Framework for Food Security Analysis at national Level

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to face the fresh food security function in the developing nations. It is not an easy task; on the other, it is a very important feature on people's welfare, nations' development and social stability at a national level.

The methodology applied will be the Porter's Diamond. The ensemble of resources, either physical infrastructures or capable companies or adequate regulations, to support the implementation of efficient and functional food security networks in many countries, frequently is provided without analysis of the population demand profile and resources available, normally importing other country model. Given the importance of food security to provide the correct amount of food to the different populations in a country, a framework for analyzing the competitive balance of the factors involved and the different models under consideration has been selected. Michael Porter described the Diamond in 1990 in his seminal work "The competitive advantage of Nations". It considers different national factors that interact to produce the competitive advantage, such as home demand conditions, related support industries, factor conditions, companies` strategy and rivalry and Government regulation.

With the Diamond the profile of the different factors are analyzed according to priority and importance. The resulting model allows detecting weaknesses and strengths considering the principal actors that build a food security network. Also it is possible to represent graphically the points of analysis, which allows to explore together different models of food security networks.

The food supply it is a vital factor in every country for the population survival. The fresh food production, mainly fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, needs a net work of markets, at wholesale and retail level in order to distribute that fresh food from the farms where is produced to the final consumer, mainly located in the big cities (farm-to-fork). The whole activities related to bring food and supply to the final consumers is denominated "food security".

There is another concept associated to the food security which is called "food safety". In some extend both are related, but different. The food safety concept means that the food must be "safe" for human consumption (innocuous). This simple difference (security-safety) has created some confusion in some countries. Food security guarantees the quantity of food supplied to people. Food safety guarantees the quality of food from human health perspective.

Food security it is much more important in the poor than in the affluent countries or its regions. In countries with less than 1000 US$ per capita, the amount of money expended on food it is around 40% of the average income. In that case, a change in agricultural costs or on food prices has tremendous influence in the whole society.

Many countries have developed a National Plan for food security in order to create markets network. This network operates as a group of engines pumping food from origin to destination. Thanks to this organization has been possible to correct many deficiencies in the population's food supply. The wholesale markets either in food origin area or in destination are not easy to establish. They need many important aspects to be evaluated before start the wholesale market design. The influence area determination; the right dimension of the premises; the type of buildings and pavilions; the protection of the market; the wholesalers transference; the users' relationships; the working rules; tariffs; timetables; gathering and distribution of the daily commercial information; connections with other markets; and a very long etcetera.

All that set of aspects varies from country to country. Not all the societies or human groups have the same choices and behaviors. The final design must be adapted to every particular country. The income level; consumption habits, feminine work outside home; industrial development; classification and grading; etc. must be taken into account in order to tailor the market to the society cultural values.

The results will be agricultural promotion and development of food distribution efficiency; income distribution among farmers and rural population; better population nourishment; food industry development; commerce and services increasing; food exports boosted; and general improvement of the national welfare for any country undertaken this economical and global activities.