The current state of Ukraine’s food security and methodological approaches to its evaluation

Abstract

The article analyzes modern methodological support for the analysis of the trends of food security in Ukraine. The main methodological approaches to the assessment of food security in accordance with the regulation documents are investigated. The trends of food security is estimated on the basis of statistical data on indicators and their limit values contained in the developed methodological recommendations of public authorities and management of Ukraine. The main reasons of the threats of food security are systemized. There are presented the results of the assessment of such food security indicators, as: the daily energy value of the diet; the sufficiency of consumption in the context of the main types of food; the adequacy of the state's food grain reserves; the economical availability of food; the differentiation of the cost of food by social groups; the domestic market capacity; the food independence by products. The conclusions on current trends of the state food security are formulated. It is established that the main threats to the food security of the state are the imbalanced consumption of food and low solvency of the population. Malnutrition in food groups such as meat, milk, fish, fruits and berries is reported. The high differentiation of the level of living of the population by social groups and the economic inaccessibility of food due to low and unstable incomes of the Ukrainian people, rising consumer prices for foodstuffs at a faster rate than incomes, does not allow to ensure food security at a sufficient level for high-quality and complete nutrition of the population. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing methods of analysis of the trends of food security of the country from the point of view of further development of the food security strategy are highlighted. The methodological base for defining a food security strategy and making appropriate strategic decisions has been identified. It is proved that the food security assessment is carried out in a fragmentary way with the inability to identify the problem components and identify priority areas of strategic planning. Basic recommendations to improve the analytical framework for the formulation of a food security strategy are given in the article.