Is Food Security Sustainable? - Evidence from A District-Level Study of Uttarakhand

Food Security Under The Era Of Climate Change Threat

Gaining Acceptance of Novel Plant Breeding Technologies.

Food insecurity presents a serious development challenge in Kenya. It is estimated that 11 million Kenyans suffer from acute hunger caused by food insecurity at the household and community levels. Nyando basin in Western Kenya experinces acute food insecurity caused in part by by perennial floods within the basin, extreme household poverty and high disease burden. There is consensus among food security scholars and policy advisors that communities must be placed at the center of sustainable food security policy and interventions. Kenya’s National Food and Nutrition Security Policy places communities at the center of food security; further providing impetus for the design and implementation of sustainable sustainable community food security projects. The success of sustainable sustainable community food security projects may depend on the involvement of stakeholders in sustainable community food systems.However, few studies have examined the relationship between stakeholder involvement and implementation of sustainable sustainable community food security projects. This study was conducted in the Nyando basin in three community projects involved in highbrid cassava, sorghum and sweet potatoes farming. Two hundred and forty-five stakeholders involved in sustainable community food security projects in Nyando basin were interviewed using a questionnaire. Respondents included community farmers drawn from three food community self-help groups, county government officials, agricultural extension officers, managers of community based and non-governmental organizations involved in cassava, sorghum and sweet potato farming within the basin. Descriptive and inferential data were analysed. Descriptive data included frequencies, means and standard deviation. Inferential statistics included correlation coefficient, coefficient of determination, ANOVA and regression coefficient. The study found statistically significant relationship between stakeholder involvement and implementation of sustiable sustainable community food security projects. It is recommded that stakeholder involvement should be enhanced in sustainable community food security projects to promote timely implementation and completion of sustiable sustainable community food security projects, reduce the cost of implementation, ensure sustainable farming practices. It is also recommended that stakeholder involvement should be integrated in sustainable community food security policies and projects.

IntroductionThis study examines the resilience of the agrifood systems amid geopolitical tensions with a primary focus on the Ukraine-Russia war and its increased effects on global food security, climate change, and post-pandemic recovery. The study explores different resilience elements, scenarios, and behaviors of agrifood systems, highlighting how geopolitical conflicts disrupt resource availability and economic stability. Further, it explores the existing Resource Nexus and its influence on sustainable food and nutrition security amid geopolitical tension. Much research focuses on agrifood systems' resilience in the context of climate change and pandemics, repeatedly overlooking the impacts of geopolitical tensions and related policies enacted for sustainable food security.MethodsFocused on geopolitical tension as an influence on food security, 76 articles were systematically reviewed to identify key resilience elements and scenarios enacted based on countries' development, discovered major vulnerability indicators, and Resource Nexus of agrifood systems.ResultsThis review leads to the identification of four key resilience scenarios of the agrifood system amid geopolitical tensions: fragility reduction, robustness building, adaptive strategies, and transformative change over time. In general, the reduction of agrifood system fragility was more prevalent compared to the other three scenarios. There was a decline in the agrifood system's performance due to the existence of some policies that increased the system's instability over time. The study further identifies that the impact of enacted resilience policies on sustainable food security is not uniform. It often influences positive or negative outcomes depending on its feedback nature at different operational levels of the agrifood system. During geopolitical tensions, food, energy, and finance are the most affected sectors, followed by other interconnected resources such as land, water, food (LWF), and water, energy, and food (WEF).DiscussionIn the presence of effective policies and scenarios, the agrifood system experiences improved resilience and sustainability that contribute to the beneficial relationship between resources, and all pillars of food security.

Women produce between 60 to 80 percent of the food in Nigeria. They are also responsible for managing household resources, yet their key role as producers and providers and their critical contribution to household food security has not been fully recognized. Therefore, this research identified the vital roles of women as the major pillars for achieving sustainable household food security. The result showed that women play significant roles in food availability and food security. Also, a positively significant relationship was shown between income generating activities and women's roles in ensuring food security. Due to the fact that women face a lot of social, cultural and economic constraints in performing their roles, there is therefore the need for capacity building to enhance income generating activities through provision of credit facilities, education and other resources for sustainable national and household food security.

Food and nutrition security are intimately interconnected, since only a food based approach can help in overcoming malnutrition in an economically and socially sustainable manner. Food production provides the base for food security as it is a key determinant of food availability. This paper deals with different aspects of ensuring high productivity and production without associated ecological harm for ensuring adequate food availability. By mainstreaming ecological considerations in technology development and dissemination, we can enter an era of evergreen revolution and sustainable food and nutrition security. Public policy support is crucial for enabling this.

Food security is significantly associated with agricultural sector, socio-economic activities of people, ecosystem services, geographical location, political stability and climatic factors in a country. Aforesaid activities are also useful to increase agricultural sustainability. Thus, assessment of food security and agricultural sustainability is complex and controversial. Therefore, this study develops district-wise food security index (FSI) as a measurement of food security and agricultural sustainability in Gujarat during 2001–2017. The composite Z-score technique was used to develop FSI. The descriptive results indicate that most districts were in poor position in food security due to high diversity in climatic factors, ecosystem services, socio-economic factors and performance of agricultural sector. Food security was positively correlated with food availability, food accessibility, and food stability. Thereupon, linear, log-linear and non-linear production function models were also used to explores the association of climatic and non-climatic factors with FSI employing a district-wise panel data. The empirical results imply that food security was negatively impacted due to change in maximum temperature and rainfall pattern. This study was also reported that food security was significantly associated with agriculture, socio-economic, government policy and ecosystem services-related variables in Gujarat. It is recommended that policymakers should implement policies to control the birth rate, infant mortality rate, population growth, population density, and urbanization and protect ecosystem services (i.e., land, water and forestry) to increase agricultural sustainability and sustainable food security in Gujarat.KeywordsAgricultural sustainabilityClimate changeSustainable food securityFood security indexEcological servicesGujaratIndia

Climate change has begun to ravage agriculture and threaten food security in many parts of the world. The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has further disrupted agricultural activities and supply chains and has become a serious threat for public health. Like in many developing countries, South Asian farmers are now facing the double challenge of addressing the impacts of a changing climate and managing the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Despite growing concern, there is limited understanding of how climate change, public health, and COVID-19 interact, and of the possible pathways to achieving a climate-friendly recovery from COVID-19 to achieve food and nutrition security. In view of this, this paper explores the multifaceted challenges that farmers are now facing in South Asia due to climate change and the disruption caused by COVID-19 from the agricultural and food security lens. The analysis reveals that the complex interactions of COVID-19 and climate change have impacted all dimensions of food security. These interlinkages demand an integrated approach in dealing with food, public health, and climate change to harness synergies and minimize trade-offs between food production, public health, and climate mitigation. I present a framework to address the immediate challenge of COVID-19 and the longer-term challenge of anthropogenic climate change. Key elements of the framework include the strengthening health sector response capacities, strengthening of local and regional food systems, making agriculture resilient to pandemics, adopting flexible and smart approaches—including the implementation of climate-smart agricultural interventions on different scales, promotion of appropriate research and innovation, and the integration of short-term support to address the challenges of COVID-19 to build long-term productivity, and resilience of food systems by investing on natural capital. This framework would enable policy makers to choose the appropriate policy responses at different scales, to address these twin challenges of COVID-19 and climate change.

Purpose. Given the efforts towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for food security by 2030, this study investigates the moderating impact of public investments in agriculture on the agricultural producer price – agricultural sustainability nexus in 40 African countries covering the period from 2000 till 2019. Methodology / approach. In this study we used multiple regression techniques to explore a dynamic panel data model based on the one-step system Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM). Proposed by Arellano and Bover and further developed by Blundell and Bond, the System-GMM estimator was preferred over other techniques because of its efficiency in eliminating the simultaneous biases that are associated with regression model estimations. Specifically, the one-step System-GMM was preferred over the two-step System-GMM for our estimation due to the efficiency of its optimal weighting matrices. Results. The study discovered that although the interactions between public investments on agriculture and agricultural sustainability amplify the positive impact of a set of explanatory variables on agricultural producer price to an extent, the impact on food security in Africa is insignificant. The study also discovers that the net effects of a set of interactive terms on producer price in the developing countries in Africa are slightly lower than in the least-developed countries. The weighted average food security index for the period under study was abysmal 44.54%, indicating moderate food insecurity in Africa. Originality / scientific novelty. In the context of food security literature in Africa, this study is the first attempt at exploring the agricultural producer price – agricultural sustainability nexus based on the moderating impact of public investments on agriculture with the Global Food Security Index (GFSI), a composite food security model developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Among our study proposals it is a call for a detour from the current agricultural investment and producer price policies especially the current ‘one-size-fits-all’ regional frameworks which have proved to be less progressive and less transformative to more robust country/sector-specific frameworks that have the potential to better the fortunes of agriculture and improve food security. Practical value / implications. The current state of agricultural producer price in most African countries is ample proof that the role and importance of the producer price have been gravely diminished. Despite governments’ efforts towards improving food security, the evidence as presented in this study supports the fact that those efforts have not achieved much success. The study, which contains a number of recommendations, highlights agricultural producer price as a potentially important driver of agricultural sustainability and sustainable food security in Africa.

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

With the growing impact of agriculture and modern food processing on the natural environment and growing concerns about all aspects of their sustainability, urgent solutions are required to promote healthy, low-impact diets. Sustainable diets are those with low environmental impact and high availability that ensure food and nutritional security. A comprehensive overview of different approaches to the analysis of sustainable eating behavior is provided. It is argued that preserving the environment is critical, including in designing programs to improve health, address inequalities in affordability, food access and availability in food system models. However, dietary advice and food policy should not be based solely on the environmental aspect of sustainability and should be carefully formulated. Economy, culture and other sociological factors should be taken into account in appropriate policies when planning ways to provide adequate nutrition to the population. It is emphasized that building sustainable food systems that support healthy communities requires a multidimensional, interdisciplinary approach. A sustainable healthy diet is based on improving the energy balance and changing the diet towards a predominantly plant-based diet, which is in line with the data on healthy eating. Updating national guidelines to reflect the latest data on healthy diets may in itself be important for improving health and reducing environmental impact, and may not only clearly define but expand the criteria for sustainability. Key principles of environmental sustainability and well-being are applied in shaping a national sustainable food strategy and are directly related to food production and consumption. To implement an integrated health and environment modeling framework, it is necessary to take different approaches to sustainable nutrition, motivating environmental, food security and public health goals. To develop a methodology for assessing indicators of sustainable nutrition, it is important to simultaneously take into account all aspects: nutritional value of products, indicators of environmental impact, availability of products, climatic, geographic and national characteristics. This methodology will allow to make competent decisions in the field of food production and consumption, will help to minimize the negative impact on the natural environment through sustainable eating behavior.

The purpose of the study are (1) Identify the various characteristics of household food security in rural areas, (2) Identify the social capital that developed in rural areas, (3) Identify the various characteristics of sustainable food security in rural areas and (4) Analysis of social capital on development of sustainable food security in various community groups. The study design was cross sectional. The study was conducted in Kerinci regency, by the time the research for 8 (eight) months of the calendar. Research variables: (1) family food security (availability, accessibility, and utilization of food and nutrition, (2) social capital (local associations and public characters), and (3) Sustainable food security (ecology, economic status, and sosio-demographic), with the number of respondents 165 households. The data were analyzed using models of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) by LISREL program. The results showed: (1) the level of household food security in Kerinci regency good views of availability, accessibility and household utilization of nutrients obtained quite enough and stable. Respondents in the study area has a fairly high level of stability of food consumption (energy and protein consumption), (2) social capital in the study area owned by households is high and good views of the local association level as well as from the aspect of interaction and community character, (3) sustainable food security is enough high, (4) social capital (local associations and public characters) either directly or indirectly have a positive highly significant to the development of food security and sustainable food security. That is, the higher and varied levels of social capital owned by the family, the more stable the level of food security so that the turn can improve the sustainable food security of the family.Key words: food security, social capital, sustainable, and development.

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

This study examines the impact of Chinese foreign direct investment and infrastructure development on sustainable food security in Pakistan’s agricultural sector. Using annual data from 1985 to 2022, it applies Vector Autoregressive and dynamic ARDL models to explore both short- and long-run relationships among key variables such as infrastructure, governance, exchange rates, and trade. Unit root tests confirm the data’s stationarity after first differencing. ARDL bounds testing reveals strong long-term links, showing that a 1% rise in Chinese FDI and infrastructure improves food availability by approximately 0.13%–0.21% and 0.16%–0.24%, respectively. Governance and exchange rate stability are also found to significantly enhance food security outcomes. The error correction terms suggest a gradual return to equilibrium, with adjustments occurring at a rate of 9%–27% annually. Overall, the findings underscore that foreign investment and infrastructure development are key drivers of food availability, offering valuable policy insights for advancing food security and achieving sustainable development goals.

Climate change is expected to have far-reaching impacts on food security. Such impacts are likely to be higher in developing countries. This paper analyses the state of research on the nexus between climate change and food security in Burkina Faso. In particular, it sheds light on whether and how the scholarly literature addresses the impacts of climate change on the four dimensions of food security (i.e. food availability, food access, food utilisation and stability). It also explores the synergies and trade-offs between climate change mitigation/adaptation and food security. A search performed in April 2020 on the Web of Science yielded 243 records and 62 of them, which resulted eligible, were included in the systematic review. The literature shows that climate change will affect all the four dimensions of food security. However, most of the analysed literature addresses its effects on food availability. Indeed, it focuses on impacts on crop yields and climate suitability for crops (e.g. maize, millet, sorghum). Moreover, most of the impacts on the remaining food security dimensions stem from the negative effects on food production and supply (cf. food availability). The review also shows that, on the one hand, climate change mitigation can undermine food security and, on the other hand, agriculture intensification and some adaptation strategies, which aim to enhance food security, might increase emissions from agriculture. The dual climate change—food security relationship calls for integrated policies that address trade-offs and optimise co-benefits between ‘climate action’ and ‘zero hunger’ in Burkina Faso.