Uman NUH | today: 03/28/2024

Economic availability of food in the conditions russian-ukrainian war

Author(s) Mudrak R.P., Doctor of Economics, , Uman National University of Horticulture
Category Economics
year 2022 issue Issue number 100. Part 2
pages 43-55 index UDK 338.439.053-021.161:355.01(470+477)«20»
DOI 10.31395/2415-8240-2022-100-2-43-55 (Link)
Abstract The russian-ukrainian war, which began in 2014 and resumed in the form of large-scale hostilities on February 24, 2022, led to an deterioration in the affordability of food for Ukrainian citizens. With the beginning of russia's occupation of ukrainian territories, the number of ukrainians living below the actual poverty line has increased sharply – in 2015 their number increased more than 3 times or to 20.2 million people. At the beginning of 2021, the population with an average per capita income per month below the actual subsistence level was 8.8 million people. Since 2015, Ukraine has had a population that consumes on average less than 2,100 kcal of food in energy equivalent per day, i.e. has experience of temporary or chronic hunger. At the beginning of 2021, this figure broke the record, reaching 26.2 %. The worst situation with access to food was in oblasts where internally displaced persons from the temporarily occupied territories found temporary or permanent shelter. Confirmation of the presence of a significant number of Ukrainian citizens in a state of food danger is the statistics of the share of food expenditures in the structure of total expenditures of households in Ukraine, which exceeds the threshold of 60 % for households of decile group I and close to this value for households of II, III and IV decile groups. Low incomes are the main reason why Ukrainian citizens do not consume many valuable foods – dairy products, fresh fruits, berries and grapes. The economic crisis provoked by russia's military aggression will worsen the economic availability of food for the most vulnerable in Ukraine. Therefore, it is necessary to plan additions to the existing measures of social protection of the most vulnerable groups, additional. First of all, it is the launch of a food stamp program for households with per capita incomes below the subsistence level.
Key words food security, affordability, war, poverty, hunger, social assistance, food stamps
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