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Publisher`s note: Since the 2007/08 food price crisis there has been a proliferation of multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) devoted to bringing diverse perspectives together to inform and improve food security policy. While much of the literature highlights the positive contributions to be gained from an opening-up of traditionally state-led processes, there is a strong critique emerging to show that, in many instances, MSPs have de-politicizing effects. In this paper, we scrutinize MSPs in relation to de-politicization. We argue that re-building sustainable and just food systems requires alternative visions that can best be made visible through politicized policy processes. Focusing on three key conditions of politicization, we examine the UN Committee on World Food Security as a MSP where we see a process of politicization playing out through the endorsement of the ‘most-affected’ principle, which is in turn being actively contested by traditionally powerful actors. We conclude that there is a need to implement and reinforce mechanisms that deliberately politicize participation in MSPs, notably by clearly distinguishing between states and other stakeholders, as well as between categories of non-state actors.
Publisher's note: The particularities of agriculture, as a sector which ensures food supply, result from many factors, including the multilateral interaction between the environment and human activity. The extent of human intervention in the food production process is usually measured with the amount of capital expenditure. Therefore, the food production potential and the resulting food security depend on both natural and economic factors. This paper identifies the current status of food security in different countries around the world, considering both aspects (physical and economic availability) combined together. The variables published by FAO were used together with a variable estimated based on the author’s own methodology to identify 8 groups of countries characterized by economic development level, net trade in agricultural products, and selected variables related to agriculture and food situation. As shown by this study, the degree to which food security is ensured with domestic supply varies strongly across the globe. Domestic production provides a foundation for food security in wealthy countries, usually located in areas with favorable conditions for agriculture (including North America, Australia, New Zealand, Kazakhstan) and in countries which, though characterized by a relatively small area of arable land per capita, demonstrate high production intensity (mainly European countries). International trade largely contributes to food security in Middle East and North African countries as well as in selected South American countries which are net importers of food products. The most problematic food situation continues to affect Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia.
Publisher`s note: Food safety policies have gained considerable importance in recent years, food safety being one of the indicators that illustrates the standard of living and quality of life within a nation state. In order to assess food security, we analyzed the Global Food Security Index (GFSI)that, economically, is based on GDP, degree of poverty and agricultural production, extending also to areas such as government and public policies, which are usually not directly included in food safety indicators or generating factors. Considering the importance and impact of food safety, starting from the theoretical concepts, from the current state of food safety in Europe, presented by the means of GFSI and its components, we developed a set of measures based on the grouping (correlation) of states following the analysis of hierarchical ranking of clusters. To analyse clusters hierarchical ranking the food safety indicators were used as input, dependent data. As anindependent variable, with a strong influence on all the others, determined by means of multiple linear regression, we considered GDP/inhabitant at the level of each analysed state. The design of the set of measures considered the correlation that can be established among the various GFSI indicators that influence and generate the current state of food security in different European countries and the influence these indicators can have on maintaining or improving this state.
Publisher`s note: Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) is influenced by diverse and complex factors, and therefore requires a holistic approach to agriculture and food systems plus integration of knowledge from diverse sources in science and society. Using the results of a colloquium held at the University of Hohenheim (Germany) in September 2016 leading up to the recent High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) Note on Critical and Emerging Issues for Food Security and Nutrition, this article underlines the role of research and innovation as a social and political process and draws attention to neglected types of knowledge. It illustrates the potential of knowledge co-production and co-innovation to transform food systems in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Publisher`s note: This article seeks to understand how agrifood economies can address current sustainability and food security challenges in the context of increasing economic and health inequalities. For that purpose, we cross-fertilize economic geography and food studies literature to develop an innovative conceptual framework that builds upon three currently fragmented bodies of work: the diverse economies literature, the distributed economies framework, and territorial and place-based approaches to food security. The proposed diverse, distributive, and territorial framework further develops existing relational, performative, and spatial approaches to explore changing economic geographies of agrifood systems. The application of this framework to investigate fruit and vegetable provision in the city of Cardiff (UK) reveals the key role of connective, fluid, and multifunctional infrastructures to reconfigure foodscapes. Specifically, our analysis shows how food infrastructures have the potential to act as bridging conceptual, material, and sociopolitical devices. The proposed framework ultimately serves as a capacity-building tool to reassess and rebuild territorialized agrifood economies that champion diversity and redistribution of value with the aim of delivering wide societal and material benefits, enhance democracy, and increase the socioecological resilience of food systems.
Publisher`s note: As highlighted in the global nutrition report (GNR) 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, there is increasing emphasis on the central role of nutrition in health and well-being.1 As the pandemic has challenged our food and health systems, the necessary measures to contain the spread of the disease have impacted and tested the food supply and agriculture sector. In the long term, if we fail to act, there will be untold impacts on food security, nutrition and the livelihoods of farmers, fishers and other workers in the food supply chain. Furthermore, the impact will be felt even harder in food security ‘hot spots’, including fragile and conflict-affected states, countries affected by multiple crises, the marginalised and vulnerable as well as countries with significant currency depreciation. The United Nations (UN) World Food Programme has warned that an estimated 265 million people could face food insecurity by the end of 2020, up from an estimated number of 135 million people before the crisis. However, while the pandemic poses serious challenges for the food security in the short term, it provides a unique opportunity to transform the food and agriculture sector in the long term to establish resilient food systems to face future shocks and challenges, including climate change.
Publisher`s note: Facing a growing and more affluent world population, changing climate and finite natural resources, world food systems will have to change in the future. The aim of the Agrimonde-Terra foresight study was to build global scenarios linking land use and food security, with special attention paid to overlooked aspects such as nutrition and health, in order to help explore the possible future of the global food system. In this article, we seek to highlight how the resulting set of scenarios contributes to the debate on land use and food security and enlarges the range of possible futures for the global food system. We highlight four main contributions. Combining a scenario building method based on morphological analysis and quantitative simulations with a tractable and simple biomass balance model, the proposed approach improves transparency and coherence between scenario narratives and quantitative assessment. Agrimonde-Terra's scenarios comprise a wide range of alternative diets, with contrasting underlying nutritional and health issues, which accompany contrasting urbanization and rural transformation processes, both dimensions that are lacking in other sets of global scenarios. Agrimonde-Terra's scenarios share some similarities with existing sets of global scenarios, notably the SSPs, but are usually less optimistic regarding agricultural land expansion up to 2050. Results suggest that changing global diets toward healthier patterns could also help to limit the expansion in agricultural land area. Agrimonde-Terra's scenarios enlarge the scope of possible futures by proposing two pathways that are uncommon in other sets of global scenarios. The first proposes to explore possible reconnection of the food industry and regional production within supranational regional blocs. The second means that we should consider that a 'perfect storm', induced by climate change and an ecological crisis combined with social and economic crises, is still possible. Both scenarios should be part of the debate as the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic shows.
Publisher`s note: The second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2) aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030 and ensure that people have access to sufficient and nutritious food at all times. SDG 2 takes up where the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) left off, inviting multi-stakeholder collaboration to develop and implement policy recommendations and programming to ensure food security and nutrition for all. Globally, significant action has been taken to support multi-sectoral responses and local policy interventions to reduce hunger and malnutrition. Recognising that effective solutions must be tailored to the unique needs of different regions, some states have also started to implement country-specific policies to directly address child malnutrition. The efforts of India, Brazil and Peru are highlighted. Still, after a period of prolonged decline, global hunger is on the rise again and we are not on track to achieve SDG 2 and other targets related to food security and nutrition. Although SDG 2 does not refer specifically to the right to food or states’ legal obligations more generally in either its aims or its targets, we argue that it does contribute to the global moral imperative to eradicate hunger and the worst forms of malnutrition. The paper concludes that responses to this moral imperative should be grounded in multi-sectoral and context-specific universalist approaches to food security and nutrition.
Publisher`s note: We conducted text mining analyses on nearly the entirety of academic literature related to food security. Assessing the literature's spatial scope, we found a truly global body of research conducted across 187 different countries, but with significant spatial heterogeneities in where research is conducted. Comparing the spatial distribution of the literature to actual rates of food insecurity, we found only a slight association between where food security research is conducted and where food security needs are located. Using topic modeling to assess the thematic scope of the literature, we found that originally food security research focused on economic policy and global issues, and only later did the literature expand to encompass themes like livelihoods, health, and the environment. This analysis provides the first ever thematic scoping of the entire food security literature and the first assessment of spatial biases in where food security research is conducted.
Publisher`s note: Global economic models have been increasingly used to project food and agricultural developments for long term-time horizons, but food security aspects have often been limited to food availability projections. In this paper, we propose a broader framework to explore the future of food and nutrition security with a focus on food availability, food access, and a reasonable proxy for food utilisation. This framework is applied to a new set of stakeholder-designed scenarios of alternative future worlds that were developed for the FOODSECURE project and are structured around the two dimensions of inequality and sustainability. The framework is tested with two global models, MAGNET-IMAGE and GLOBIOM, and illustrated through an assessment of the possible trade-offs between food and nutrition security and sustainability in each of the worlds. Our results indicate that more equal worlds improve food security over a wider range of food security indicators and neglecting the sustainability dimension might revert food security gains over time. This paper concludes that there is a need for model-based scenario analysis to assess the complex and multi-dimensional characteristics of global food security.
Publisher`s note: We identify promising leverage points for food loss reductions from a food system perspective with a global economy-wide model capturing price and income feedbacks of changes at different points in the supply chain. Using new FAO food loss estimates we model loss reduction as a zero-cost productivity increase at primary and processing stages, simultaneously deriving the response of food security (national availability, accessibility and utilisation of food) and sustainability indicators (GHG emissions, agricultural land use) at global and regional levels. To help focus data collection and intervention efforts we identify interventions by region, supply chain stage and sector contributing most to improving nutrition and sustainability. While the loss rates show no clear relation to regional income, strongest impacts on food security and environment are in low income regions. Decomposing indicator responses to the exogenous loss reduction shocks we find a focus on domestic primary stages achieving strong and unambiguous positive impacts on both food security and environment. Since foreign loss reductions may harm food insecure agricultural households through import substitution, the most food insecure countries should be part of any global loss reduction efforts. Fruit and vegetables and animal products are found to have the strongest impact on both food security and environment. A marginal impact on GHG emissions remains once non-agricultural expansion following the productivity increase is accounted for, showing the importance of an economy-wide perspective.
Publisher`s note: To guide policymaking, decision makers require a good understanding of the long-term drivers of food security and their interactions. Scenario analysis is widely considered as the appropriate tool to assess ‘wicked problems’, such as ensuring global food security, that are characterized by a high level of complexity and uncertainty. This paper describes the development process, storylines and drivers of four new global scenarios that are specifically designed to explore global food security up to the year 2050. To ensure the relevance, credibility and legitimacy of the scenarios, they have been developed using a participatory process, involving a diverse group of stakeholders. The scenarios consist of storylines and a scenario database that presents projections for key drivers, which can be used as an input into global simulation models.
Publisher's note: Globally, industrial agriculture threatens critical ecosystem processes on which crop production depends, while 815 million people are undernourished and many more suffer from malnutrition. The second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2), Zero Hunger, seeks to simultaneously address global environmental sustainability and food security challenges. We conducted an integrated literature review organized around three disciplinary perspectives central to realizing SDG 2: ecology and agricultural sciences, nutrition and public health, and political economy and policy science. Within each discipline we first draw on a wide range of literature to summarize the state of knowledge on effective pathways to achieve food security while ensuring the sustainability of food systems. We then conduct a comprehensive review of articles in each of these disciplines that discuss SDG 2, using the pathways we outline initially to frame our analysis. In particular, we ask whether the framing of SDG 2 is appropriate given current understandings of transitions to sustainable food systems. By applying a food systems lens, our review identifies several limitations in the way SDG 2 is applied by researchers including a productionist perspective, limited attention to ecological processes on farms, a definition of food security that lacks a food systems perspective, and a lack of attention to historical and structural factors that shape opportunities for equity and food security in different contexts. Finally, we consider possibilities for expanding the research agenda and associated implications for development practice. We argue that the pathway to achieving Zero Hunger should center on place-based, adaptive, participatory solutions that simultaneously attend to local institutional capacities, agroecosystem diversification and ecological management, and the quality of local diets. Two conceptual frameworks – social-ecological systems and sustainable diets – offer systems-based lenses for integrated analysis of agriculture and food security, which could inform the development of effective policies.
Publisher's note: As Editors of the Journal of Global Food Security, we recognize that the year 2018 marked the 75th anniversary of the first international commitment to ending hunger, made at the UN Conference on Food and Agriculture, at Hot Springs, Virginia, USA in 1943. That conference set the goal of ‘freedom from want of food, suitable and adequate for the health and strength of all peoples’ that should be achieved ‘in all lands within the shortest possible time’ (US Department of State, 1943). It is sobering and shameful that 75 years after this clarion call, as well as the dozens of similar global declarations since 1943 for ending hunger, some 800 million persons are estimated to be undernourished and over 2 billion adults and children suffer from other forms of malnutrition be it obesity or micronutrient deficiencies.
Publisher's note: The FIRST Program – Food and Nutrition Security Impact, Resilience, Sustainability and Transformation, is a partnership between the European Union and FAO. The EU and FAO launched a stocktaking exercise to assess progress in improving food security and nutrition in 24 FIRST priority countries. This paper presents the results of a quantitative analyses, literature review, country reports and a May 2019 consensus workshop that were the basis of identifying issues that must be addressed for FIRST countries going forward. Seven thematic areas were emphasized as essential for meeting the targets in SDG2 – zero hunger. These factors include reinventing agriculture; unleashing the private sector; gender equity; decentralization of programs; multi sector concepts within a sector approach; prioritization; data, and political process and governance.
Publisher's note: There are few examples in the existing literature that address the quantitative linkages between food waste, food security, and environmental sustainability, at global scale. Here we develop a new panel database on household food waste at the national level based on the Energy Balance equation, including adjustments for changes in body weight over time. We use this to characterize the non-linear relationship between per capita income and the share of food availability wasted. By incorporating this relationship into a global partial equilibrium model of the agricultural sector (SIMPLE), we develop future trajectories of household food waste. We find that the emerging economies, particularly China and South Asia, are likely to play a key role in determining global food waste at mid-century. We also present several counterfactual scenarios that shed light on the implications for environmental and food security of limiting future growth in food waste. We find that the global impacts of these alternative pathways are greatly enhanced in the context of a more open international trade regime.
Publisher`s note: Several measures of food insecurity, whether at the household or at the national level, have been introduced during the past two or three decades. Some concentrate on the determinants of food security while other emphasize more the consequences of food insecurity. The main focus of this paper is on the food security indicators introduced by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). The paper has two goals. It first checks whether the set of weights selected by the panel of experts of the EIU plays a crucial role in the ranking of countries by level of food security. Then it examines to what extent the ranking of countries given by the GFSI is sensitive to the list of indicators selected. The empirical analysis conducted, based on statistical techniques such as principal components and efficiency analysis, led us to conclude that both the weights selected and the choice of indicators give a reasonable ranking of countries by level of their food security.
Publisher`s note: There is broad agreement that food security as defined by the World Food Summit exists when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life” (FAO 1996). From this consensus emerged a complex definition with four dimensions that are understood as necessary conditions for food security namely: 1) availability; 2) accessibility; 3) utilization; and 4) stability (Pinstrup-Andersen 2009). While different conceptual constructs, risk factors, consequences and measures may be relevant to each dimension, the complexity of how they interact, and how their absence gives rise to food insecurity is a recognized “wicked problem” (Candel 2014). In his work looking at the implications for food security governance, Candel (2014 p. 288) noted that as a wicked problem, food security is “ill defined, ambiguous, contested and highly resistant to solutions”. In addition to the commonly recognized extreme situation of hunger at its most severe levels, food insecurity may be related to different forms of deprivation including material poverty, malnutrition (presenting as obesity and undernourishment), and socio-cultural losses (Farrell et al. 2017;Hendriks 2015) such as the loss of indigenous crop varieties and traditional ecological knowledge.
Publisher`s note: Overlap among international organizations (IOs) is one of the numerous challenges facing global food security governance today. The phenomenon of overlap has received attention in academic debates on food security, as Candel (2014) shows in his comprehensive literature review. My objective in this opinion piece is to reflect on three widespread, common assumptions depicting overlap as a phenomenon that is a) recent, b) undesirable, and c) manageable and solvable. Before elaborating on these assumptions in turn, I first conceptualize overlap by referring to relevant literature and then briefly introduce the empirical research on which the opinion piece builds.
Publisher`s note: One of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century is to ensure that the world population has reliable access to adequate, affordable and nutritious food sufficient to avoid hunger. Agricultural trade liberalization is often considered a central element of economic strategies aiming at improving food security in developing countries. Many, however, argue that most developing countries may not benefit from freer agricultural trade and that liberalization may accentuate food insecurity. From an empirical perspective, little is known about the effects of trade on food security in developing countries. We estimated the effects of food trade openness on extreme hunger in developing countries using a novel two-step approach. First, we estimated the reverse causal impacts of hunger on food trade openness using rainfall anomalies as instrumental variables to generate exogenous variation in hunger. In a second step, we estimated the effect of food trade openness on hunger using the residual food trade openness that is not driven by hunger as an instrument. We found that a 10% increase in food trade openness would increase the prevalence of undernourishment by about 6%. We also found evidence that developing countries reduce food trade openness as a response to increased hunger, suggesting protectionist policies. A percentage point increase in undernourishment prevalence would decrease food trade openness by 0.9%. Our results suggest that countries may be better off adopting food self-sufficiency for some time, despite such actions clashing with World Trade Organization’s regulations and current agenda.
Publisher`s note: Nutrition and food security constitute a critical development challenge, and a sine qua non condition for human well-being and macroeconomic growth. According to the most recent estimates, 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, 155 million children under the age of 5 years are stunted, and 41 million are overweight. Despite considerable progress toward the hunger-related target 1.C under Millennium Development Goal 1, this target was not reached, with Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Southern Asia, and Oceania all making insufficient progress. Ending poverty and hunger is topmost on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 is entitled, End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. It has eight targets that must be achieved in the 2020-2030 time horizon, including target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
Publisher´s note: The challenges of achieving global food security have become more demanding as scientists have realized that not only calorie content but also food composition and colonic microbial content impact our health and well-being, dramatically. The ways that the nutrients we consume affect our health are highly complex due to the diversity of what we eat, the varying digestibility of what we eat, the changing composition and functioning of each individual's gut microbiota, the differences in absorption and bioavailability of the nutrients we eat, the differences in responses between individuals to what they eat and the multi-fold mechanisms of action that nutrients have on our health. Perspective and Conclusions It has been accepted for more than 50 years that diets rich in plants, particularly fruit and vegetables, protect health, and yet such diets have declined, with lower fruit and vegetable content and much more cheap, sugary, oily, processed foods, over the same period. These dietary shifts have had a marked impact on the incidence of chronic diseases: obesity, metabolic diseases, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Greater support for research into the ways that plant-based foods impact health will be essential for changing dietary patterns to protect health and to achieve global nutritional security
Publisher's note: Research linking agriculture and nutrition has evolved since the mid-20th century. The current focus is on child-stunting, dietary diversity and ‘nutrient-rich’ foods in recognition of the growing burdens of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases. This article concerns the global dietary and health contribution of major cereals, specifically maize and wheat, which are often considered not to be ‘nutrient-rich’ foods. Nevertheless, these cereals are major sources of dietary energy, of essential proteins and micronutrients, and diverse non-nutrient bioactive food components. Research on bioactives, and dietary fibre in particular, is somewhat ‘siloed’, with little attention paid by the agri-nutrition research community to the role of cereal bioactives in healthy diets, and the adverse health effects often arising through processing and manufacturing of cereals-based food products.
Résumé: Le droit à l’alimentation vise à garantir un accès à une alimentation adéquate à chaque être humain. Ce droit de l’homme trouve-t-il une effectivité à travers les règles applicables au secteur agroalimentaire ? Dans cette perspective, le constat est fait que la recherche d’une harmonie normative dans le secteur alimentaire se conjugue difficilement avec les différentes facettes du droit à l’alimentation. Ni la réalisation d’un marché libre, ni la protection de la santé des consommateurs fondée sur l’évaluation scientifique des risques ne garantissent la mise en œuvre d’un droit à l’alimentation dans la construction du droit de l’alimentation.
Publisher`s note: Contrairement à la prédiction de Malthus, la croissance de la production alimentaire mondiale a été suffisante pour répondre à l'augmentation de la demande alimentaire, engendrée par la croissance démographique et économique, sans augmentation des prix mondiaux agricoles réels sur les 50 dernières années. Cependant, depuis le début des années 2000 face au ralentissement de la croissance de la production agricole et dans un contexte de forte demande alimentaire et énergétique, des inquiétudes se sont manifestées. La volatilité des prix sur les marchés agricoles constatée depuis 2007 suggère que ces marchés se sont tendus et renforce la perception que la période d'offre excédentaire est terminée. Depuis lors, la sécurité alimentaire mondiale est redevenue un enjeu et les travaux s'intéressant à la capacité du système agroalimentaire mondial à nourrir une population grandissante à l'horizon 2050 se multiplient. Nous avons recensé les travaux centrés sur des scénarios globaux et synthétisé leurs réponses à la question: comment nourrir le monde en 2050? Ce faisant, nous pointons les convergences et les divergences entre études et identifions les incertitudes et les besoins de recherche. Nous montrons que si les scénarios tendanciels concordent globalement sur les besoins en produits agricoles et alimentaires dans le monde à l'horizon 2050, les divergences de résultats des scénarios alternatifs permettent d'identifier un certain nombre de leviers sur lesquels il est possible d'agir pour nourrir le monde plus ou moins durablement. Les incertitudes et les besoins de recherche les plus manifestes concernent les trajectoires d'évolution des systèmes de culture et d'élevage à l'horizon 2050 ainsi que les performances techniques, économiques et environnementales comparées de systèmes alternatifs.
Publisher`s note: Evidence shows the importance of food systems for sustainable development: they are at the nexus that links food security, nutrition, and human health, the viability of ecosystems, climate change, and social justice. However, agricultural policies tend to focus on food supply, and sometimes, on mechanisms to address negative externalities. We propose an alternative. Our starting point is that agriculture and food systems’ policies should be aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This calls for deep changes in comparison with the paradigms that prevailed when steering the agricultural change in the XXth century. We identify the comprehensive food systems transformation that is needed. It has four parts: first, food systems should enable all people to benefit from nutritious and healthy food. Second, they should reflect sustainable agricultural production and food value chains. Third, they should mitigate climate change and build resilience. Fourth, they should encourage a renaissance of rural territories. The implementation of the transformation relies on (i) suitable metrics to aid decision-making, (ii) synergy of policies through convergence of local and global priorities, and (iii) enhancement of development approaches that focus on territories. We build on the work of the “Milano Group,” an informal group of experts convened by the UN Secretary General in Milan in 2015. Backed by a literature review, what emerges is a strategic narrative linking climate, agriculture and food, and calling for a deep transformation of food systems at scale. This is critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. The narrative highlights the needed consistency between global actions for sustainable development and numerous local-level innovations. It emphasizes the challenge of designing differentiated paths for food systems transformation responding to local and national expectations. Scientific and operational challenges are associated with the alignment and arbitration of local action within the context of global priorities.
Publisher`s note: In the hierarchy of human needs, food is absolutely the most basic. As the human population was increas-ing at an accelerated rate with concomitant depletion of natural resources during the 18th century, Malthus was greatly concerned about the sustainability of food availability. Despite the fact that the human popula-tion has been burgeoning, a total collapse in food supply has not yet happened. This is because of new technologies emerging from time to time to boost agri-cultural productivity and preventing the onset of the Malthusian scourge. However, none of these technolo-gies, including the Green Revolution of the 1960s, has been truly sustainable largely because of their adverse environmental and social impacts. It is expected that the Evergreen Revolution which eliminates the nega-tive attributes of the Green Revolution would be more sustainable. Critical evaluation of the most modern technology, modern biotechnology, reveals that the Bt- and herbicide-tolerant-crops are highly unsustainable. In addition to causing environmental harm, these crops exhibit genotoxic effects. The original objective of reducing the need for application of chemical pesti-cides has also not been realized. There is need for basic research to understand the causes of ‘unin-tended effects’ associated with genetically engineered crops. It will be prudent to adhere to the recommen-dations of the Task Force on Agricultural Biotechnol-ogy, Government of India (2004) in the development and regulation of genetically engineered crops. These aspects are briefly discussed in this article.
Publisher`s note: The pursuit of global food security and agricultural sustainability, the dual aim of the second sustainable development goal (SDG-2), requires urgent and concerted action from developing and developed countries. This, in turn, depends on clear and universally applicable targets and indicators which are partially lacking. The novel and complex nature of the SDGs poses further challenges to their implementation on the ground, especially in the face of interlinkages across SDG objectives and scales. Here we review the existing SDG-2 indicators, propose improvements to facilitate their operationalization, and illustrate their practical implementation in Nigeria, Brazil and the Netherlands. This exercise provides insights into the concrete actions needed to achieve SDG-2 across contrasting development contexts and highlights the challenges of addressing the links between targets and indicators within and beyond SDG-2. Ultimately, it underscores the need for integrated policies and reveals opportunities to leverage the fulfillment of SDG-2 worldwide.
Publisher`s note: Ensuring the food and nutritional demand of the ever-growing human population is a major sustainability challenge for humanity in this Anthropocene. The cultivation of climate resilient, adaptive and underutilized wild crops along with modern crop varieties is proposed as an innovative strategy for managing future agricultural production under the changing environmental conditions. Such underutilized and neglected wild crops have been recently projected by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations as ‘future smart crops’ as they are not only hardy, and resilient to changing climatic conditions, but also rich in nutrients. They need only minimal care and input, and therefore, they can be easily grown in degraded and nutrient-poor soil also. Moreover, they can be used for improving the adaptive traits of modern crops. The contribution of such neglected, and underutilized crops and their wild relatives to global food production is estimated to be around 115–120 billion US$ per annum. Therefore, the exploitation of such lesser utilized and yet to be used wild crops is highly significant for climate resilient agriculture and thereby providing a good quality of life to one and all. Here we provide four steps, namely: (i) exploring the unexplored, (ii) refining the unrefined traits, (iii) cultivating the uncultivated, and (iv) popularizing the unpopular for the sustainable utilization of such wild crops as a resilient strategy for ensuring food and nutritional security and also urge the timely adoption of suitable frameworks for the large-scale exploitation of such wild species for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Publisher`s note: What is the impact of sustainability certification on food security in developing countries? This article explores the issue through a systematic review of the extant scholarship, complemented by a selective review of key studies examining the wider socio-economic effects of certification that may affect food security indirectly. To guide the analysis, we identify three main causal mechanisms – economic, land use and land rights, and gender effects – that link certification to local food security. Our review finds that food security remains a blind spot in the literature on certification impacts. Existing research points to a positive, albeit weak and highly context-dependent, relationship between certification, farmers’ income, and food security. However, there is only indicative evidence about the relationships that link certification to food security via its influence on land use, land rights, and gender equality.
Publisher`s note: Without changes in consumption, along with sharp reductions in food waste and postharvest losses, agricultural production must grow to meet future food demands. The variety of concepts and policies relating to yield increases fail to integrate an important constituent of production and human nutrition – biodiversity. We develop an analytical framework to unpack this biodiversity-production mutualism (BPM), which bridges the research fields of ecology and agroeconomics and makes the trade-off between food security and protection of biodiversity explicit. By applying the framework, the incorporation of agroecological principles in global food systems are quantifiable, informed assessments of green total factor productivity (TFP) are supported, and possible lock-ins of the global food system through overintensification and associated biodiversity loss can be avoided.
Publisher's note: We use IFPRI’s IMPACT framework of linked biophysical and structural economic models to examine developments in global agricultural production systems, climate change, and food security. Building on related work on how increased investment in agricultural research, resource management, and infrastructure can address the challenges of meeting future food demand, we explore the costs and implications of these investments for reducing hunger in Africa by 2030. This analysis is coupled with a new investment estimation model, based on the perpetual inventory methodology (PIM), which allows for a better assessment of the costs of achieving projected agricultural improvements. We find that climate change will continue to slow projected reductions in hunger in the coming decades—increasing the number of people at risk of hunger in 2030 by 16 million in Africa compared to a scenario without climate change. Investments to increase agricultural productivity can offset the adverse impacts of climate change and help reduce the share of people at risk of hunger in 2030 to five percent or less in Northern, Western, and Southern Africa, but the share is projected to remain at ten percent or more in Eastern and Central Africa. Investments in Africa to achieve these results are estimated to cost about 15 billion USD per year between 2015 and 2030, as part of a larger package of investments costing around 52 billion USD in developing countries.
Publisher's note: Private business is increasingly presented as a leading agent of development in policy, also in the pursuit of developmental goals beyond business, such as food security (SDG2 in particular). It is argued that the private sector is more effective and efficient in raising investment capital and targeting goals than entities of the public sector and civil society. This has spawned inclusive business models — ways of doing business that benefit the poor as producers or consumers. Inclusive agribusiness improves the livelihoods of poor farmers by integrating them in commercial value chains and thus gaining access to markets, inputs, and services like finance and training, in ways that are commercially viable. This contribution seeks to position this inclusive agribusiness approach in its political-economy context and assess its merits in pursuing food security through impact pathways such as availability and access (income). While there is literature on inclusive business and food security, its scope tends to be limited to participating smallholders while overlooking other community members. The main argument the present paper makes is that while there is evidence for positive income effects among participating farmers, there are few indications that this actually translates into improved food and nutrition security for the many. Shortcomings are briefly reviewed.
Publisher's note: According to the United Nations' 2018 Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, the number of undernourished people worldwide increased for the third year in a row in 2017, reaching 821 million (FAO et al., 2018). Prior to 2014, this figure had been on the decline and this recent slow in hunger reduction jeopardizes the United Nations' goal of eradicating hunger by 2030, as specified in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2: Zero Hunger. While there are numerous factors contributing to the increase in global hunger, the main drivers include climate variability and climate extremes leading to acute food crises.
Publisher's note: The main outcome of sustainable agro-food systems is food and nutrition security. Nevertheless, about half of the global population is affected by food insecurity and malnutrition, a symptom of the dysfunctions of the current food system. This paper provides a review of the state of research on the sustainability of agro-food transitions, and the extent to which and in what ways such research examines food and nutrition security. A search carried out on Scopus in January 2018 yielded 771 documents; 120 of these were included in the systematic review. Agro-food represents a small share of the sustainability transitions research field. Most of the available research focuses on crops and the production stage. In general, it is assumed that a transition to sustainability in the agro-food arena would lead to increased food availability, improved food access, better food utilisation and increased food system stability and resilience. However, scholars also point out that the quest for food security (especially through intensification) may undermine transition towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. Likewise, it is assumed that a transition towards sustainable food systems implies changes in dietary patterns and nutrition habits. Nevertheless, food security and nutrition are still marginal topics in the literature on agro-food sustainability transitions. Furthermore, transformation of food systems, which should guide agro-food sustainability transitions, is the exception rather than the rule in the research field. This systematic review represents a useful contribution to research on transitions towards sustainability in agriculture and food sectors, and provides insights into how such research can contribute to addressing the grand challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition. The paper suggests the need to move beyond silos by fostering cross-sectoral collaboration and the integration of the agro-food sustainability transitions and food security research fields.
Publisher`s note: This journal article explores local and global impacts and responses to climate change. There is a significant need to maintain sustainable food security for present and future populations. Climate change and global population food security are interdependent. Emerging issues that will shape the future of the global population through support from sustainable agriculture are explored. The focus also addresses emerging agriculture technology. Increases in global population pose the possibility that traditional food sources may not be sufficient to sustain future populations over the long term. It is also possible that global populations could significantly decline even though global populations currently continue to maintain food security. All and all, food security could conceivably be balanced to achieve a level of sustainable available food, supplying the sustainable future populations of the world. There is hope.
Publisher`s note: Potatoes play an important role developing countries’ food security; 50% of the world’s food energy needs are supplied by potatoes, rice, wheat and maize. Developing countries’ share of global potato output now surpasses that of developed countries. Global potato consumption was on average 35 kg/capita/yr. in 2013, with large regional differences. Trends in potato consumption show that while in Europe potato consumption has been steadily decreasing, Africa and Asia have seen a ~70% increase between 1961 and 2013. Potato biodiversity is vast; variety is one of the main factors governing nutrient content. Potatoes are fat free, a source of vitamin C and vitamin B6, and can also supply good amounts of other micronutrients and fiber. Potatoes feature in the food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) of many countries. Some FBDGs make a distinction, recommending consumption of healthy preparations while limiting that of unhealthy forms high in energy, salt and fat.
Publisher`s note: As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, trade-offs have emerged between the need to contain the virus and to avoid disastrous economic and food security crises that hurt the world’s poor and hungry most. Although no major food shortages have emerged as yet, agricultural and food markets are facing disruptions because of labor shortages created by restrictions on movements of people and shifts in food demand resulting from closures of restaurants and schools as well as from income losses. Export restrictions imposed by some countries have disrupted trade flows for staple foods such as wheat and rice. The pandemic is affecting all four pillars of food security ( 1): availability (is the supply of food adequate?), access (can people obtain the food they need?), utilization (do people have enough intake of nutrients?), and stability (can people access food at all times?). COVID-19 is most directly and severely impacting access to food, even though impacts are also felt through disruptions to availability; shifts in consumer demand toward cheaper, less nutritious foods; and food price instability. We outline the main threats COVID-19 poses to food security and suggest critical responses that policy-makers should consider to prevent this global health crisis from becoming a global food crisis.
Abstract: Across the developing world, the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic threatens to cause massive disruptions in food supply chains. The World Food Programme estimates that by the end of 2020, twu hundred and sixty five million will face acute food insecurity - twice as many as before the crisis. Women play a key role in keeping the food system functional. Their livelihoods also depend on these jobs, which are primarily concentrated in the informal sector, and they have little access tosavings andsocial safety nets. This note highlights women’s contribution to food supply chains, focusing on women as informal producers and traders of food. It discusses potential impacts of the pandemic on their vulnerabilities and policy responses. It concludes with some early reports on how women along the food supply chain are rising to the challenge of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), and some considerations for investments in inclusive food systems.
Publisher`s note: Rice plays a strategic role in food security in West Africa. However, the region increasingly relies on rice imports due to a growing and structural deficit, and domestic value chains face constraints in technology, finance and coordination. As a result, West Africa is very vulnerable to international and local trade disruptions, such as the ones currently inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We build on evidence of the current state of domestic rice value chain upgrading in West Africa to anticipate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rice value chains’ resilience and their capacity to sustain food security in the region. Several policy options are proposed to help West African governments mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on food security.
Publisher`s note: This study highlights the major players in the global food balance, potential implications of COVID-19 on global food supply, and SDG-2 (zero hunger). It found that developing countries, fifteen from Africa followed by ten from Latin America, six from Oceania, and four from Asia, are the most vulnerable to changes cereal supply shocks. It concludes that the current pandemic is likely to cause transitory food insecurity across such vulnerable countries. The effects of the pandemic on food security (SDG-2) may persist longer as a combined effect of economic slowdown and increase in poverty, limiting food supply and access beyond 2020.
Publisher`s note: Within a few weeks the world has changed, at the time this text is written (May 2020) more than 3.5 million people have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 and estimations propose up to a hundred times the number of actually infected. A third of the global population is on lockdown and a large part of our global economic activity has stopped. Food and access to food has played a visual role in portraying the impact of the outbreak on our society, with images of empty supermarket shelves appearing in mainstream media. In some countries closed schools resulted in many children not having access to free meals and mobilised a number of charities. While parts of the world are now exiting lockdown and measures start relaxing the near future remains uncertain with more waves of the pandemic expected. Given that there is currently no evidence to show that transmission of COVID-19 could occur through food or food packaging there has been limited discussion on the issue, implications and potential future scenarios within the wider food science community. Within the food research community, up to the pandemic crisis the discourse has been dominated with design and manufacture of healthy and safe foods. The main issues are relevant to sustainability, circular economy, energy and water efficiency, climate friendly practices of products and processes. Efficiency has been the focus, but resilience has not been a significant issue so far. The term food system resilience has been defined by Tendalla as ‘capacity over time of a food system and its units at multiple levels, to provide sufficient, appropriate and accessible food to all, in the face of various and even unforeseen disturbances’. We believe that in the future we will continue to see similar pressures in the food system, e.g., comparable pandemics, effects of climate change on food production, and that resilience will become of major importance. This commentary aims to present a reflection from the past, considering the present situation to provide thoughts on the actions needed to ensure resilient food systems.
Publisher`s note: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food and nutrition insecurity are likely to be significant for Small Island Developing States due to their high dependence on foreign tourism, reliance on imported foods and underdeveloped local food production systems. SIDS are already experiencing high rates of nutrition-related death and disability, including double and triple burdens of malnutrition due to unhealthy diets. We consider the potential role for improved local food production to offset the severity of food system shocks in SIDS and identify the need for localized approaches to embrace systems thinking in order to facilitate communication, coordination and build resilience.
Publisher`s note: The Covid‐19 pandemic has multiple implications for global agricultural markets and food security. Disentangling some of the relationships will allow policy makers and the agri‐food sector to better address implications for the food chain. This article focuses on the potential macroeconomic impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on food demand. We use the Aglink‐Cosimo model underlying the OECD‐FAO Agricultural Outlook 2020–2029 baseline to explore potential macro‐economic impacts on future developments in global agricultural markets.
Publisher`s note: This article aims to understand the relation between household food security and individual undernutrition. The multitude of indicators availableraises the question which aspects of food security are captured by the respective indicator. In our analysis, we first assess the relation between thedimensions of food security and households’ socioeconomic characteristics. Second, we examine whether household indicators detect undernutritionin children. Finally, we investigate the role of individual-specific characteristics for child undernutrition. The analysis is based on a novel dataset of1,200 rural households from Cambodia and Lao PDR, which combines household- and individual-level data. We capture household food securityby three indicators including a dietary diversity score, a consumption behavior measure, and an experiential measure. Individual nutrition statusis measured via anthropometric indicators. Our results show that different household-level indicators capture fundamentally different aspects offood security. Moreover, household food security fails to explain stunting for children under five. Dietary diversity indicators, however, explainunderweight in children to a small extent. We call for more research on intrahousehold allocation of food and stress the implications of our researchfor the design and targeting of food and nutrition support programs.
Publisher`s note: India has been perceived as a development enigma: Recent rates of economic growth have not been matched by similar rates in health and nutritional improvements. To meet the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) of achieving zero hunger by 2030, India faces a substantial challenge in meeting basic nutritional needs in addition to addressing population, environmental and dietary pressures. Here we have mapped—for the first time—the Indian food system from crop production to household-level availability across three key macronutrients categories of ‘calories’, ‘digestible protein’ and ‘fat’. To better understand the potential of reduced food chain losses and improved crop yields to close future food deficits, scenario analysis was conducted to 2030 and 2050. Under India’s current self-sufficiency model, our analysis indicates severe shortfalls in availability of all macronutrients across a large proportion (>60%) of the Indian population. The extent of projected shortfalls continues to grow such that, even in ambitious waste reduction and yield scenarios, enhanced domestic production alone will be inadequate in closing the nutrition supply gap. We suggest that to meet SDG2 India will need to take a combined approach of optimising domestic production and increasing its participation in global trade.
Publisher`s note: Food security is becoming an increasingly important global issue. Anthropogenic factors such as rapid urbanization and industrialization have strained finite resources like land and water. Therefore, against the impending threat of food security, the world can no longer rely on traditional methods to meet its needs. Instead, more creative and technologically advanced methods must be adopted to maximise diminishing natural resources. Singapore is a good case study of a small city-state that is trying to increase its own self-production of food using technology.
Publisher`s note: The COVID-19 outbreak that became a global pandemic in early 2020 is starting to affect agricultural supply chains and leading to a rapid rise in global food prices. As many grain exporting countries announced a ban on grain exports, food security issues in China have attracted a significant international attention. Based on the Suitability Distribution Model and Soybean-Cereal Constraint Model, we explored the relationship between soybean production potential and food security. We calculated that the soybean potential planting area in China is 164.3 million ha. If the outbreak prevents China from importing soybeans, soybean planting area will need to be increased by 6.9 times to satisfy the demands. In the meantime, cereal self-sufficiency rate will drop to 63.4%, which will greatly affect food security. Each additional unit of soybean production will reduce 3.9 units of cereal production, and 1% increase in the self-sufficiency rate of soybean will result in a 0.63% drop in the self-sufficiency rate of cereal. Without sacrificing the self-sufficiency rate of cereal, the self-sufficiency rate of soybean is limited to 42%. Consequently, China will still need to import more than 68% of the current import volume of soybean. Although in the short term, the outbreak will not affect food security in China, as soybean imports decrease, insufficient supply of soybeans will affect people's quality of life. To prevent the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, China should increase soybean stocks and strengthen international cooperation. In the long term, increasing the self-sufficiency rate is a fundamental solution to solving soybean import dependency. The key to increasing soybean cultivation is by making soybean cultivation profitable and by building a sustainable soybean planting chain.
Publisher`s note: The COVID-19 (coronavirus) health crisis can lead to a food security crisis in Bangladesh if proper measures are not put in place. Trade policies can be an essential instrument in the management of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) related food security issues. Trade responses such as eliminating tariffs, refraining from imposing export restrictions, and facilitating trade flows can play an important role in maintaining access to and reducing the cost of essential food products.
Publisher`s note: Securing access to affordable and nutritious food is an urgent topic on the agenda for development strategies in Africa. Intervention strategies targeting food security triggered a long lasting debate whether science and technology driven interventions could be the panacea for hunger eradication. However, contextual factors are extremely important in determining food security, as it is a location specific outcome of how biophysical, geographical, societal and political factors combine. Recent studies emphasize the important role of institutions to understand the persistence of food insecurity or to explain how different actors address food security. This article introduces a special issue that investigates approaches and methods, anchored in different institutionalisms, diagnosing how institutions influence food security levels in diverse African contexts. We draw two main lessons from this special issue. Firstly, there is a clear need for localized ex-ante institutional diagnostics to understand developments in food security in Africa. This can inform and guide decision-makers in designing locally appropriate interventions. Secondly, developing institutional diagnostics in view of sustainable food security requires theoretical triangulation; food insecurity is typically a problem emerging from a configuration of distinct processes. To develop a contextual and precise understanding of how institutions work and to identify what an institutional context ‘is good at’, the special issue argues in favour of an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences that is strongly rooted in evolving practices (re)arranging institutions affecting food security.
Publisher`s note: The global food price crises of 2007–8 and 2010 and subsequent policy debates have led to increased recognition that the drivers of food insecurity and associated policies transcend the boundaries of traditional governmental sectors and jurisdictions. Building on this insight, many governments of countries facing food insecurity have developed, or are in the progress of developing, integrated food security strategies. However, in spite of their recent popularity, to date little is known about the properties and outcomes of these strategies. This paper aims to help overcoming this gap by proposing a way of diagnosing the expected variety of integrated food security strategies and associated outcomes. Three diagnostic steps are put forward, each of which is linked to a specific theoretical perspective from the Public Policy literature. The first step concerns diagnosing the variety of IFSSs and is referred to as descriptive diagnostics. This type of diagnostics is suggested to be performed by using a policy integration perspective. The second step involves diagnosing what causes variety and change. This step is named explanatory diagnostics and revolves around what ‘mechanisms’ explain (dis)integration. The third diagnostic step focuses on diagnosing the outcomes of IFSSs and is referred to as evaluatory diagnostics. For this type of diagnostics a policy success and failure perspective is proposed. The applicability of these diagnostic steps and associated theories is illustrated through the case of South Africa’s Integrated Food Security Strategy. The paper ends with a discussion of promising methodological approaches and with raising some hypotheses and expectations about performing these types of diagnostics in a Sub-Saharan African context.
Publisher`s note: Food and nutrition insecurity continues to be one of the major development challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions of the world. Karamoja sub-region, located in northern Uganda is one of the poorest and most food insecure part of Eastern Africa. Previous studies have generalized the sub-region as food insecure. However, limited attention has been paid to locational differences in the food and nutrition security situation within this culturally and ecologically diverse part of the country. Across-sectional study design was used to examine at a community level, disparity in food and nutrition security situation among communities in Kotido and Moroto districts of the Karamoja sub-region. The study investigated the status of agricultural production, dietary habits and food security situation using individual household survey, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, household food insecurity access scale(HFIAS)and food insecurity coping strategy index(CSI).Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and correlation and regression methods, at 5 % level of significance. The results showed that irrespective of ethnic differences, majority of households(78.8%)consumed less than 3 meals 24 hours preceding the interview. Generally, agricultural production was inadequate to support household food security and less than 30% of the households had adequate calorie intake. However, calorie intake adequacy was at least three (3) times higher in Kotido than in Moroto district. Plant foods were more frequently consumed than animal-source foods. At least 57% and 73% of households in Kotido and Moroto districts, respectively, never consumed fish. Food security was generally predicted by household size, ownership of food stores, occupation of household caregivers, number of livestock(especially goats) owned by households, time taken to fetch water (related to distance to water source)and sorghum production. Whereas it is generally known that Karamoja sub-region is highly food insecure, this study has demonstrated that communities in Moroto district are worse-off than those in Kotido district. Therefore, community-level characteristics ought to be an essential baseline consideration in designing food and nutrition interventions in Karamoja, and indeed in food insecure localities in general.
Publisher`s note: This paper looks at aid ownership through the lens of negotiations that take place between a country and its development partners (DPs). Based on the case of Ethiopian food security policies, it combines a structural analysis of the negotiation capital of both parties with an actor-oriented analysis of the institutional setting through which negotiations take place. First, it shows that the growing influence donors have come to have in the shaping of Ethiopian public policies results from the relative loss of legitimacy the government has experienced after the 2005 political crisis and its greater need for external economic assistance. Second, the more recent creation of a negotiation platform between the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) and its DPs has allowed the GoE to enhance donor’s alignment with its development policies and regain some control over its development agenda, while giving them more room to contribute to several food and nutrition security policy reforms which have been positively evaluated. The paper stresses the need for donors to better recognise the centrality of politics in any aid intervention.
Publisher´s note: African population is projected to double to 2.48 billion people by 2050. The population increase poses a serious challenge of increasing food supply to meet the future demand. This challenge is compounded by climate change impacts on agriculture. In this paper, how poverty contributes to household food insecurity is explored and measures suggested to help address this challenge. To plan adaptation measures, linkages among food insecurity, poverty, and illiteracy should be considered. For the sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), adaptation (focused on poverty alleviation) should be prioritized and preferred to mitigation. Enhancement of adaptive capacity should not only be tailored toward empowerment of women but also made highly localized to household levels. Generally, efforts could be geared toward yield gap closure, addressing challenges regarding food distribution, promoting non‐farm income‐generating activities, and unification of government priorities in agriculture and food security. Government in each country of the SSA should ensure that governance strongly embraces transparency, accountability, and integrity otherwise as it is said a fish rots from the head down. Estimates of uncertainty in predicting future climate and their implications on expenditure related to adaptation should to always be made in an integrated way and reported to support actionable policies. To increase credibility in climate prediction especially at local scales, advances toward improving climate models (for instance by refining spatiotemporal scales, enhancing models' capacity to reproduce observed natural variability in key climatological variables like rainfall) should be made, and this requires support from the investment in climate science. Science–policy interfacing is required in planning and implementation of measures for adapting to climate change impacts. In summary, food insecurity and persistent poverty especially in the SSA should be of direct relevance and concern at a global scale. Thus, global collaboration in science is key to achieve food security in the SSA. African food insecurity challenge is compounded by climate change impacts on agriculture. Addressing the challenge requires an interplay of the science and policy roles. Above all, global collaboration in science is key to achieving food security in the sub‐Saharan Africa.
Publisher`s note: National food security in countries of sub-Saharan Africa requires an abundant supply of cheap and nutritious food for the burgeoning population. At the same time agriculture is a major contributor to the balance of payments for African economies. So agricultural production in Africa needs to increase strongly to meet the demands of both national and international markets. Yet fragmentation of land due to population pressure in rural areas, and the low prices farmers are paid for their produce, mean that in many rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa the farms are already too small to provide food security or a living income for the household. There is a high dependency on off-farm income and little incentive to intensify production. Thus rural households are often ‘reluctant’ farmers, lacking resources or the economic incentives to invest in agriculture. The conundrum that must be addressed is how to provide cheap, nutritious food to feed the growing urban and rural populations while creating incentives to stimulate increased agricultural production. This will require major transformations of the smallholder farming systems alongside creation of alternative employment.
Publisher`s note: Global discourses on the governance of food security span competing approaches. For example, a neoliberal approach advocates commercialized, industrial agriculture, while food sovereignty and resilience are part of an alternative discourse to food security that prioritizes locally-based agroecological food production. Understanding how global discourses play out locally and how they impact the environment and biodiversity is important to identify appropriate pathways towards sustainability. In addition to their effects on food security, different approaches could reinforce or impede the success of biodiversity conservation because of the strong interdependence of food security and ecosystems. We applied the Q-methodology to examine alternative approaches to food security and biodiversity conservation pursued by 50 stakeholders from local to national levels in southwestern Ethiopia. We identified four distinct approaches, focusing on (1) smallholder commercialization, (2) agroecology and resilience, (3) local economy and equity, and (4) market liberalization. All approaches prioritized smallholders, but perspectives on how to achieve food security varied. Agricultural intensification, commercialization, and profit were widely considered important, while support for agroecology and resilience was largely restricted to non-government organizations. With the exception of supporters of the agroecology and resilience approach, biodiversity conservation was considered as a secondary goal. We conclude it is important to acknowledge plurality of food security approaches because local conditions are characterized by a multiplicity of stakeholder interests, and because food security is a complex problem that requires a multidimensional approach. However, major contradictions among existing approaches need to be reconciled, and the agroecology and resilience approach should be strengthened to ensure the sustainable achievement of food security and biodiversity conservation.
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