Political Economy of Food Security in the Middle East

The political economy of food security in the Middle East is characterised by acute resource scarcity, heavy import dependence and complex state interventions. Aridity and dwindling freshwater sources constrain domestic agricultural production, while population growth and urbanisation drive rising demand. Governments deploy a mixture of subsidies, price controls and strategic reserves to shield populations from volatility, yet these measures strain public budgets and can distort market incentives. International trade relationships have become a form of geopolitical leverage, with regions reliant on grain exports from distant suppliers vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions caused by conflict or diplomatic tensions. At the same time, new investments in hydroponics, desalination-driven agriculture and regional cooperation agreements seek to reduce reliance on imports and bolster resilience. Understanding these dynamics requires an interdisciplinary lens, combining insights from economics, political science, geography and environmental studies. The challenge is to align short-term emergency responses with long-term structural reforms that address water governance, land tenure, rural livelihoods and trade diversification, thereby forging pathways towards sustainable self-reliance and social stability.

Research from Nature Portfolio

No recent Nature Portfolio content available.

Political Economy of Food Security in the Middle East publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in political economy of food security in the middle east across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Political economy: The study of how political institutions, the economic system and social forces shape policy outcomes and resource distribution.

Import dependency: The reliance on external suppliers to meet domestic food requirements, expressed as a proportion of total consumption.

Virtual water: The volume of water embedded in the production of a traded commodity, reflecting hidden water flows across regions.

Food self-sufficiency: The degree to which a region can satisfy its food needs from its own agricultural output without imports.

References

1. Food security strategy to enhance food self-sufficiency and overcome international food supply chain crisis: the state of Qatar as a case study. Green Technology, Resilience, and Sustainability (2023).
2. Wheat Farmers’ Perception of Constraints and Their Adaptive Capacity to Changing Demands in Egypt. Agriculture (2023).
3. Virtual water, international relations and the new geopolitics of food. Water International (2022).