Here’s the Complete list of Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs)

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Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs)

The new list of LIFDCs consists of 47 countries, four less than the previous list. Three countries graduated out of the list based on income criterion – DjiboutiSolomon Islands and Viet Nam, and one country, India, graduated based on the food import criterion.

The list of low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs) was developed by FAO in the late 1970s to assist in analysing and discussing food security issues.

List of low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs) per region

  • Africa Countries – 36
  • Americas – 2
  • Asian Countries – 9

Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs)

List of low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs)

  1. Benin
  2. Haiti
  3. Nicaragua
  4. Burkina Faso
  5. Burundi
  6. Cameroon
  7. Central African Republic
  8. Chad
  9. Comoros
  10. Congo
  11. Côte d’Ivoire
  12. The Democratic Republic of the Congo
  13. Eritrea
  14. Ethiopia
  15. Gambia
  16. Afghanistan
  17. Bangladesh
  18. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  19. Kyrgyzstan
  20. Nepal
  21. Syrian Arab Republic
  22. Tajikistan
  23. Uzbekistan
  24. Yemen
  25. Ghana
  26. Guinea
  27. Guinea-Bissau
  28. Kenya
  29. Lesotho
  30. Liberia
  31. Madagascar
  32. Malawi
  33. Mali
  34. Mauritania
  35. Mozambique
  36. Niger
  37. Rwanda
  38. Sao Tome and Principe
  39. Senegal
  40. Sierra Leone
  41. Somalia
  42. South Sudan
  43. Sudan
  44. Togo
  45. Uganda
  46. United Republic of Tanzania
  47. Zimbabwe

LIFDCs are currently defined as nations that are:

  • First, a country should have a per capita Gross National Income (GNI) below the “historical” ceiling used by the World Bank to determine eligibility for assistance by the International Development Association (IDA) and for the 20-year IBRD terms, applied to countries included in World Bank’s categories I and II. The newly updated LIFDC list is based on the GNI for 2019 (estimated by the World Bank using the Atlas method) and the historical ceiling of USD 1 945 for 2019.
  • The second criterion is the net food trade position (i.e. gross exports minus gross imports) of a country averaged over the last three years for which statistics are available, in this case 2017, 2018 and 2019. Trade volumes for a broad basket of basic foodstuffs (cereals, roots and tubers, pulses, oilseeds and oils other than tree crop oils, meat and dairy products) are converted and aggregated by the calorie content of the individual commodities.
  • Third, the self-exclusion criterion is applied if a country meeting the above two criteria specifically requests to be excluded from the LIFDC category.

Furthermore, in order to avoid countries changing their LIFDC status too frequently – typically reflecting short-term, exogenous shocks – an additional factor was introduced in 2001.

This factor, called “persistence of position” postpones the “exit” of a LIFDC from the list, despite the country not meeting the LIFDC income criterion or the food-deficit criterion, until the change in its status is verified for three consecutive years. In other words, a country is taken out of the list in the fourth year, after confirming a sustained improvement in its position for three consecutive years.

Unless concerted action is taken, things could get worse for many LIFDCs, where population growth is projected to outstrip gains in food production, and the liberalization of the grain trade, under the Uruguay Round Agreement, is likely to increase food prices in the short term.