Food Security Indicators and Policy Initiatives in Samoa

Laupua Fiti ACEO Economic Statistics Samoa Bureau of Statistics July 2013

Defining Food Security FAO Defines Food Security as when: all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life WHO identifies three facets of food security: food availability, food access, and food use. Food availability is having available sufficient quantities of food on a consistent basis. Food access is having sufficient resources, both economic and physical, to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Food use is the appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation. FAO adds a fourth facet: Stability of the first three dimensions of food security over time

Food Security Indicators Based on these four facets & general criteria: FAO lists 26 primary & 9 supplementary indicators of food security Samoa provides data for FAO to estimate about 30 of these 35 indicators Gaps are primarily related to data on child undernourishment, but this is generally regarded as being very low in Samoa, indeed there is growing concern at the level of obesity amongst Samoan children

Food Security as a Policy issue in Samoa Strategy for the Development of Samoa (SDS) 2012 2016 states: Dedicated interventions will be directed at the agricultural (& fisheries) sector to raise domestic production to meet food security needs and boost export capacity. Agriculture Sector Plan, 2011-2015 Vision: Agriculture For Food and Income Security Sector Goal: To revitalize the Agriculture sector to improve its relative contribution to national GDP from its current level of 10% to 20% by 2015 Samoa Strategy for the Development of Statistics (SSDS),2011-2021 No specific mention of food security indicators Implicit in MDGs & NMDI

Sources of Data for Food Security Indicators Samoa obtains data that go towards food security indicators from: Agricultural Census (10 yearly) Household Income & Expenditure Surveys (5 yearly) Census of Population (5 yearly) Demographic & Health Surveys (10 yearly) Trade data (monthly) Market surveys, local agriculture & fisheries prices and production volumes (monthly) Administrative data from Ministry of Health & National Health Service & Land Transport Authority

SAMOA/FAO FOOD SECURITY INDICATORS DETERMINANTS OF (INPUTS TO) FOOD INSECURITY Availability Average dietary supply adequacy Food production index Share of energy supply derived from cereals, roots and tubers Average protein supply Average supply of protein of animal origin Physical access (conditions for physical access to food) Percentage of paved roads over total roads Rail lines density Road density Economic access (affordability) Food price level index Utilization Access to improved water sources Access to improved sanitation facilities OUTCOMES Inadequate access to food Prevalence of undernourishment Share of food expenditure of the poor Depth of the food deficit Prevalence of food inadequacy Utilization (food-related anthropometric failures) Percentage of children under 5 years of age who are stunted Percentage of children under 5 years of age who are wasted Percentage of children under 5 years of age who are underweight Percentage of adults who are underweight VULNERABILITY/STABILITY Domestic food price volatility Per capita food production variability Per capita food supply variability Political stability and absence of violence/terrorism Value of food imports over total merchandise exports Percentage of arable land equipped for irrigation Cereal import dependency ratio

Key Uses of Food Security Indicators in Samoa Development of national agricultural & fisheries strategies Monitoring changing food supply & demand and prices as inputs into national accounts and economic policy dialogues Imports Local subsistence production Impact of climate change Agriculture & fisheries contribution to GDP has fallen from 20.3% in 1998 to 8.8% in 2012 Assessing impact of natural disasters on households and production

Issues for Food Security Indicators Coordination Resources FAO food security indicators on Samoa are largely compiled by FAO with little reference to SBS Some FAO data are difficult to reconcile with SBS data; not clear how FAO processes data for international consistency Some data available e.g. on food prices in Samoa, but not included in FAO tables Need more feed-back and interaction with FAO on the published data Frequency of census and surveys makes regular updating difficult SBS lacks adequate and skilled staff to follow-up on food security (and many other) indicators

Some Indicators of Changing Food Security patterns in Samoa 450000 Samoa Agriculture Market Production 1993 - 2013 volumes lbs/per annum 400000 350000 Period of Taro Leaf Blight 300000 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 TARO BANANA COCONUT PUMPKIN TA'AMU Linear (TARO) Linear (BANANA) Linear (COCONUT) Linear (PUMPKIN)

50,000,000.00 Imports of Major Food Items SAT/per annum 45,000,000.00 40,000,000.00 35,000,000.00 30,000,000.00 25,000,000.00 20,000,000.00 15,000,000.00 10,000,000.00 5,000,000.00 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Rice Flour Sugar Chicken

20.0 Proportion of Own production in Food Consumption 18.0 16.0 14.0 12.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 Average all Households Lowest Quintile Lowest Three Deciles Highest Quintile 2002 2008

Laupua Fiti Laupua.fiti@sbs.gov.ws