Mamassi et al. (2026) Trade-offs associated with achieving food self-sufficiency: The underlying mechanisms

Identification

• Journal: Global Food Security
• Year: 2026
• Authors: Achraf Mamassi, Lucile Muneret, Nicolas Guilpart, Francesco Accatino
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100905

Research Groups

• Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR SAD-APT, Palaiseau, France.
• Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR Agronomie, Palaiseau, France.

Short Summary

This study synthesizes literature to identify the mechanisms driving trade-offs between food self-sufficiency (FSS) and ten major influencing factors, classifying them into primary (direct) and secondary (indirect) drivers. The findings reveal that FSS challenges are highly context-specific, with resource constraints dominating low-sufficiency regions and sustainability-related trade-offs prevailing in industrialized, export-oriented nations.

Objective

• To clarify the causal mechanisms and functional roles of primary and secondary factors that generate trade-offs with the production and consumption components of food self-sufficiency across different global regions.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, with specific regional analyses of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean basin, Gulf countries, Caribbean islands, China, Europe, and North America.
• Temporal Scale: Analysis of contemporary literature (including data from 2000–2020) and future projections for 2030 and 2050.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Systematic review following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol; interpretive synthesis of trade-off mechanisms.
• Data sources: 109 peer-reviewed scientific articles; FAO Food Balance Sheets (2018–2020) for calculating Self-Sufficiency Ratios (SSR).

Main Results

• Factor Classification: Factors are categorized as Primary (direct impact on production/consumption, e.g., water, land, climate, dietary patterns) or Secondary (indirect impact via intermediate processes, e.g., urbanization, crises, biodiversity).
• Production Trade-offs: Primary factors like water and agricultural land scarcity are the most significant constraints in regions with low SSR (e.g., Sub-Saharan Africa, Mediterranean), where they limit the ability to close yield gaps.
• Consumption Trade-offs: Driven by population density and dietary shifts. In low-income regions, population growth is the main driver; in middle-to-high-income regions, rising GDP shifts demand toward resource-intensive animal proteins.
• Regional Dynamics:
  • In low-SSR regions (Gulf, Caribbean), trade-offs are characterized by high import dependency and dietary shifts toward processed foods.
  • In high-production regions (Europe, USA, China, Brazil), trade-offs involve "secondary" factors like habitat quality and biodiversity, where agricultural intensification for FSS conflicts with ecological conservation.
• Urbanization Impacts: Acts as a secondary factor that reduces peri-urban agricultural land while simultaneously increasing food demand and shifting diets toward calorie-dense foods.
• Input Costs: Quantitative evidence shows that doubling the price of nitrogen fertilizer (from 10 to 20 Yuan/m³) or water can decrease FSS levels by 5% and 37%, respectively, in specific contexts like China.

Contributions

• Provides a novel conceptual framework that differentiates between primary and secondary drivers of FSS trade-offs.
• Maps specific trade-off mechanisms to geographic regions, highlighting that there is no "universal pathway" to food self-sufficiency.
• Identifies critical systemic gaps, such as the need to integrate farmer and consumer perceptions into FSS policy modeling and the lack of data for regions like South America.

Funding

• French National Research Agency (ANR) under the "Investissements d'avenir" programme (Reference: ANR-16-CONV-0003).

Citation

@article{Mamassi2026Tradeoffs,
  author = {Mamassi, Achraf and Muneret, Lucile and Guilpart, Nicolas and Accatino, Francesco},
  title = {Trade-offs associated with achieving food self-sufficiency: The underlying mechanisms},
  journal = {Global Food Security},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100905},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2026.100905}
}

Generated by BiblioAssistant using gemini-3-flash-preview (Google API)