the global food crisis

Food Security and the Global Population

Food serves as a source of energy, allowing humans to live in good health and with dignity. Food security is a critical condition for a nation’s development of the next generation of human resources. The right to proper nutrition is a universally accepted human right that everyone should have. Many people around the world may not have the right to proper nutrition. Food insecurity is rising even as hunger is declining. In 2014, nearly 11% of the global population was food insecure (Global Report on Food Crises 2017).

The Challenge of Feeding the Growing Population

Food scarcity and poverty are becoming more of a matter of connectivity than of output amounts. Even with the efficient global distribution in place, food supplies are still not sufficient to feed the world’s growing population. There remains a need to food that is equivalent to feed the next generations for the next fifty years.

Collaborative Efforts to Address Food Crises

The world is faced with an urgent call to action at a moment in which four countries have been identified to be at risk of famine and the demand for resilience and humanitarian action is escalating. In the recent past, many stakeholders have significantly contributed to the food investments in order to improve security in the world. Significant improvements have also been made in the past in the line of technological advancements in order to improve the timeliness and quality of food security.

Analyzing Global Food Crises

The European Union, World Food Program and FAO have joined hands to coordinate the compilation of an analysis of the distribution and impact of food shortage. These organizations have also established foundations for resilience and humanitarian responses through the preparation of the “Global Report on Food Crises” (Global Report on Food Crises 2017).

Global Overview of Food Crises

In 2006, the United Nations estimated that 108 million people were facing crises level food insecurity or worse globally. This enormous figure represents a 35% increase compared to 2015 when the reported number was about 80 million people. The increasing and wide reaching effects of the global food shortage has resulted in numerous conflicts that has left many food insecure people on need to urgent humanitarian assistance. The report that was done by the United Nations on March 2017 outlined the number of people experiencing food shortage crises worldwide and who need urgent assistance. In Yemen (17 million); Syria (7.0 million); South Sudan (4.9 million); Somalia (2.9 million); Burundi (2.3 million); Nigeria (4.7 million) and Central Africa Republic (2 million).

Worst Affected Populations by Displacement

The populations that are worst affected by displacements as a result of food shortage are those in Iraqi (3.1 million); Syria (6.3 million who are internally displaced people); Yemen (3.2 million); South Sudan (3 million), Somalia (2.1 million); and the northeastern parts of Nigeria (2.1 million) (Global Report on Food Crises 2017).

Impact of El Nino and Drought

In some countries, El Nino has significantly affected food security. This phenomenon has largely resulted in drought conditions that highly destroyed livestock and agricultural produce. The most affected countries are southern and eastern Africa. The 2017 projections indicated and increase a severity of food insecurity in the southern and eastern African regions. This is particularly in Kenya, Somalia, and southern and southeastern Somalia (Global Report on Food Crises 2017).

Food Access Constraints and High Risks

Access to food has been severely constrained in some parts of South African countries, south Sudan and Nigeria. This has acutely aggravated food insecurity and led to high risks of malnutrition in these countries.

Causes of Food Insecurity

The major intensifying causes of food insecurity in the world in 2016 were El Nino induced weather patterns and conflicts. The persistent nature of these factors has led to weakened households and this has resulted in their incapacity t cope and undermined their capacity to recover from future shocks (Global Report on Food Crises 2017).

Severity and Widespread Impact of Food Crises

Food shortage and crises in 2016 were extremely severe and widespread and affected national populations like Yemen and caused acute damage to the localized regions such as in northeast Nigeria (Global Report on Food Crises 2017).

Solution to Food Shortage

Agricultural progress is essentially paramount in increasing the provision of food the ever-growing human population. Savings and tax revenues should be increased to support the development of agriculture, earn more foreign exchange and provide an ample market for the manufactured goods domestically produced (Graham 2015).

The African Green Revolution

The African Green Revolution should be revisited to facilitate food production for the starving African countries. Thus revolution entailed new features of agricultural inputs including a combination of heavy fertilizer usage, controlled irrigation schemes and improved grain varieties including genetically modified crops (Graham 2015).

Strategic Agricultural Solutions

The strategic agricultural solutions that are envisioned should entail tackling of the long-term socioeconomic and political challenges that might affect the stability of agricultural produce and the aspects of urban and rural life. The increasing inter-regional problems that cause political unrest resulting in food insecurity conflicts and capitalist agriculture should be done away with. This is achievable through ample negotiations between the conflicting parties.

Efficient Corporate Governance

The commercial farm proprietors should exercise efficient corporate governance to help ward off instability and comply with the international laws, ethical norms, accountability requirements, transparency and social codes of conduct. Individual farmers should be allowed to buy and sell freely and be motivated to participate in the implementation of strategic solutions in the food industry. The introduction of genetically modified crops can significantly contribute towards the reduction of food shortage in the world (Graham 2015).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Genetically Modified Crops

Having manipulated genes, genetically modified crops are becoming very popular in combating food shortages across the world. They are highly embraced since they are believed to have high yield produce, insect resistant and have fast growing traits compared to other normal crops. Genetically modified crops come with some significant pros and cons (Key, Ma and Drake 2008).

Benefits of Genetically Modified Crops

On the pro side of genetically modified crops, they are a technology that has been going on for many years. The genetic modification is not a new concept. People have been manipulating crops for many years. This concept however embraces latest forms of biotechnology and uses the most precise methods known. Additionally, genetically modified crops are believed to be safe for consumption. They have an improved taste and quality as well as a myriad of nutrients. These crops are important since thy help ease the environmental impacts caused by human activities. Genetically modified crops can also help reduce world hunger. This is because, even with small amounts of seeds, the farmers are able to produce large amounts of profitable crops fro the market. Individuals are also able to produce more food for their families. This therefore directly addresses the problem of food shortage to families in the world over (Key, Ma and Drake 2008).

Concerns about Genetically Modified Crops

On the cons side, genetically modified crops are not entirely believed to be safe. Independent studies on the same have shown health effects of genetically modified crops hence reducing the confidence in their consumption safety. Additionally, genetically modified crops have been reported to contribute to the increase in allergic reactions occurrences. These food related allergies come with symptoms of rashes, headache, nausea and fatigue. Also, the genetically modified crops altars the way nature works. They are believed to do a tremendous damage to the environment. Insect resistant plants have a capacity to harm insects that are not their intended target. These crops also require labeling and such moves can cause fear ad make the public not to accept foods that are from genetically modified crops. Finally, genetically modified crops only have little or no economic value. This is because these crops take much time to mature and requires more efforts to grow compared to other natural crops (Key, Ma and Drake 2008).

Conclusion

The genetically modified crops have tremendous social and economic impacts. These crops have beneficial effects as they have essential vitamins, nutrients and some of them simply tastes better. They are quite healthy for consumption. However, some people are afraid of the unforeseen risks that come with the consumption of such foods. On the economic side, genetically modified crops are cost effective since they take short periods to mature and are insect resistant. They therefore help farmers to same money and gain good profits. They are essential in the world vision of reducing food shortages and increasing food security hence solving the problems that come due to food crises (Graham 2015).

References

Graham, B (2015). Socio-economic impacts of GM crop technology: ’second round’ impacts. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/plant/docs/plant_gmo-socio- economic_considerations-europabio_contribution_i_en.pdf

[Accessed June 12, 2017]

Global Report on Food Crises 2017. (2017). Available at http://www.fsincop.net/resource- centre/detail/en/c/877403/ [Accessed June 12, 2017]

Key, S., Ma, J. K., and Drake, P. M. (2008, June 01). Genetically modified plants and human health. Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2408621/ [Accessed June 12, 2017]