Author(s): Giuma Elbogghi Elham, Abdullah Alawad, Artan Qineti
Title: Factors affecting the food gap and the share of self-sufficiency of selected commodities: the Case of Arab Countries
Source: International Scientific Days 2016. The Agri-Food Value Chain: Challenges for Natural Resources Management and Society
Document Type: Scientific paper
ISBN: 978-80-552-1503-7
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15414/isd2016.s12.02
Publisher: Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
PY, pages: 2016, 907-922
Published on-line: 2016-06-24
Language: eng
Abstract: Agriculture and food situation has entered in the Arab world since the mid-seventies in a critical stage, due to the growing demand for food and agricultural products in particular, high population growth rates, in addition to high food prices in the global markets and shrinking of the relative importance of the agricultural sector in the Arab economic structures. This has resulted in worsening food shortages and therefore resorts to foreign sources to fill the food deficit. Therefore, in this the paper we tried to identify the most important factors affecting the problem of the growing food gap, and the deterioration of self-sufficiency rates of selected food commodities (wheat and flour, maize, rice, red meat, white meat). We chose these goods based on their relative importance. In spite of the importance of productivity, the share of these commodities in the value of food imports exceeds production rates. So, we have set up methodological framework that includes estimating equations of general time trend during the period 2000-2013, expected future quantities of the food gap, and identify the most important factors affecting the amount of the gap and the share of self-sufficiency of goods under study. The main findings reveal that Arab countries are significantly exposed to the FNS risks, mainly driven by the food trade deficit between Arab countries, high unemployment, and high population growth rates. This resulted in the expansion of the size of the food gap between domestic production and national consumption of those goods and declining self - sufficiency rate of those goods. Therefore, they rely on foreign sources to fill the deficit. The Arab food integration is one of the most important reasons for achieving the Arab food security strategy. As this integration will bring significant economic advantages of the Arab world, it might increase the volume of trade exchange between Arab countries, on the one hand, and between the Arab world and foreign markets, on the other.
Keywords: food security, food gap, self-sufficiency rates, Arab countriess
JEL Classification: Q18, Q21
Rights: Open Access :: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence
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