supply of food at the national or international level does not in itself guaranteed household level food security. Concerns about insufficient food access have resulted in a greater policy focus on incomes, expenditure, markets and prices in achieving food security objectives. This makes accessible to food.

Food Utilization is commonly understood as the way the body makes the most of various nutrients in the food. Sufficient energy and nutrient intake by individuals is the result of good care and feeding practices, food preparation, diversity of the diet and intra-household distribution of food. Combined with good biological utilization of food consumed, this determines the nutritional status of individual

The last one is food stability. Even if our food intake is adequate today, we are still considered to be food insecure if we have inadequate access to food on a periodic basis, risking a deterioration of our nutritional status. Adverse wealth conditions, political instability, or economic factors (unemployment, rising food prices) may have an impact on the food security status. All these mentioned are a basic concept of FSN.

In addition, there is one more thing that we should not forget is NFS is a cross-cutting issue. It is related to all levels, central level provincial level, district level and household level as well as individual. It also requires all sectors to cooperate and collaborate as well as concentrate to solve the problem together (see diagram 1). This is the characteristic of FSN.