Decline in SA’s food security not as bad as index suggests

Global agricultural indices typically have to contend with a number of challenges in the quest to provide a useful measure of any particular subject. Data sources’ consistency in quality, coverage, frequency and reliability across all countries is one of the significant difficulties. The weightings and ranking are also tricky challenges that the authors of the indices have to consider thoroughly, as these can be subjective.

I was reminded of this in. The index showed that South Africa’s standing as the most food-secure country in Africa had regressed to 69th position out of 113 countries, from 44th in 2019.