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Food Security and Insecurity
World food
prices are at record highs
Food Security
undoubtedly has been the issue of plights for poor countries and has
become a top priority on political agenda in all countries,
under-developed, developing or developed.
Climate change will
worsen the living conditions of farmers, fishermen and
forest-dependent people who are already vulnerable and food
insecure. Hunger and malnutrition will increase. Rural communities
dependent on agriculture in a fragile environment will face an
immediate risk of increased crop failure and loss of livestock.
The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change ( IPCC ),
show that even if emissions be reduced to below half of 1990 level
by 2050,
a temperature rise of up to 2oC above
pre-industrial levels will be unavoidable. This rise of 2oC
will aggravate
various security risks with increasing
extent and frequencies of extremes of climate in in context of
global
warming. However, if left unmitigated, the adverse
warming effects will be unprecedented and irreversible.
Climate change or global warming will cause
All these will bring about drop in crop and
grain production. Moreover, hike in fertilizer prices which react in
tandem with oil prices
will further drive farmers
to resort to forest clearing for new fertile lands, leading to
food security and social
problems, and further exacerbate climatic disasters.
Besides the general trend of
population increase, the robust economic growth in some Asian
countries like China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, has
improved people's affordability and lifestyle and dietary change. This creates high
inflation rate due to price hike not only in items like dairy
products, eggs, meat protein, vegetables and fruits, but also the
basic food grains. Fear of food shortages has
given rise to bans, quotas, taxes, and other restrictions on
the export of food, commodities and raw materials. Hoardings are on
the rise due to rising demand and
prices.
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Not all rich countries are self
sufficient in food. Comparison in food self-sufficiency among 12
developed countries in the world shows
Australia topping the list
with
237%, Canada 145%, the US 128%, and France 122%. Countries with
low figures includes Switzerland, at 49%, South Korea 47% and
Japan
being lowest at 39%.
Due to soaring worldwide food prices, food
security has
increasingly become a priority issue on political agenda of
most developing and developed countries. |
In
India, the world's second most populous country, several
agricultural factors may provoke its potential food
insecurity:
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farming technology is relatively backward.
-
lack
of ways of dissemination of knowledge in best practices
in cultivation
-
lack
of awareness and solutions in pest-related problems
-
lack
of incentives given to the farming sector to encourage
higher farm productivity.
-
new
budget reflects an under provisioning of food, oil, seed
and fertilizer subsidies to the farming sector.
-
inadequate storage, refrigeration and infrastructure
facilities for perishables, like fruits and vegetables
-
lack
of breakthroughs in farming practices
China is the largest wheat
producer in the world thanks to its well-established policy
in agriculture. China recently experiences the worst
drought
in 60 years which is threatening its wheat harvest.
Traditionally self-sufficient in grain, China may one day
need to import wheat to add to its stockpile. This would
definitely cause
upward surge in food grain prices and
aggravate global food stress.
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Drought too occurs at other
parts of the world: Australia, Argentina, the Black Sea.
Drought in the
Black Sea region cut Russia's wheat harvest
by a third in 2010. A subsequent ban on
wheat exports drove prices up.
Reuters
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Japan, though
being the world's third largest economy, is
not self-sufficient in food grains. Japan is
the world’s largest importer of food. It is
the largest corn importer and also the 3rd
largest soybeans importer in the world. 86%
of its wheat supplies and 50% of the meat
products consumed are sourced from
imports too.
Japan's
ministry of agriculture sets a goal of raising
food self-sufficiency to 45% by 2010, but it
has since pushed back the target to 2015.
In
March 2011, Japan experienced multiple
disasters of 9.0 Richter scale
earthquake, tsunami with 10 m high waves
which partially ruptured its nuclear
reactors. The catastrophe has caused
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destruction of
rice fields, grain storage and
transportation infrastructure, radioactive
contamination of water, crops and livestock.
This placed Japan instantly as a country
facing humanitarian food and water crisis.
Japan's sudden new food demand caused prices
hike.
The massive
cyclone
and
flood that hit Australia, the
winter storms
in the US, Europe, Japan,
Russia and China are but a few of the recent
catastrophic weather that hit some major
grain zones of the world.
turnbacktogod.com |
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The political unrests in the Middle East,
the subsequent high oil prices, the greater
conversion of
cereals food to bio-fuels,
the speculation on agricultural
commodity futures too
cause food price
increase.
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There are concerns that biofuels have partly
contributed to the global food shortage and
driven up food prices; and that more crops
are turned into fuel instead of food,
threatening food security.
Left:
Oil palm for biodiesel
Right:
Corn for bioduel |
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Africa is one of
the continents most plagued by food shortage,
as most countries here are net-food importers. They
have low adaptive capacity
and experience multiple stresses.
Stresses include
increasing
These are very common issues leading to
food
insecurity in many African countries. They cannot be easily
overcome at national level. Regional coordination and
collaboration integration is conceived as a viable solution
to enhance productivity and competitiveness.
The
president of International Fund for Agricultural
Development, IFAD suggested:
5
key areas for addressing food security issues:
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Increasing agricultural productivity through
drought, heat and salt resistant crop varieties,
capacity building and technology transfer;
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Increasing water productivity and savings;
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Combating
desertification and
land degradation through projects for
soil and water conservation and re-vegetation;
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Monitoring of natural resource use,
and capacity building for
sustainable land management
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Improving infrastructure, such as roads,
financial services, marketing services and price
information services; |
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Engaging youth in the agricultural and
agro-processing and trading sectors to reduce
unemployment and raise education levels. |
African farmers given
drought tolerant maize variety
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Maize is the most widely grown
staple crop in Africa with more than 300 million
dependents.
70% of people in Africa rely on agriculture for
their livelihoods and food security. Maize cultivation
in
Africa have been under constant
threats of drought as
three-quarters of the world’s
severe droughts have occurred in Africa over the past 10
years.
Droughts
lead to crop failure, food price hike, hunger,
undernourishments
to the poverty-stricken Sub
Saharan African Continent and many countries in the
world. One of the fundamentals to realizing food security lies in
the development of
drought-tolerant
crop varieties which are also high yielding. This could
be attained through biotechnology.
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Equally essential
is the ability of the small-scale farmers to adopt
integrated crop management practices, supported by the
strong political will of the government to mitigate
drought impacts.
Currently in Africa,
there are many international organizations working in
close collaborations
with the long-term goal to solve
food security issues:
Water Efficient Maize for Africa
(WEMA) partnership to address the effects of drought in a
cost effective way to African smallholder farmers;
African
Agricultural Technology Foundation,
AATF, to contribute project management
expertise, technology stewardship
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
to provide high-yielding maize
varieties that are adapted to African conditions,
Monsanto to provide proprietary germplasm,
advanced breeding tools and expertise, and
drought-tolerance transgenes developed in collaboration
with BASF;
Agricultural research systems, farmers’ groups, seed
companies in Africa
A Project that targets to give African Farmers
Drought Tolerant Maize - Africasciencenews.org Jan
2009
Stress-tolerant rice for
poor farmers in Africa and South Asia
Project has received approval for funding by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
through a grant to the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) and
the Africa Rice Center (WARDA)
for US$19.9 million.
Currently, more than a billion people worldwide
live on less than a dollar a day and nearly one
billion live in hunger. Over the next 50 years,
the population of the world will increase by
about 50%. About half of the world’s population
consumes rice as a staple cereal, so boosting
its productivity is crucial to achieving
long-term food security.
In
addition, the project aims to build the capacity
of researchers and seed producers and promote
the exchange of stress-tolerant rice varieties.
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A new strategy to
genetically engineer rice and other crops to
make them more tolerant of drought, salt and
temperature stresses, while improving their
yields, is being reported by molecular
biologists at Cornell University, headed by
Ray J. Wu, and Ajay Garg, Cornell professors of molecular
biology and genetics.
Photo and information origin: http://www.news.cornell.edu
Growing
in the same
salty soil conditions, the rice plants at
left were genetically modified by Cornell
biologists to produce trehalose sugar and
resist environmental stresses, while the
"normal" plants, at right, were not.
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Photosynthesis, by which plants use solar
energy to convert carbon dioxide into
carbohydrates for growth, varies among plant
species. Rice species, have a relatively
inefficient mode of photosynthesis (known as
C3). Others like maize and sorghum, have a
more efficient mode known as C4.
Photosynthesis C4 is 50% higher than that of
C3 crops.
IRRI is using modern molecular tools in its
research to converting the photosynthesis of
rice from C3 form to the C4 of maize, to
increase yields by 50%. |
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Africasciencenews.org: Multimillion dollar
rice project |
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C4
(from maize) to replace C3
in Rice |
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The Cornell biologists
showed stress tolerance by introducing the genes
for trehalose synthesis into Indica rice
varieties, which represent 80% of rice grown
worldwide. They envisage the same strategy to
work in Japonica rice varieties, and a
range of other crops, including corn, wheat,
millet, soybeans and sugar cane.
(Pic: Cornell molecular biologists Ajay Garg,
left, with 'normal' rice, and Ray Wu, with
transgenic rice grown under the same
environmental stresses.) |
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They are
placing the new technology in the public domain
to make seeds for stress-tolerant crops
available worldwide.
Project
is expected to increase rice yield of the poor
farmers in Africa and Asia by 50%, over the next
10 years, benefiting at least 18 million
households in the long term.
The same plants in simulated drought conditions,
with the modified stress resistant version on the right.
Photo and information origin: News.cornell.edu |
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New Challenges!
While
the increased productivity with new crop varieties
increases grain yield and partially help to mitigate
food shortage, it has led to nutritional problems.
The high-yield varieties are usually low in minerals
and vitamins. So, many people in the food stress
areas of Africa and Asia, while having been spared from
starvation might in the long run, become vulnerable
to mineral deficiency- related illnesses.
The new
varieties require continuing application of
hazardous pesticides and environmentally damaging
fertilizers. The need to reduce these inputs to
achieve more
sustainable agriculture
thus pose a new challenge in the hunt for a solution
variety.
Millions at risk of malnutrition
and hunger
Brooding of global social and economic
instability
The soaring price has caused
inflation which erodes a major
part of worker's income and the
economic growth of a country.
Equally worrying is that it is
placing millions at risk of
malnutrition and hunger, and is
brooding global social and economic
instability.
In March
2011, FAO called for
greater investment in
agriculture, commenting that
that world food prices will
continue and persist the upward
hike to record high. The global population
increase of 2 billion by 2050 - will
need a
70% increase in global
food production and a 100% increase
in the developing countries. In
opposite direction, the share of
official agriculture assistance
fell from 19% in 1980 to 3% in
2006, with current standing at
5%. Developing countries only
allocate 5% of their national
budgets to the sector, instead
of 10%, despite its contribution
to gross domestic product,
exports and the balance of
payments"
FAO
commended the United Arab
Emirates for pursuing its late
leader, Sheikh Zayed's policy to
attach great importance to the
agricultural sector, who
declared
"Give me
agriculture and I will give you
civilization".
References and Sources
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