Food Consumption Structure and Food Security—Through Mediating Effect Analysis of Agricultural R&D and Agricultural Investment

Wentai Bi, Yu Song (), Yang Liu, Zongze Li and Ying Zhang
Additional contact information
Wentai Bi: College of Economics and Management, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Yu Song: College of Economics and Management, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Yang Liu: Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Jalan Universiti, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Zongze Li: College of Economics and Management, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Ying Zhang: College of Economics and Management, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: Food security is the cornerstone that ensures the stable development of a country. Based on panel data of 31 provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2015 to 2019, we use the mediating effect model to explore the mechanism by which food consumption structure affects food security. The results indicate that grain consumption has a significant promoting effect on food security, while plant and animal food consumption have significant inhibiting effects on food security. Furthermore, agricultural R&D and investment play mediating roles in the impact of food consumption structure on food security. Obvious differences exist in the relationship between food consumption structure and food security between urban and rural areas, as well as between Eastern, Central, and Western regions. Animal food consumption had a negative and significant impact on food security, with a stronger effect on rural residents than on urban residents. Compared with the central and western regions, grain consumption and animal food consumption in the eastern region had a stronger marginal impact on food security. This paper enriches and expands the research on influencing factors of food security from the perspective of consumer demand, which has important theoretical value and practical significance for ensuring food security.

Keywords: food consumption structure; food security; food security evaluation system; agricultural investment; agricultural R&D (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12524/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12524/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12524-:d:930819

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().