bpb...literature for environment management & life

Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis

2009-11-13T08:22:34+01:00

Keeping pace with the ever-changing time is quite a difficult task.
There were times when everyone had something to eat, even more than
required at many instances. Then, the population was low and resources
were sufficient. There was food security i.e. there was availability
and accessibility of food to the people. And now Time has shown its
dynamism. The 2009 FAO data shows that 105 million hungry people still
remain on the earth and in Nepal; 4 million people are facing severe
starvation. Up to 2 billion people now lack food security due to
varying degrees of poverty. Many countries are experiencing perpetual
food shortages and distribution problems. The number of people without
enough food to eat on a regular basis remains quite high, at over 800
million and is ever increasing. Over 60% of the world’s undernourished
live in Asia and Africa. The climate change is declining net
agricultural productivity which is leading in shortage of food stock.
Population paves geometric proportion and food has arithmetic
progression. In March 1, 2009-an AP (Associated Press) article cited
examples of hungry children in US who were being fed food such as
potato chips and hot dogs instead of nutritious food such as
vegetables, milk and fruits. Urban food crisis is likely because half

of the planet’s population live in urban areas. Food riots have taken
place in many places of the world and they will increase in the
future. The global economic crisis is making a sharp decline in
purchasing power of consumers. There are many hungry and malnourished
people in the world. No one should be deprived of food due to economic
constraints or social inequalities. In short, there should be food
justice. That is to say, there should be food for all in both crisis
and no-crisis period.

When people at all times have food that is affordable, safe and
healthy; food that is culturally acceptable; food that meets specific
dietary needs; food that is obtained in a dignified manner and food
that is produced in ways that are environmentally sound and socially
just-that state is termed as food security. Challenges of climate
change, over-population and global economic crisis are compelling us
to redefine our thinking towards food. Food is the basis of our energy
and all metabolic activities of the body. Life is just impossible
without food. The global economic crisis is hitting hard the lives of
small scale farmers. Many people are being starved and those who are
getting food are not getting it in a regular basis. The available food
is not so nutritious. Many epidemics are spreading due to contaminated
food. Many people live in poverty and do not have enough money to get
food. Some live in places where there just are not enough food
resources. Others have enough food, but it’s not healthy or clean. All
these people lack food security. Global water crisis is spurring heavy
grain imports. With every 2-2.5% grain price hike-the number of hungry
people will rise by 1%. Increased farming for use in bio-fuels, high
world oil prices, global population growth, climate change and loss of
agricultural land to residential/industrial development have resulted

in grain price hike. At this time of crisis, entire world needs to
address agriculture and population growth to achieve food security.

Achieving food security implies stopping this crisis before it takes
the form of a calamity. The man who strongly fought against world
hunger was Dr. Norman Borlaug- the father of Green Revolution. His
approach fed more than a billion people at the time of economic
depressio9n and acute food shortage. But the green revolution
techniques also heavily rely on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and
herbicides which are developed from fossil fuels. Treating food the
same as other internationally traded commodity is terrible mistake. In
a press conference of October 2009, Bill Clinton said that we took
food crops as color TVs instead of a vital commodity which is quite
true. The price setting of food is also a risk to food security
besides fossil fuel dependency and our negligence. Consumers’ behavior
to keep stock of food stuff leads to price hike which is great threat
for food security of commoners. Just 20% of affluent people of the
world have 80% of total food stock. Food is being widely misused by
economically sound people. Food is misused or thrown by elites. Their
pets get plenty of food whereas a farmer’s family has to remain hungry
for days. Food is being misused in booze making and in fodder and
feed. Poor states, in future, will produce food for the rich ones at
the expense of their own hungry people, known as –neo-colonialism.
This is also a great threat for food security.

In 1996, World Food Summit was held in Rome to renew global commitment
to combat hunger and passed Rome Declaration which aims at halving the
number of chronically undernourished people on earth by 2015. UN
Millennium Development Goals aims at eradicating extreme hunger and
poverty via enhancement of agricultural productivity. The greatest

challenge we are facing at present is to feed a large number of
population. We have to create households where its occupants do not
have to live in hunger or fear of starvation. We all have to work to
eradicate hunger-hunger which perpetuates malnutrition, reducing
ability of adults to work, children’s ability to learn and have
healthy and productive lives.

Asia will be hit hard by food crisis. Demand of food in Asia will
double in forty years. UN Climate Report warns that Himalayan glaciers
of Asia would disappear out by 2035 as temperatures rise. Severe
floods and droughts will occur, the Report further warns. Now is the
time to think and act (respond). As we know, global climate change is
highly affecting winter season crops. Hence optimum yield has to be
derived from rainy season. For instance, Sitala, Deuti, Manakamana,
Posilo varieties of maize are those hybrids which give 4-5 times more
yield than the local ones. We have to increase the cropping intensity.
We have to use inter-cropping and mixed cropping to increase yield per
unit area. Due to the topography of Nepal, the time from planting to
harvesting is 4-9 months. Varieties of crops need to be selected based
on climatic zone.

Many people in Nepal practice subsistence farming. More than half of
Nepalese population is indulged in agriculture. Youth population is
going abroad for manual labor or for pursuing studies. Many youth in
the nation are indulged in political organizations and involved in
various disruptive activities. Agriculture is not taken as socially
recognized job. The educated agriculture technicians are confined in
rooms. Very few farmers are adopting the modern technology, pure seeds
and balanced fertilizers (chemical and bio-fertilizers). Government
has also failed to provide subsidy to poor farmers. In context of
Dadeldhura, a far-western district of Nepal, land holding capacity is

quite less and number of small farmers is quite high. The agriculture
dependent population is quite high or feeding population is higher
than working population. In 19 VDCs and 1 municipal; 60 5 VDCs in
Dadeldhura do not have enough food to feed themselves the whole year.
People do not want to keep cattle. If there’s no cattle-there’s no
manure. And if there’s no manure, agricultural productivity
automatically declines with the decline in soil fertility and soil
productivity.

In Nepalese context, hill should supply ghee, vegetable, dairy
products, fish, meat and dry fruits whereas terai has to supply
adequate grains. The food produced has to meet the food requirements
of the nation. Government should address the subsistence farmers and
rural areas. Approaches of Integrated Pest Management, Integrated
Nutrient Management, Integrated Environment Management, Sustainable
Soil Management, hydroponics, aeroponics and genetic engineering have
to be used to increase food production. Spending on technologies
designed to boost production e.g. liquid manure spreader help to
improve food security. Climate relevant varieties and proper
agri-education have to be given to farmers. Illegal export of food
crops should be checked. Drip irrigation system has to be used.
Off-season production should be increased through green house
establishment. Organic farming system should be practiced. Use of
genetically engineered (GE) crops help to maintain food security in
developing countries like Nepal. Relay cropping can also be done at
water-logging sites. There should be Public Food Bank in each and
every VDC of the nation in order to maintain buffer stock. Food
preservation methods can also be used such as heating, cooling,
drying, chemical application, fermentation and ionizing radiation e.g.
pickles, dried apples, dry cauliflowers. Fermentation (a best example

is mushroom cultivation) method is best suited for our nation.
To achieve food security in this crisis period, people should
participate in agriculture. There should be extension of technology
and appropriate use of varieties, fertilizers and compost manure.
Water sources have to be exploited through drip irrigation and rain
water harvesting technologies. The governments of every nation should
subsidize irrigation and fertilizers. Drought tolerant crops should be
made available to farmers. Governments should also encourage
co-operative farming. There should be provision of plastic ponds.
People need to change their food habit. Nepalese have to leave cereal
crop dependency and divert to vegetables and fruits. Wild food plants
should also be consumed. Flood resistant, deep water and drought
resistant crop varieties should also be used and cultivated. Vertical
farming (hydroponics and aeroponics) should also be adopted. Concept
of Community Food Security Coalition should be enacted and anti-hunger
movements should be launched. Agriculture experts need to work to
check soil fertility exhaustion and land degradation. Food insecurity
is a public calamity. Simultaneously, obesity, undernourishment and
hunger are encouraging food insecurity. The trend of population
increase should be addressed to discourage food insecurity. The
distribution of poisonous food such as in Jajarkot by WFP also hinders
food security.

UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon has said “Food security is about economic,
environmental and national security for individual homelands and the
worlds.” There should be short term relief strategies such as food
banks and soup kitchens; capacity building strategies such as
composting, vegetable gardening, food buying clubs and farmers’ market
or systems change strategies such as municipal food charters. The
world governments have to be expertise small-scale farmers to improve

crop-yields to get surplus produce in the market. The quality of food
also needs to be maintained. There goes a saying about hunger “If you
give man a fish, you feed him for a day but if you teach a man how to
fish, you feed him for his whole life.”

If food security is not achieved in time, there would be large metal
cans to store money and only small lockers to store food grains in
future (it is a grim prediction and we have to work to make it a
myth). I also wish success to debate being held by the FAO on the
topic “How to Feed the World in 2050.” May the slogan for this year’s
World Food Day spread consciousness in all of us to achieve food
security the world over. And we need to realize that we have to feed 9
billion people in 2050 which can be done working for food security
from here, right now.

( Presented above is an article written by Bal Mukund Bhatta (14). He is studying
in Grade 10 at Shree Mountains Higher Secondary School, Dadeldhura. As
part of World Food Day celebration, the District Agriculture Office,
Dadeldhura had organized an inter-school essay competition on October
the 30th 2009. Bal Mukund Bhatta has stood first in the competition
whose topic is given above. The essay he wrote at the very competition
is also typed above.

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Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis

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