Planning for food and nutrition security in Egypt: social, economic, and political considerations

Low-income consumers, who are the majority of the population, may spend a large part of their income, in some cases all of it, on food; yet they are unable to afford a nutritionally adequate diet. Hence, a policy aimed at reducing the food gap may require more than a simple increase in agricultural production. This study tests a hypothesis for developing agricultural production guided by the nutritional requirements of the Egyptian population for the major food products. The study used two alternative target levels of food self-sufficiency. The first would be to maintain the self-sufficiency ratio at its level during the base period 1976-1980. The second would be to increase the self-sufficiency ratio so as to decrease the relative amount of food imports by the year 2000 to one-half their level during the base period from Authors