IMPACT EVALUATION OF AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT ON FOOD SECURITY: A GLOBAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

This research deals with the impact of aquaculture development on food security. The added value of the analysis is to evaluate the impact of aquaculture development on the outcomes of food security instead of its determinants, and to perform a global assessment across developing countries. The thesis is structured in three chapters. Chapter 1 “Aquaculture and Food Security: a Snapshot” presents a complete overview of the key topics of this research, food security and aquaculture, analysing their definitions and trends, in order to clarify the context of this research and to highlight the complexity of the subject being discussed. Chapter 2 “Aquaculture Contribution to Food Security: a Literature Review” revises the literature investigating the contribution of aquaculture to food security by dimensions along with the methodologies applied to perform the empirical analyses. Chapter 3 “Impact Evaluation of Aquaculture Development on Food Security” evaluates, through a panel data, the impact of aquaculture development on food security outcomes in developing countries. The results of this research show that the set of selected aquaculture indicators has an impact on an important outcome of food security, the prevalence of undernourishment. In developing countries, aquaculture, whether developed through or without government interventions, can be addressed as one of the phenomena that may have contributed to the improvement of food security.