Food Security of Tunisia: Comprehensive Analysis of a Composite Index

Abstract

For decades, food security has been the main concern of a large number of researchers. With the emerging of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing research that try to measure the food security status. Different studies have attempted various measurement methods aiming to quantify the level of food insecurity for some countries. Seventeen indicators have been selected to build a unique food security index. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method has been employed to determine a comprehensive evaluation of index. 2 factors have been resulted to comprehend the food security index movement based on yearly indicators. Furthermore, the econometric model, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) has been employed to detect the relationship between the built food security index and macroeconomic indicators. a long run causality relationship has been identified between the food security index, exchange rate, GDP, and global food price index. The resulted food security index is positively affected by the food price and there is an adjustment of 42.7% annually of the food security disequilibrium.