The Impact of Natural Disasters on Food Security in Turkiye

Abstract

Food security refers to people's access to enough safe nutritious food in order to be able to lead a healthy active life. It also involves elements such as food availability and affordability, as well as people being able to access food that can be consumed healthily. Natural disasters, however, can seriously threaten food security. Disasters' effects on food security are especially more evident in countries such as Turkiye that are frequently exposed to natural disasters due to their geologic and geographical structure. For this reason, the study investigates the effects of natural disasters on food security in Turkiye. The research first creates the Food Security Index in order to estimate the effects of natural disasters on food security. The next phase follows the process of econometric analysis, which consists of three steps. Step one of the econometric analysis uses unit root tests to check the stationarity levels of the series. The second step uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test to examine the long-term relationship between natural disasters and food security. The third and final step estimates the effects of natural disasters on food security. According to the obtained results, the study shows earthquakes, storms, and floods to have a significant short- as well as long-term negative effect on food security. The overall impact of natural disasters on food security has also been determined to be negative.