Ranking of scenarios, actors and goals of food security: motivation for information seeking by food security decision makers

The establishment of the millennium development goals (MDGs) in 2000 and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 (several of which are relevant to food security) meant that countries may use these markers to evaluate their progress and development. In order to achieve the targets identified in the SDGs which focus on food security, two scenarios have been identified. The aim of this paper is to rank the scenarios which would better assist in achieving food security, the actors and the goals of food security, expecting that the results would serve to inform the motivation and information seeking habits of decision makers in three Caribbean countries. The analytic hierarchy process and point score analysis were used to analyse the ranks assigned by the respondents. It was found that overall for policymakers/stakeholders/experts, trade-based food security was ranked higher than self-sufficiency food security and that Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados ranked it more important than in Belize. Regarding actors in obtaining food security, government was ranked most important in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados but Belize felt that farmers were more significant. The economic goals of food security were ranked higher than physical and political goals, with socio-cultural goals ranked least important. Of the sub-goals, post disaster food security (physical); ensuring a stable food supply (political); having optimum levels of productivity (economic); and decreasing chronic non-communicable diseases and obesity (socio-cultural goals) were rated most important. These results reflect the motivation and information seeking behaviour of decision makers. They illustrate the ‘bias’ in searching and selecting information and where balance would be needed to treat with all aspects of food security.