Food security is a prerequisite to sustainable and equitable economic development and indeed a critical factor for economic and social stability in every country. Decentralized district-based planning is essential in India because of large inter-district variations. In the absence of vital data at the district level, the statelevel estimates are used for formulating district-level plans. This statistical fallacy compounds the problems of the districts acutely, more so in the food security sector. Using data from government reports, the paper shows that it is the apt time for constructing a Food Security Index (FSI) and tries to identify the districts that fare particularly badly and the factors behind the poor performance of these districts in Uttar Pradesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]