Sustainable food security index: planning tool for district-level agricultural development in Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

This paper assesses the districts in Uttar Pradesh on the relative sustainability of their food security. It uses the indexing approach and principal component analysis to assign weights to each dimension of food security and construct a sustainable food security index. The food security of the state’s eastern districts (Ballia, Deoria, Mau) and western districts (Saharanpur, Baghpat, Meerut) is sustainable, but many districts rank along the moderate range of the index. To ensure that food security is sustainable, improving the access to food and the capacity for utilization is more important than ensuring the availability of food.