Sri Lanka ranks highest in South Asia in Food Security

Thursday, 28 December 2017 00:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka has been ranked the best in the South Asian region in the recently published Global Food Security Index 2017, which comprehensively examines food security in 113 countries.

Sri Lanka ranked 66th in the global index and was grouped among countries with “good performance” with an overall score of 53 averaged over three core issues - affordability (54.8), availability (52.8) and quality and safety (49.5). On affordability Sri Lanka ranked best at 61 followed by 66th in availability and 76th on quality and safety.

As per the Index compiled by The Economist, in South Asia, India ranked, 74th while Pakistan was placed 77th. Nepal ranked 81st in the index and Bangladesh ranked the lowest at 89th in the Global Food Security Index 2017.

Globally, Ireland ranked at the top while the United States, the UK, Singapore and Australia rounded up the top five in that order.

Sri Lanka’s strengths - subcategories scored above 75 on a scale of 0-100 - were Nutritional Standards (100), Food Safety (96), Food Loss (89.8), Volatility of Agricultural Production (84.3), Proportion of Population under Global Poverty Line (84.2), Urban Absorption Capacity (77.5) and Access to Financing for Farmers (75).

Sri Lanka’s challenges were Public Expenditure on Agricultural R&D (0), Gross Domestic Product per Capita (US$ PPP) (7.7) and Protein Quality (17.4).