ENSURING FOOD SECURITY AT THE HOUSEHOLD LEVEL: SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIAGNOSTICS

Abstract

The purpose of this scientific article is to research the important issues of food supply in Ukraine at the regional level by diagnosing the current state of food ensuring based on a survey of relevant respondents with the purpose to improve the level of socio-economic development of the country in the long run. In research have been interviewed households from Kyiv of Ukraine according to the following main criteria: physical and economic conditions, food availability, supply and access to food consumption to evaluate household food security status by calculating the sample size, a few details about the target population, its size, variance, margin of error and desired level of confidence in empirical estimates of important variables. In this research, the Minimum Dietary Energy Requirement (MDER) and a threshold that shows the minimum amount of energy needed by a hypothetical average person in the population to be healthy and engage in socially acceptable levels of activity have been examined. The state of nutritional food security in terms of protein, carbohydrate, and fat consumption has been investigated. The main aspect of the results approved that almost half of the respondents are showing conditions of life for them as “just adequate and few people seem not to be satisfied showing «less than adequate». These results are important from the viewpoint of food security as adequate food intake; availability and sustainability are the main components of food security and show the quality-of-life status. It is proved that at the present stage of national economic status human development plays an important role in achieving long-term food security goals. It has been established that in order to attain sustainable food safety at the national level, it is important to improve the population's health condition and to change the existing food consumption models in the country, in households in particular the food basket containing imported foodstuff. This can be achieved through promoting safe and healthy eating habits, education improving in the field of food systems and technologies, and facilitating access to information for consumers and producers.

Keywords

• national food security
• agricultural sector
• household food security
• food security level
• survey data
• food consumption