21ST CENTURY SKILLS OF ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE RELATED TO THE RESILIENCE OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

An accurate assessment of food security and its challenges is essential for formulating effective measures and promoting sustainable socioeconomic development. This study develops an evaluation system for China's food security, focusing on four dimensions: food supply, food access, food production stability, and food continuity. The entropy weight extended matter element model is used for quantitative processing, which ensures that the integrity of the information can be guaranteed to a greater extent while reducing the influence of subjective factors, and then, the study evaluates the food security of different functional areas in China, and finally, it diagnoses the main obstacles to food security by using the obstacle degree model. (1) From 2000 to 2020, China's food security level fluctuated, initially declining, and then increasing. The food security level in major production and marketing areas is generally higher, while the primary marketing areas exhibit the lowest security levels. (2) The level of grain yields and the total power of machinery per unit area are the key factors affecting food security; the impact of inputs of agricultural materials (fertilizers and pesticides) on food security has decreased and is constantly stabilizing. In the main marketing area, the per capita food share is significantly lower than in the other functional areas, which has the greatest impact on food security. (3) Analysis of the obstacle factors reveals that the food supply and access security subsystems are crucial for ensuring national, production, and marketing security. From 2000 to 2020, the average obstacle degrees of food supply and food access security at the national level were 46.56% and 21.17%, respectively; for the production and marketing areas, they were 58.47% and 21.45%; and for primary marketing areas, they were 37.69% and 26.59%. In major grain-producing areas, the main obstacles lay within the food supply security and food production stability subsystems, with average obstacle degrees of 53.77% and 15.67%, respectively, from 2000 to 2020. The above results provide a scientific basis for comprehensively improving the level of food security in China, optimizing the structure of food production in each functional area, and formulating regionalized policies for stabilizing and maintaining food production and supply.

The problem of counterfeit milk powder has occurred in recent years, and one of the standard techniques is to adulterate milk powder with wheat flour to reduce the cost. Since the morphology and colour of wheat flour are similar to that of milk powder, it is not easy to distinguish it from the naked eye, so a rapid method for detecting wheat flour adulteration in milk powder is urgently needed. This study used Raman spectral analysis as a novel and efficient screening technique. With the advantages of high sensitivity, non-destructive detection, low cost, no contamination, and online analysis, this method can play an essential role in rapid food detection and production control. By processing and analyzing the spectral data, a neural network model for identifying milk powder and wheat flour based on Raman spectroscopy has been developed in this study, and the model's performance has been evaluated. The results show that the model can quickly and accurately identify the proportion of wheat flour in milk powder to determine whether milk powder is adulterated or not. The results of this study are of great significance in ensuring the safety of infant milk powder. In the future, the method can be further optimized, for example, to improve detection speed and accuracy and to provide a more reliable quality control method for the milk powder industry.

With the development of globalisation, countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) heavily rely on shipping for food imports and supplies. With the unpredictable impacts of black swan events, such as the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which are traditional food export countries, global freight supply chains could dramatically change, which significantly affects the global food supply chain (FSC) resilience, requiring new solutions to be found. Therefore, it is vital to assess a country’s food importing system by sea to ensure its FSC resilience. However, it is challenging to analyse different food supply resilience levels on a national scale given the high uncertainties in the key relevant elements (e.g. food supplies and transportation) influencing FSC resilience. This paper aims to develop a new method to assess FSC resilience at a country level by pioneering the combination of the two most relevant attributes, its production-to-supply ratio and shipping transport connectivity, used to present food supply security separately in the current literature. Within this context, food production and import distance affecting the connectivity of various food supplies are selected to estimate FSC resilience in this study. The findings, including a new index framework to assess national food resilience, significantly contribute to a country’s food security and the rational development of countermeasures and policies when necessary. To demonstrate the significance of the findings, the resilience of the UK FSC is first evaluated in a real case study, followed by a comparative study with Canada, Australia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the FSCs of different countries. The findings of the studies can be used to monitor FSC resilience of the countries and provide rational policies for enhancing FSC resilience.

Food security in a just energy transition is a growing debate about designing sustainable food secure networks worldwide. Energy transition, land-use change, and food security are crucial factors for food security and provision. The increased demand for food products and customer preferences regarding food safety provide various issues for the current agriculture food supply chain (AFSC). Along with rising sustainability concerns, strict government regulation, food security, and traceability concerns compel managers, business houses, and practitioners working in AFSC to adopt new tools, techniques, and methodologies to model current food supply chain problems. Thus, in turn, design the food logistics network for food security. Hence, this study investigates the core determinants of food security and supply in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Lebanon over the period of 2010–2019. In order to estimate the objectives of the study, we employ the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares estimators (DOLS) to draw the study findings. However, the estimated results show a negative association of land use with food security and supply. Likewise, energy transition, gross domestic product, and agricultural value added (AVA) contribute to the food security supply. In contrast, urbanization's negative but insignificant contribution to the food supply in selected economies exists. Besides, another core objective of the study is to investigate the moderate role of the energy transition on the gross domestic product, agriculture sector, and land use and find the significant contribution to the food supply. However, the current study also tries forecasting for the next 10 years and employs the impulse response function (IRF) and variance decomposition analysis (VDA). Congruently, this study uses the pairwise panel causality test and finds exciting outcomes. The COVID-19 crisis has posed challenges such as energy consumption and food security issues. On behalf of the results, the current study proposes imperative policies to investigate the desired level of food supply. The findings provide valuable insights for experts, policymakers, and officials to take practical measures for energy use and food security challenges.

National resilience serves as an important foundation for security as it allows a nation to both safeguard and maintain its core functions during disruptions. Many factors affect a nations resilience but food security stands as a critical factor that is often overlooked. This element directly impacts public welfare, socio-economic stability, and effective governance. Issues in this sector leads to cascading impacts that undermine societal cohesion, weaken government capacity, and ultimately reduce national resilience. This study examines the relationship between food security and national resilience in Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach through a literature review, the research analyses academic works, institutional reports, and policy documents to explore how food security interacts with national resilience frameworks. The findings show that sustainable and stable food systems strengthen adaptability, social stability, and national unity, whereas disruptions in food supply or access may trigger social unrest, economic instability, and governance challenges. The study concludes that integrating food security into Indonesia’s defence and security strategies is essential for strengthening national resilience amid emerging and complex global threats.

Food and nutrition security has remained one of the top priorities of policy planners in post-Independent India. The country followed a multi-pronged strategy to improve and sustain food and nutrition security. The core objective of this strategy has been to sustain and improve food and nutrition security through food selfsufficiency. The strategy includes (i) strong support for raising food production, (ii) stable supply of some food staples and (iii) making food available at affordable prices. This strategy embraces several instruments that cover generation and adoption of technology, better availability of inputs, institutional credit, subsidy on farm inputs, improved infrastructure, expansion of irrigation, institutional reforms and mechanisms, competitive markets, remunerative prices for farmers/producers, public procurement, system of buffer stocks, open market sales, supply of food through public distribution system, nutrition interventions and trade policy. This strategy has helped India in several ways. Food production including livestock products and fish increased from 188 million tonnes (MT) during 1970-71 to 342 MT during 1990-91 showing an 82 per cent increase over two decades. In the next two decades, food production increased to close to 600 MTmarking a 75 per cent increase. In these two periods, the population of the country increased by 53 and 47 per cent, respectively. This has resulted in an increase in per capita production of total food from less than 350kg per person during the early 1970s to more than 500 kg in recent years. However, the effect of increase in per capita production of food recorded in the country is not visible in terms of the improvement in food and nutrition security. According to some studies based on the per person per day energy norms of 2400 Kcal for rural and 2100 Kcal for urban areas, there is deterioration in the prevalence of undernourishment based on energy intake during 1987-88 to 200405 (Deaton and Dreze, 2009). About 40 per cent children under age of 5 years are underweight and child mortality is also high. Based on such facts, serious questions are now being raised about the country’s achievements in food security. This

Food security is a condition related to the supply of food and individuals’ access to it. Food access and availability highly depend on price of food products. Therefore, this research looks at the impact of food price and other impediments over past years on access to food. We use a panel data set from 71 countries covering the period from the year 2000-2011. We employ a Generalized Least Squares procedure to overcome problems of heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation commonly observed in panel data. There is a clear case of the detrimental effect of domestic food prices and its volatility on access to food and thereby on food security. Findings also show that food loss at retail level critically determines depth of food deficit, more than that of the impact from national income.

Specialization in food production affects global food security and food systems sustainability

Who Eats, Where, What, and How? COVID-19, Food Security, and Canadian Foodscapes

Laboratory and field study were conducted to evaluate the effects of some bait additives namely molasses, sugar, dry fish and powder milk mixed with wheat flour to increase the acceptability of additives mixed bait and the efficiency of poison bait. The findings showed that the additives mixed plain bait led to an increase the palatability and consumption rate. The most accepted plain bait for rodent was the bait combination molasses + wheat flour followed by sugar + wheat flour. The highest mortality was observed from the bait in the treatment combination powder milk + dry fish + wheat flour +Zn3P2 (90%) followed by (powder milk + molasses + dry fish + wheat flour + Zn3P2) (80%) in laboratory. The average zinc phosphide bait consumption was highest in the treatment dry fish + wheat flour +Zn3P2 (1.56 g/rat/day) followed by molasses + dry fish + powder milk + wheat flour + Zn3P2 (0.80 g/rat/day). All these additives mixed with zinc phosphide increase the consumption rate and the efficacy of bait. In field trial the higher population reduction (76-86%) was achieved from the bait dry fish + wheat flour + Zn3P2 followed by dry fish + powder milk + wheat flour + Zn3P2 (76-80%) and the lowest in powder milk + wheat flour + Zn3P2 (30%). All these additives mixed with zinc phosphide increased the consumption rate and the efficacy of poison bait.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 41(3): 471-480, September 2016

As a large agricultural country, food security is of vital importance to the national economy and people's livelihood. In recent years, food production has been constantly restricted in order to meet the needs of urbanization and economic development. And problems such as resource compression, cost increase and insufficient investment in science and technology have gradually surfaced. In order to guarantee the food production safety, this paper comprehensively analyzes the status of China's food security from four aspects: food availability, food access, food utilization and the stability of food security. Through comparative analysis, it is known that the overall situation of China's food security has been significantly improved. It is better than the average level of developing countries. China also has advantages when compared with other developing countries with large populations, but there is still a certain gap with the average level of developed countries. China's food security situation is not balanced in different dimensions. The food availability situation measured by indicators such as per capita food output and average dietary energy supply has significantly improved. The food access measured by per capita GDP, domestic food price index, prevalence of undernourishment and so on, enhances continuously. The global hunger index was significantly reduced in food utilization, and the condition of food utilization measured by clean drinking water sources and good sanitation facilities was significantly improved. The lower stability index of political stability, the higher domestic food price volatility and per capita food production variability are not conducive to the stability of food security.

USE OF ANTI-CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN THE COUNTRY'S FOOD SUPPLY

Agriculture production is directly dependent on climate change and weather. Possible changes in temperature, precipitation and CO2 concentration are expected to significantly impact crop growth and ultimately we lose our crop productivity and indirectly affect the sustainable food availability issue. The overall impact of climate change on worldwide food production is considered to be low to moderate with successful adaptation and adequate irrigation. Climate change has a serious impact on the availability of various resources on the earth especially water, which sustains life on this planet. The global food security situation and outlook remains delicately imbalanced amid surplus food production and the prevalence of hunger, due to the complex interplay of social, economic, and ecological factors that mediate food security outcomes at various human and institutional scales. Weather aberration poses complex challenges in terms of increased variability and risk for food producers and the energy and water sectors. Changes in the biosphere, biodiversity and natural resources are adversely affecting human health and quality of life. Throughout the 21st century, India is projected to experience warming above global level. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers. Longevity of heat waves across India has extended in recent years with warmer night temperatures and hotter days, and this trend is expected to continue. Strategic research priorities are outlined for a range of sectors that underpin global food security, including: agriculture, ecosystem services from agriculture, climate change, international trade, water management solutions, the water-energy-food security nexus, service delivery to smallholders and women farmers, and better governance models and regional priority setting. There is a need to look beyond agriculture and invest in affordable and suitable farm technologies if the problem of food insecurity is to be addressed in a sustainable manner. Introduction Globally, agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. This vulnerability is relatively higher in India in view of the large population depending on agriculture and poor coping capabilities of small and marginal farmers. Impacts of climate change pose a serious threat to food security. “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit, 1996). This definition gives rise to four dimensions of food security: availability of food, accessibility (economically and physically), utilization (the way it is used and assimilated by the human body) and stability of these three dimensions. According to the United Nations, in 2015, there are still 836 million people in the world living in extreme poverty (less than USD1.25/day) (UN, 2015). And according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at least 70 percent of the very poor live in rural areas, most of them depending partly (or completely) on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is estimated that 500 million smallholder farms in the developing world are supporting almost 2 billion people, and in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa these small farms produce about 80 percent of the food consumed. Climate change threatens to reverse the progress made so far in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. As highlighted by the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC), climate change augments and intensifies risks to food security for the most vulnerable countries and populations. Few of the major risks induced by climate change, as identified by IPCC have direct consequences for food security (IPCC, 2007). These are mainly to loss of rural livelihoods and income, loss of marine and coastal ecosystems, livelihoods loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems and food insecurity (breakdown of food systems). Rural farmers, whose livelihood depends on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. Most of the crop simulation model runs and experiments under elevated temperature and carbon dioxide indicate that by 2030, a 3-7% decline in the yield of principal cereal crops like rice and wheat is likely in India by adoption of current production technologies. Global warming impacts growth, reproduction and yields of food and horticulture crops, increases crop water requirement, causes more soil erosion, increases thermal stress on animals leading to decreased milk yields and change the distribution and breeding season of fisheries. Fast changing climatic conditions, shrinking land, water and other natural resources with rapid growing population around the globe has put many challenges before us (Mukherjee, 2014). Food is going to be second most challenging issue for mankind in time to come. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers (Christensen et al., 2007). Climate change is posing a great threat to agriculture and food security in India and it's subcontinent. Water is the most critical agricultural input in India, as 55% of the total cultivated areas do not have irrigation facilities. Currently we are able to secure food supplies under these varying conditions. Under the threat of climate variability, our food grain production system becomes quite comfortable and easily accessible for local people. India's food grain production is estimated to rise 2 per cent in 2020-21 crop years to an all-time high of 303.34 million tonnes on better output of rice, wheat, pulse and coarse cereals amid good monsoon rains last year. In the 2019-20 crop year, the country's food grain output (comprising wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals) stood at a record 297.5 million tonnes (MT). Releasing the second advance estimates for 2020-21 crop year, the agriculture ministry said foodgrain production is projected at a record 303.34 MT. As per the data, rice production is pegged at record 120.32 MT as against 118.87 MT in the previous year. Wheat production is estimated to rise to a record 109.24 MT in 2020-21 from 107.86 MT in the previous year, while output of coarse cereals is likely to increase to 49.36 MT from 47.75 MT. Pulses output is seen at 24.42 MT, up from 23.03 MT in 2019-20 crop year. In the non-foodgrain category, the production of oilseeds is estimated at 37.31 MT in 2020-21 as against 33.22 MT in the previous year. Sugarcane production is pegged at 397.66 MT from 370.50 MT in the previous year, while cotton output is expected to be higher at 36.54 million bales (170 kg each) from 36.07. This production figure seem to be sufficient for current population, but we need to improve more and more with vertical farming and advance agronomic and crop improvement tools for future burgeoning population figure under the milieu of climate change issue. Our rural mass and tribal people have very limited resources and they sometime complete depend on forest microhabitat. To order to ensure food and nutritional security for growing population, a new strategy needs to be initiated for growing of crops in changing climatic condition. The country has a large pool of underutilized or underexploited fruit or cereals crops which have enormous potential for contributing to food security, nutrition, health, ecosystem sustainability under the changing climatic conditions, since they require little input, as they have inherent capabilities to withstand biotic and abiotic stress. Apart from the impacts on agronomic conditions of crop productions, climate change also affects the economy, food systems and wellbeing of the consumers (Abbade, 2017). Crop nutritional quality become very challenging, as we noticed that, zinc and iron deficiency is a serious global health problem in humans depending on cereal-diet and is largely prevalent in low-income countries like Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and South-east Asia. We report inefficiency of modern-bred cultivars of rice and wheat to sequester those essential nutrients in grains as the reason for such deficiency and prevalence (Debnath et al., 2021). Keeping in mind the crop yield and nutritional quality become very daunting task to our food security issue and this can overcome with the proper and time bound research in cognizance with the environment. Threat and challenges In recent years, climate change has become a debatable issue worldwide. South Asia will be one of the most adversely affected regions in terms of impacts of climate change on agricultural yield, economic activity and trading policies. Addressing climate change is central for global future food security and poverty alleviation. The approach would need to implement strategies linked with developmental plans to enhance its adaptive capacity in terms of climate resilience and mitigation. Over time, there has been a visible shift in the global climate change initiative towards adaptation. Adaptation can complement mitigation as a cost-effective strategy to reduce climate change risks. The impact of climate change is projected to have different effects across societies and countries. Mitigation and adaptation actions can, if appropriately designed, advance sustainable development and equity both within and across countries and between generations. One approach to balancing the attention on adaptation and mitigation strategies is to compare the costs and benefits of both the strategies. The most imminent change is the increase in the atmospheric temperatures due to increase levels of GHGs (Green House Gases) i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) etc into the atmosphere. The global mean annual temperatures at the end of the 20th

Food and water security: Analysis of integrated modeling platforms

Harnessing women’s potential for food production and security has been a challenge in Southern Africa. The face of food production in Southern Africa is often female, but more often than not, their roles are generally undervalued and constrained by gender inequalities and limitations on their access to resources, services, and market opportunities. This chapter explores how women involvement in food production can have a positive impact on food security in Southern Africa. The gender aspect of food security assume significance, as it is widely recognized that women are the custodian of food production in many communities in Southern Africa. There is a tendency of men and women participating unevenly in food production, have unequal access to productive resources and exhibit different levels of engagement in rural, urban and home-based food production. Despite this anomaly, there is still a common understanding that food production needs to be increased in order to cope with the increased human population and achieving food security in the region. With this in mind, food production and security have emerged as key development targets in Southern Africa. This has propelled the urgent need for promoting food production, reducing food insecurity and poverty reduction in its totality. One of the factors contributing to perpetual low food production and insecurity has been gender discrimination and/or lack of participation of women in agricultural programs and projects. In this chapter there is an attempt to describe the impact of gender-based discrimination on food production and its implication on food security. The indispensable role and challenges faced by women in food production are highlighted. The need to invest in education and training of women to support food production systems in order to accrue maximum benefit is acknowledged. In this regard, it is imperative that planning and implementation of any food production programs focusing on improving food security should be based on gender sensitive policies. Policies which give women due recognition as far as food production decision making processes are concerned are sought. The chapter concludes with the understanding that involvement of women in food production becomes a key component of addressing food insecurity in Southern Africa. The vulnerability of people in Southern Africa to food insecurity depends both on measures that can be implemented in a given context and the capacity of families, and women in particular, to respond to food shortages. It is important, therefore that food security remains high on the regional development agenda. The region should prioritize appropriate interventions which help women fully participate in food production and develop sustainable livelihoods.