A new Food Secu­rity Risk Index has been released by a British firm that pro­vides risk assess­ment to busi­nesses look­ing to invest in other coun­tries. The index ranks all 148 nations to show what dan­ger each coun­try faces in future food short­ages or price shocks. The firm Maple­croft says that the United States, France, Canada, Ger­many and the Czech Repub­lic have the least amount of risk.

For our snip­pet, we turn to the coun­tries on top of the list that are the most vul­ner­a­ble to short­ages. From this AFP arti­cle that we found at The Province we read more about the inse­cure nations.

The five coun­tries top­ping the risk list — Angola, Haiti, Mozam­bique, Burundi and Demo­c­ra­tic Repub­lic of Congo — are all mired in poverty, but other fac­tors also boost vulnerability.

Nearly three decades of civil war in Angola has dis­placed mil­lions and wreaked havoc on agri­cul­tural infrastructure.

DR Congo and Burundi have also been rav­aged by con­flict, along with cor­rup­tion and poor governance.

Mozam­bique is, in addi­tion, buf­feted by weather-related nat­ural dis­as­ters, while polit­i­cally unsta­ble Haiti depends on for­eign aid for nearly half of its food needs.

The three most pop­u­lous coun­tries in South Asia also face food pre­car­i­ous­ness: Pak­istan, ranked 11th on the index, is at “extreme risk,” while Bangladesh and India are both at “high risk,” ranked 20th and 25th respectively.

“India may be one of the world’s key emerg­ing economies, but it is find­ing itself under increas­ing pres­sure from food secu­rity issues,” the report concluded.

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