A New Global Method for Measuring Food Self-Sufficiency: Introducing SSFSSR

There has been no unified global method to measure food self-sufficiency. I developed SSFSSR using FAOSTAT to calculate self-sufficiency for 64 items. I also created PPCR, showing that lowering PPCR can raise self-sufficiency without increasing production.
Goro Takahashi Apr 03, 2026

For many years, there has been no unified global method to measure national food self-sufficiency using standardized datasets and a common formula. Existing indicators—such as the conventional cereal-based self-sufficiency ratio—are limited in scope and fail to capture modern food systems.

I developed a new metric, the Supply-Side Food Self-Sufficiency Ratio -Supply side Food Self-sufficiency Ratio (SSFSSR), which was accepted by Agriculture and Food Security (BMC, Q1) in August 2025.
SSFSSR uses FAOSTAT data to calculate annual food self-sufficiency for 64 items, including cereals, livestock products, vegetables, fruits, edible oils, sugar, and aquatic products.

Two major contributions of this study are:

  1. Development of the Primary Product Conversion Rate (PPCR), enabling the conversion of secondary products into primary equivalents.

  2. A new finding that lowering PPCR increases a country's food self-sufficiency ratio without increasing actual food production.

This method provides a globally standardized and reproducible approach for policymakers, researchers, and international organizations concerned with food security.

Preprint:

Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13740850

Researcher Square: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5013312/v2

SSRN:  http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4943561

agriRxiv: https://doi.org/10.31220/agriRxiv.2024.00274

Published (Agriculture & Food Security):

  https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-025-00570-z