Which of the following is/are NOT a dimension of food security ?
1. Availability
2. Accessibility
3. Affordability
4. Accountability
Select the correct answer from the code given below :

Question

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Correct — C, Only 4. Availability, accessibility and affordability are the three dimensions of food security in the standard Indian textbook framing, and the FAO's own list of pillars — availability, access, utilization and stability — is built on the same idea. Availability means enough food physically exists, through domestic production, stocks and imports. Accessibility means that food is within reach of every person, not just present somewhere in the country. Affordability means a household has enough income to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food. Accountability is a governance principle — the answerability of officials and institutions for their decisions. It is something you demand of a public distribution system, not a dimension of food security itself, and it appears in no standard list of pillars. So statement 4 alone is not a dimension, and the answer is (c).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Availability and accessibility are the first two dimensions in every framework — the FAO's 1996 World Food Summit definition itself speaks of all people, at all times, having physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. Marking them as 'not dimensions' inverts the concept.  (b) It correctly spots accountability but drags accessibility and affordability out with it. Affordability is precisely the economic-access half of the FAO definition, and accessibility is the physical half; a country can hold record foodgrain stocks and still be food-insecure if households cannot reach or buy them.  (d) Availability is the most basic dimension of the four — the supply side, covering production, distribution, exchange and buffer stocks. Calling it 'not a dimension' is the single clearest error among the options.

Concept: Food security means that all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life — the definition agreed at the 1996 World Food Summit. It is deliberately multi-dimensional: a country with full granaries is not food-secure if the poor cannot reach the grain or cannot pay for it. The FAO conventionally names four pillars — availability, access, utilization and stability — and in 2020 the High-Level Panel of Experts proposed adding two more, agency and sustainability, taking the count to six. Indian school and PCS syllabi compress the same idea into availability, accessibility and affordability.

State PCS 2025 Q57 — Economy PYQ with Answer

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