Economics of Agriculture, Year 67, No. 4, 2020, (pp. 1191-1204), Belgrade GFSI report from the ex-Yu territory. Following neighbouring countries are selected for
comparison: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Greece.
In addition to its comprehensiveness advantages, GFSI has certain weaknesses: a) the
value of GFSI does not provide a clear picture of what factors led to the current result;
b) there is no clear theoretical concept that explains why these indicators were chosen
to represent the three basic dimensions of food security; and c) the quality and safety
dimension only partially covered all aspects of food usability. Specifically, problems
that exist in the environment and affect food (in)security, such as access to drinking
water, health care, etc. have been completely neglected (Pangaribowo et al., 2013).
Including the fourth dimension – Natural Resources & Resilience in the calculation of
GFSI (2017), part of the mentioned weaknesses has been eliminated.
Results and Discussion Comparative analysis of food security in Serbia and neighbouring countries The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) was used to assess food security in Serbia and
the neighbouring countries. Singapore and Ireland are the countries with the highest
level of food security, followed by Switzerland, Finland and Norway (Table 3). The
lowest value of GFSI is in countries that have overcome conflicts, such as Venezuela,
Burundi and Yemen, which is also characterized by increasing dependence on food aid.
Serbia is ranked on 59
th
place with an index of 62.8.
4
All neighbouring countries, for
which GFSI was calculated in 2019, have better rank in terms of food security. Among
European countries, Serbia occupies the penultimate position and is ranked 25
th
(only
Ukraine is ranked on lower position). The reduced GFSI score and worsened food
security in 2019 compared to 2018 are characteristic only for Serbia and Romania from
the analysed group of countries.
In 2017 the EIU included the dimension of natural resources and resilience in the
calculation of the global food security index, in order to evaluate future threats to food
security, especially climate change. According to this indicator, which includes issues
such as droughts, floods and rising sea levels, land degradation, ocean eutrophication, etc.
the Czech Republic is the best ranked, followed by Finland, Denmark and New Zealand.
When analyzing GFSI with included component risk of natural resources and resilience
to climate change, it is evident that the overall score of GFSI is declining in all countries.
By including the correction factor, Singapore dropped from the first to 12
th
position,
and the value of the index decreased by 12.6 points (EIU, 2019). Ireland, Finland and
Switzerland are the best ranked countries in the world in terms of food security which
includes the risks of natural resources and resilience to climate change. According to
the index calculated in this way, Serbia is ranked better by five places and placed on the
54
th
position, but still is the worst positioned of all neighbouring countries (Table 3).
4 Serbia is sharing rang 59 with Ghana and Morocco, which also have overall score 62.8.
