Food security and comparative analysis of situation in serbia and neighbouring countries

Economics of Agriculture, Year 67, No. 4, 2020, (pp. 1191-1204), Belgrade
There are a large number of indicators that measure food (in)security. Hoddinott 
(1999) state that there are about 200 definitions and 450 indicators of food (in)security. 
Pangaribowo et al. (2013) emphasize that indicators can be separated into three groups 
that measure (1) the outcomes of food insecurity; (2)the drivers and risks of creating 
food insecurity (percentage of the population living below the poverty line, yield per 
hectare, hygienic conditions in the household, etc), and (3)the interventions in solving the 
problem of food insecurity. Indicators that are most commonly used are: FAO Indicator 
of Undernourishment, Global Hunger Index, calculated annually by the International 
Food Policy Research Institute; and the Global Food Security Index, which is calculated 
annually by the Economist Intelligence Unit (Božić and Papić, 2019).
After food crises in 2008 and 2011, EIU created the Global Food Security Index in 
2012.It measures food security at national level. Aim is to assess risks and determine 
which countries are most and least vulnerable to food insecurity. This index measures 
food security comprehensively, trying to determine factors that affect it.
The GFSI is constructed from 34 underlying unique indicators that are grouped in 
indicators and then in three dimensions: Affordability, Availability and Quality & 
Safety (Table 1).
Table 1. Comparison of food security and GFSI conceptualisation
Standard Conceptualization
 of Food Security
GFSI concept
Physical availability
Affordability 
Economic and physical access to food
Availability 
Food utilisations
Quality and Food Safety
Stability
Natural Resources & Resilience(since 2017)
Source: Authors’ modification based on Thomas et al., 2017
Additional adjustment factor, Natural Resources & Resilience, was added in 2017 
iteration in order to capture the impact of climate change and natural resources on 
food security (EIU, 2017). This factor includes additional 7 indicators (Table 2). All 
indicators are scaled from zero to 100, where 100 is the most favourable score. The 
final value of the GFSI is a simple weighted average of first three category scores, 
while the Natural Resources & Resilience category is an adjustment factor. The fourth 
category serves to view how food security is changing when climate-related and natural 
resource risks are taken into account (EIU, 2019).
Affordability is related to the capacity of country’s population to pay for food, both in 
times of stable and insecure food supply. Availability refers to country’s capacity to 
produce and distribute food, and to provide self-sufficiency in food. It also shows how 
easy it is for consumers to access food products.
Quality and safety represents “the nutritional quality of average diets and the food 
safety environment of each country” (Thomas et al., 2017). Safety and quality of food 
affect health and socio-economic environment of a country, and it can be measured by 

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