Economic availability of food in the Khabarovsk Territory

Abstract

The economic availability of food, being a form of manifestation of the food security in the state and its regions, characterizes the population’s ability to consume a suffi amount of safe and high-calorie food. The Khabarovsk Territory belongs to the regions with extreme natural conditions that impede the development of agriculture and the production of many food products. Therefore, the problem of providing the population with food is quite acute. The author carries out the analysis of methodological approaches to assessing the economic availability of food, used for cross-country and interregional comparison. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of economic accessibility of food in the Khabarovsk Territory. To achieve the goal, the author suggests a set of fi indicators, a methodology for calculating the level of economic accessibility of food and evaluation criteria. The technique is distinguished by its relative simplicity, availability of the necessary statistical data and the possibility of application for interregional comparisons. The study was carried out using methods of systemic and comparative analysis and scoring. The dynamics of indicators characterizing the level of economic accessibility of food has been analyzed. The values of three of the fi indicators of economic accessibility of food (purchasing power of cash income of the population, share of population's expenditure on food and the Gini coeffi in the region are consistently at a low level. The results of the study indicate that fundamental changes in the state food security policy and the measures for accelerated import substitution have not yet led to an increase in the level of economic availability of food in the Khabarovsk Territory.