Food insecurity essay - notes PDF

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With reference to located examples, discuss how sustainable development strategies can ensure food security. Food security is affordable and plentiful supply of food. Food security depends on sufficient quantities of food, having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet, the food use and the food stability. Sustainable development in ensuring food security is to make sure that methods to improve food security sustains in the long run. To know what development strategies is sustainable we must understand the cause to food insecurity. Mindanao, an area in the Philippines is being affected by climate change. Food insecurity is being causes by temperature and rain increase, causing both drought and then also water logging. There has been an increased frequency of and intensity of typhoons, an increase in drought, floods and flash floods – these extreme weather damages crops. In 2012, Typhoon Pablo damages $186 m worth of banana crops. Weather conditions affect soil insecurity as it damages crops, so it reduces the quantity of food and also the quality of food so there is less food in the world to be distributed around. Most farmers in Mindanao depend on growing just one crop to sell for income to support their family. However, this is risky, as weather conditions can damage all the crops and bad harvest can lead to all of that crop being damaged – less for the farmers to sell for income and also increases food insecurity as there is less quantities of food to be distributed. A solution to this is the use of mixed cropping, which is when there are two harvests going on so therefore two different crops growing at different rates. This firstly keeps the soil healthier but increases the quantity of crops produces. With two different crop’s it makes farming more productive as they can rely on two crops and not just one – this increases output but also reduces the risk of farmers losing all their crop. If there was one bad harvest, the other crop still may not be damaged, so farmers still have an income to rely on and locals still have some food they can rely on and eat enough off, with surplus being sold to the rest of the country and internationally. Food insecurity then decreases because there is a lower risk of food quantity being significantly low and is also sustainable as farmers can still gain an income. However, some may argue that the problem of food insecurity is that there may be enough food in the world to feed everyone, but is not necessarily distributed to places it needs to be. Mixed cropping is also not necessarily sustainable as the initial cost of buying new crops and planting them may be too expensive for farmers and can be used on other equipment. Another method to ensure food security is to improve the knowledge of farmers and educate them on methods to create a more productive farming. In Mindanao, OXFAM climate resiliency field schools have been set up to teach farmers about climate change, new farming techniques and crop diversification to tackles climate change issues and unproductive farming techniques – to ensure there is a higher quantity of crops produced. Inter-cropping was introduced so that various vegetables and crops were grown all year round – increasing the quantity farmers produced. Farmers were also taught to adapt gardening techniques to deal with changes in the weather. OXFAM also helped to formulate strategies and plans to cope with a high risk in the Philippines, climate change. There was an opportunity for farmers to try new crops and farming techniques without financial risk, so they can take this experience and apply it to their own land. This leads to food security as the farmers can become more resilient to changes in weather and more financially secure. If farmers learn how to cope with weather changes and learn new methods for more effective farming, the quality and quantity can increase – ensuring food security. It also is sustainable because the farmers are incurring low costs so they are still able to sustain on an income without financial risk in the short run and then earn a higher income. A farmer called Gerondio Ayson in Mindanao, uses intercropping and his vegetables are very profitable, he has a sustainable income, bought a motorbike to deliver vegetables to locals and was able to pay for all 4 children’s education – which can increase their standard of living.

Another issue that lowers food security is the use of water and irrigation or in some case too much water and rain causing waterlogging or drought. In Mindanao, they have been taught to water at night as the day is too hot. Due to drought, they have tapped the river and created their own irrigation system to prevent too dry conditions for crops to grow – reducing the risk of damaged crops and therefore leading to a larger quantity of food. The government also rehabilitated the dam, which is beneficial to the irrigation system. Communities and farmers getting educated on the risks they face in farming and learning ways to prevent this can reduce the risk of damage and innovative methods can help to increase productivity and the increasing quantity and quality of food and therefore increasing food security. In conclusion, these methods are a sustainable way of ensuring food security because it benefits the farmers and the food in the long term. Farmers can gain a sustainable income or even a higher income which is beneficial as they can enjoy a higher standard of living and also invest this into goods that can make their production more productive, which can increase food quantity. Farming more than one crop also increases the food security as there is a lower risk of damaged crops and instead more crops, which is important as food security is increased. Education and new farming techniques is significantly effective as it ensures that the farmers are taught what to do which can be used in the long term rather than just the short term and then they can also teach other farmers and younger generations to make productivity high with more quantity and better quality crops, increasing food security....