Floods and food security: A method to estimate the effect of inundation on crops availability

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.

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

The far-reaching impact of climate change on water resources, particularly its intensification of scarcity, poses a substantial threat to the sustainable management of water in agriculture. To enhance cross-sectoral decision-making at various scales, it is vital to quantify both current and future water consumption, employing methodologies that assess the agricultural water footprint (WF). This study employs the Site-sPecific Agricultural water Requirement and footprint Estimator (SPARE:WATER) to evaluate the susceptibility of green and blue agricultural WF at various scales across Colombia. The assessment is conducted under two CORDEX (Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment)-driven climate scenarios, RCP2.6 and RCP8.5. High-resolution (0.22°) CORDEX climate model projections are used to drive the SPARE:WATER model, while historical weather data from fifteen stations (1977-2005) are employed to bias-correct the model's gridded data using the Equal Quantile Matching (EQM) method. This corrected data was spatialized using IDW interpolation. Ten major crops are selected based on their national production significance, based on the National Agricultural Survey. Crop characteristics such as harvested area, yield, and crop coefficients are obtained from local and FAO sources. The analysis focuses on both green and blue WF for the near future (2060) and far future (2099), compared to the present (2020). Preliminary findings underscore a national WF of 45 km3/yr, with important variations at the departmental level. The spatial variability of WF is influenced by both wet and dry years.  Cocoa, coffee, and palm oil emerge as crops with the most substantial WF, showcasing respective water requirements of 30 k m3/t, 18 k m3/t, and 8 k m3/t nationally. Regional variations reveal the significance of crops such as plantain and banana in the agricultural WF landscape. Under the RCP2.6 scenario, the green and blue WF projections for 2060 and 2099 exhibit marginal changes relative to 2020. Conversely, under the RCP8.5 scenario, a discernible increase, particularly in blue WF, is evident, with a surge of 96% by 2099. This trajectory underscores the heightened water requirements anticipated for pivotal crops like cocoa and coffee in the future agricultural landscape. These findings underscore the urgent need for informed water management strategies in the future of Colombian agriculture, particularly in the face of a high-emission scenario. The results of this study can inform policy and decision-making aimed at ensuring sustainable water resources management and food security under the evolving climate landscape.

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.

Rising agricultural water scarcity in China is driven by expansion of irrigated cropland in water scarce regions

Special Issue Introduction: Thinking Through “Being in the COVID‐19 World” and Bright Spots for our Food Futures

The Big Question

This study investigates the impact of economic inflation on food security and accessibility through the development of an econometric modeling approach. As inflation rates rise, the purchasing power of consumers diminishes, leading to increased food prices and potentially exacerbating food insecurity. This research aims to quantify the relationship between inflation and food security indicators, such as availability, access, utilization, and stability of food supplies. By employing time-series data and econometric techniques, the model captures the dynamic interactions between inflation rates, food prices, and socioeconomic factors affecting food security. The model incorporates key variables, including consumer price index (CPI), food inflation, income levels, and unemployment rates, to analyze their collective impact on food security across different demographics. The findings indicate that rising inflation significantly correlates with higher food prices, disproportionately affecting low-income households and vulnerable populations. This relationship highlights the necessity of understanding inflation's broader implications on food accessibility, especially in regions where food security is already a pressing issue. Future research directions are proposed, focusing on policy interventions aimed at stabilizing food prices and enhancing food security. Potential strategies include price controls, subsidies for staple foods, and targeted social safety nets for low-income households. Additionally, the study suggests further examination of supply chain factors contributing to food price volatility, such as transportation costs and global market dynamics, which can exacerbate inflation's effects on food security. This research contributes to the literature on food security by providing empirical evidence of inflation's impact on food accessibility and identifying critical areas for policy intervention. By addressing the complex interplay between inflation and food security, stakeholders, including policymakers and food industry leaders, can develop informed strategies to mitigate adverse effects and promote food security in inflationary environments.

This chapter reviews potential impacts of climate change on food security and nutrition in Southern Africa. Southern Africa is warming at twice the global rate, and many countries are being affected by multiple shocks at the same time. The average number of climate-related disasters/hazards has increased by nearly 35% since the 1990s. More frequent and intense extreme events increase food insecurity and malnutrition by destroying lands, livestock, crops and food supplies in Southern Africa. In Southern Africa, climate change means a warmer and drier climate and greater exposure to multiple climatic hazards including droughts, floods, cyclones, and warmer, shorter growing seasons. The review shows that the four pillars of food security, that is, availability, access, utilization and stability are affected by climate change. The strategies to address climate change impacts on food security are discussed and suggestions to improve them are analysed. Climate change is changing the dynamics of pests and diseases of both livestock and crops. In Southern Africa, new pests like fall armyworms, Tuta absoluta have negatively affected the productivity of maize and tomato crops.Food access and stability may be affected through disruption of market prices, infrastructure, transport, manufacturer and retail as well as direct and indirect changes in income and food-purchasing power of low-income consumers. Food utilization may be directly affected by climate change due to increase in mycotoxins in food and feed. Increase in water-borne diseases under climate change such as cholera which has been rampant in Southern Africa can reduce food utilization. Extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and cyclones, which have been on the increase in Southern Africa recently will affect the stability of food supply directly through disruption of transport and markets. Although climate adaptation, mitigation and resilient building will take many years, in the meantime, humanitarian food assistance is vital to address the impacts of climate change on food and nutritional security in the short term.KeywordsNutrition burdensFood systemsAdaptationResilienceClimate hazards

The Need for Investment in Rigorous Interventions to Improve Child Food Security

In the era of COP28, where most of the developed and developing economies concentrate more on the development of environmentally friendly energy resources to tackle the issue of climate change. Nevertheless, the literature lacks appropriate evidence regarding the influences of green energy and other resources on food security. This study analyses the influences of land use, green energy, and water resources on food accessibility in emerging economies, while also considering the important roles of natural resources, research and development (R&D) expenditure, and economic growth during 1980–2020. Due to non‐linear data dispersion, the novel moments quantile regression is employed. Results assert that land use has a positive significant influence on food accessibility in the presence of water resources and a weaker negative impact in the presence of natural resources. Natural and water resources are detrimental to food accessibility in the Emerging Seven (E7) countries. Furthermore, R&D expenditure and green energy positively (negatively), while economic growth negatively (positively) impacted food accessibility in the presence of natural resources (water resources). The results are robust and validate causal inferences that help develop appropriate policies for emerging economies concerning food accessibility or security. In this rapidly evolving era, most empirical studies consider environmental quality. Conversely, this study contributes to the literature by examining the factors influencing food accessibility, as this issue is of considerable importance because of the rapidly growing global population.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the nexus among economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and food security, while also analyzing the mediating effect of financial inclusion in mitigating the adverse impacts of EPU and strengthening food security in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Using a quantitative approach, panel data from 2004 to 2021 for 24 countries was evaluated to develop a comprehensive food security index covering four dimensions: food supply, food access, food utilization and food stability, which are further composed of 12 elements. The “Baron and Kenny Three Step Methodology” together with Sobel test was used to investigate the direct and mediating impact of financial inclusion on the association among EPU and food security. To mitigate the issue of endogeneity, instrumental variable technique and two-step generalized methods of moments (GMM) were used. For robustness, the authors use the average mean of EPU as a substitute and use Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 2 (No Hunger) as an alternative measure of food security. Findings The findings indicate that EPU adversely affects overall food security, including its dimensions such as food supply, food access, food utilization and food stability. This study further demonstrates that financial inclusion plays a significant mediating role in the association among EPU and food security. The results highlight that financial inclusion emerged as a notable factor in mitigating the negative effects of EPU on food security. Practical implications Governments and policymakers should prioritize and implement programs aimed at improving financial inclusion, which will help individuals and nations to adopt required tools they need to build resilience against EPU, and ultimately safeguarding their food security. This eventually leads toward attainment of not only SDG 2 (No Hunger) but also assists in achieving SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 10 (Inequality Reduction). These comprehensive efforts will also lead to the establishment of sustainable future for all. Originality/value There is limited body of research that explores the interplay of these three variables within a single study. Likewise, the role of financial inclusion as a mediator in the association among EPU and food security represents a novel contribution. The study uses a multi-indicator approach to comprehensively measure key variables such as food security and financial inclusion.

Strategies for agricultural production management based on land, water and carbon footprints on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Food Security Under The Era Of Climate Change Threat

The present research is realised in the frame of the ZEU project “LUCA” (Land Use, Ecosystem Services and Human Welfare in Central Asia). LUCA builds a platform for joint analysis of land use effects for a whole region, involving participants from various countries of Central Asia. In the transition from planned to market economies, the Central Asian Republics experienced rising poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition as well as serious degradation of water and land resources. The process to a market oriented economy has not been adequately supported by national institutional development. It resulted in a reduced living standard. Land use strategies in Uzbekistan determine the level of food security. While the area of rangelands is vast, the livestock farming and production of grains, fruits and vegetables play a major role in food security and also are the basic source of rural population income. More than 60% of Uzbeks live in rural area. Uzbekistan produces adequate calories to supply the population but almost 30 % lives below the food poverty line (IFPRI, 2006). The poorest population spends more than 60 % of income for food and takes a diet dominated by cereals. The existing system of the “state order” to produce cotton and wheat does not allow to growing up food crops in adequate amount. The survey is focused on questions on the socio-economic situation, societal determinants of food supply, food consumption patterns, eating habits, and coping strategies managing food crisis on household level. Markhamat region of Andijan province and Denau region of Surkhandarya province are the two most populated regions of Uzbekistan and presented as the study area. The data collection is based on the own structured questionnaire, on the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM), Food Consumption Score (FCS), and Food List Recall. Data analysis was done with SPSS. The main results show the percentage of food secure and food insecure households as well as the food consumption status of these households concerning cash and food crops households are producing on their farm land and/or on their homestead plot. The results show that the main indicator of the level of income, food security situation and food consumption status of household is the production strategy. Thereby the more households produce cotton and wheat they will have less income, and a worse food security and food consumption status.