Assessment of the State of Republic of Moldova Food Security

Research on food security often focuses on the volume of production and import of food, that is, indicators of the physical accessibility of food. So, the study of the problem of economic access of the population to food is often relegated to the background. Meanwhile, the UN FAO definition states that "food security exists when all people at any time have physical and economic access to an adequate amount of safe and nutritious food that can satisfy their nutritional needs and preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle". The purpose of the article is to assess the state of food security of the Republic of Moldova. The subject of the study is the analysis of the main indicators of food security, characterizing the physical and economic access to food, food consumption, as well as the balance of nutrition in basic nutrients. In this case, the methodology for analyzing indicators developed by the FAO UN was applied. The sources of information used in the analysis of these indicators were identified. The main sources of information are balance sheet data on the most important types of food and the results of sample Household Budget Surveys over a number of years. The following indicators were analyzed: the dynamics of basic food production (per capita), the level of self-sufficiency for these types, the dynamics of basic food imports, the level of import dependence for these types, consumption expenditure per capita and their structure, dynamics of consumer prices for food products, purchasing power of households income per capita, average food consumption of household members per capita by their place of residence and income quintile groups, energy and nutritional value of daily food rations. It was concluded that it is necessary to develop in the Republic of Moldova a new legislative/normative document on food security. It was proposed to develop a system of target indicators of food security, justify the rational norms of food consumption average per capita, determine the threshold values used in assessing the state of food security and monitor the state of food security of the Republic of Moldova.