A New Doctrine of Food Security of the Russian Federation: a Paradigm Change

Abstract

The adoption of the new Doctrine of Food Security is changing the approach to security. The paper summarizes implementation of the previous Doctrine, provides a comparative analysis of main provisions of the two doctrines. The authors believe that the positive results of implementation of the 2010 Doctrine were an increase in the production and consumption of basic food resources and a lower share of imported food products in retail commodity resources, the fulfillment of targets for production of most types of domestic food declared in the doctrine. At the same time, new challenges appeared over the ten-year period, including a significant change in the external economic situation, new economic restrictions, the need to clarify quantitative indicators of food security and improve the organizational and economic mechanism for ensuring food security. The authors believe that the main changes in the current doctrine focused on food quality issues, identifying specific national interests in food security, recognizing the need for technological and personnel development of agriculture, raising attention to development of commodity markets, clarifying indicators of food availability, expanding the list of agricultural products and self-sufficiency thresholds for food, displacement of development vector of the food sector from import substitution to positive trade balance and increasing functionality of the RF Government and the public authorities of the Russian Federation in ensuring food security.