Food Security Assessment, 2006

By Birgit Meade, Stacey Rosen, and Shahla Shapouri

Outlook Report No. (GFA-18) 49 pp, June 2007

The number of hungry people in the 70 lower income countries covered in this report rose between 2005 and 2006, from 804 million to 849 million. However, the food distribution gap—an indicator of food access—declined, which means that, although more people are vulnerable to food insecurity, the intensity was less in 2006 than in 2005. By 2016, the number of hungry people is projected to decline in all regions, except Sub-Saharan Africa. The average nutrition gap, the indicator of food availability, was 13.5 million tons (grain equivalent) in 2006 and is expected to increase to 14 million tons by 2016. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 85 percent of this gap, the low-income countries of Asia for only 14 percent, and the low-income countries of Latin America and the Caribbean for the remaining 1 percent. The average nutrition gap was much smaller than the distribution gap, which takes into account unequal purchasing power within countries. The distribution gap was an estimated 27 million tons in 2006 for all 70 countries, decreasing to close to 26 million tons by 2016.

Keywords: Food security, food aid, food imports, oil prices, biofuels, ethanol, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Commonwealth of Independent States, ERS, USDA

In this report ...

Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

• Report summary, 135 kb | HTML

• Abstract, Preface, Acknowledgments, Contents, List of Figures and Tables, and Summary, 201 kb.
• Overview: Food Security Assessment in Lower Income Countries, 2006-16, 558 kb.
• Energy Price Implications for Food Security in Developing Countries, 124 kb.
• Appendix—Food Security Model: Definition and Methodology, 81 kb.
• Entire Document, 844 kb.

Supporting data (in Excel spreadsheets)

• North Africa—Country Statistical Tables for North Africa, 892 Kb.
• Sub-Saharan Africa—grain production, imports, and food gaps (37 countries), 1,312 Kb.
• Asia—Country Statistical Tables for Asia, 2,214 Kb.
• Latin America and the Caribbean—Country Statistical Tables for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), 2,444 Kb.
• Commonwealth of Independent States—Country Statistical Tables for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), 1,886 Kb.

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Updated date: June 28, 2007