The role of the population's access to basic needs in building resilience and ensuring food security: Case study of Romania

Abstract

Water scarcity, climate change, price volatility, agricultural output variability, and geo-political instability have determined new stressors and situations of risks that exert pressure on agro-ecological systems, farmers, people’s food security, and generally affect the well-being of the population. In recent times, resilience is seen as providing a new approach on how to analyse the effects of shocks and stressors that threaten people’s well-being. The question is whether there is a relationship between the inadequate access to basic services, as stressor of people’s physical access to food and food availability on the market, and food security, as an outcome of people’s well-being. Statistical data have been analysed with simple regression model. The case study of Romania is discussed, using twenty two observations. The main findings show that access to essential services, such as water and sanitation, are important in explaining household’s resilience capacity. Other stressors, such as rail lines density and road density, which determine the physical access to markets, have a less significant influence on food security. The relevance of the results lies in their capacity to emphasize the role of people’s access to basic needs in strengthening the resilience of individuals, families and regions, and to ensure, as a consequence, food security.