Agriculture & Food Security - Latest Articles

Agriculture & Food Security: first anniversary

Malcolm Elliott — 2013-04-23T00:00:00Z

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Global agriculture needs smart science and policies

Ademola Braimoh — 2013-04-12T00:00:00Z

Food insecurity and climate change, the twin crises that may define the future havebrought agriculture back into the spotlight of international debate. In spite of the growingthreats of climate change to agricultural yields and livelihoods, global agriculture mustproduce additional food to feed a growing population. Today, more than ever before, weunderstand the significance that climate has for agriculture. Major weather and food priceshocks are becoming the new norm the recent droughts in the horn of Africa, Russia,Australia, and United States markedly affected food production and prices, and increased thevulnerability of the poor.

Contribution of wetland resources to household food security in Uganda

Nelson Turyahabwe — 2013-03-25T00:00:00Z

Background: In Uganda, nearly 1.4 million people are currently food insecure, with the prevalence of food energy deficiency at the country level standing at 37%. Local farmers are vulnerable to starvation in times of environmental stress, drought and floods because of dependence on rain-fed agriculture. Accordingly, the farmer’s means of increasing food production has always been an expansion of area under cultivation from virgin and fragile areas, especially wetlands. Consequently, Uganda has lost about 11,268 km2 of wetland, representing a loss of 30% of the country’s wetlands from 1994 to 2009. While the environmental importance of wetland ecosystems is widely recognized, their contribution to household food security is still hardly explored. In this paper an assessment of the contribution of wetland resources to household food security and factors influencing use of wetland resources in Uganda are reported. Methods: A number of livelihood tools in food security assessment including focus group discussions, key informant interviews, direct observations and a household questionnaire survey, were used to collect the data. A total of 247 respondents from areas adjacent to wetlands were involved in the household questionnaire survey conducted in three agro-ecological zones that are frequently characterized as food insecure. Results: The findings indicate that about 83% of the households experienced food insecurity. The main indicators of food insecurity were low harvest (30.9%) and when people buy locally grown food items (18%). Most households felt food secure when they had perennial crops (43.2%) in their gardens, or adequate money to buy food (23.9%). The prevalence of food insecurity was significantly lower among households with older and better educated household heads, but also among households located in Lake Victoria Crescent and South western farmlands agro-ecological zones, but significantly higher among households that were female headed, larger and participate in collection of wetland resources. Over 80% of the respondents reported that wetland resources provide products and services that contribute enormously to their household food security. Besides, they also indirectly contribute to food security by providing services that foster food production such as weather modifications and nutrient retention. Households with older heads and those that reside in the Lake Victoria Crescent agro-ecological zone when compared to counterparts in the Lake Kyoga agro-ecological zone are more likely to have a higher dependence on wetlands for food security. Conclusions: With increasing population around the wetlands, coupled with land shortage and weather variations, households with limited options will continue to generally rely on wetlands for food security and income for sustaining their livelihoods unless alternative livelihood options are provided. There is thus a need to design appropriate food production technologies that ensure sustainable use of wetland resources for food security.

Development of a core collection of Triticum and Aegilops species for improvement of wheat for activity against chronic diseases

Meenakshi Santra — 2013-02-15T00:00:00Z

Background: The objective of this study was to develop a core collection of Triticum and Aegilops species as a resource for the identification and characterization of wheat lines with preventive activity against chronic diseases. Given that cancer is the leading cause of mortality in the world and shares risk factors with obesity, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and given that wheat has been reported to protect against these diseases, the core collection was developed based on cancer prevalence. Methods: The Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) database was used to identify Triticum and Aegilops species grown in regions of the world that vary in cancer prevalence based on the International Agency for Cancer Research GLOBOCAN world map of cancer statistics (2008). Cancer incidence data drove variety selection with secondary consideration of ploidy, center of origin, and climate. Results: Analysis indicated that the geographic regions from which wheat is considered to have originated have a lower incidence of cancer than other geographic regions (P <0.01), so wheat lines from countries that comprise the ‘Fertile Crescent’ were highly represented in the core collection. A total of 188 lines were selected from 62,571 accessions maintained by GRIN. The accessions identified comprised two genera and 14 taxa of 10 species within 19 groups from 82 countries. The core collection is comprised of 153 spring, 25 winter, and five facultative selections of wheat. Conclusions: A diverse core collection of wheat germplasm has been established from a range of regions worldwide. This core collection will be used to identify wheat lines with activity against chronic diseases using anticancer activity as a screening tool.

Alternative mechanisms for achieving food security in Oman

Msafiri Mbaga — 2013-02-01T00:00:00Z

Food security exists when every person has physical and economic access at all times to healthy and nutritious food in sufficient quantity. There are three fundamental pillars in achieving food security. The first is food availability, second is access to food – economic and physical access – and the third pillar is food utilization. In terms of food availability (the first pillar) today, the world is food secure and statistics shows that global grain prices are less costly in real terms than at any time in recent decades. The second pillar is critical at the national and household levels. At the national level, Oman produces only a fraction of the food it consumes 3#8211; most of the food, especially grains and red meat, are imported. Land and water scarcity are among the leading constraints to agricultural production such that by 2050 Oman is expected to depend solely on imports to meet food security needs. The third pillar is the utilization of food through adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and healthcare to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met. Focusing on the two food security pillars (food availability and access to food), this paper proposes three alternative mechanisms for achieving food security in Oman. The three mechanisms proposed are the formation of a National Food Trading Company, setting up an efficient Strategic Grain Reserve System along the lines suggested by the World Bank, and the promotion of private-sector participation in the importation of grain and other critical food commodities. These proposed mechanisms are general and therefore can be easily applied to other Gulf Cooperation Council countries with minor modifications.

Landscape diversity and the resilience of agricultural returns: a portfolio analysis of land-use patterns and economic returns from lowland agriculture

David Abson — 2013-01-07T00:00:00Z

Background: Conventional agriculture is increasingly based on highly specialized, highly productive farms. It has been suggested that 1) this specialization leads to farms that lack resilience to changing market and environmental conditions; and 2) that by decreasing agricultural diversity, the resilience of the farming system also decreases. Methods: We used agricultural gross margin (GM) forecasts from 1966 to 2010 and remote sensing data from agricultural landscapes in the lowland UK, in conjunction with modern portfolio theory, to test the hypothesis that decreasing land-use diversity results in landscapes that provide higher, but more volatile, economic returns. We considered the role of spatial scale on the expected levels of volatility and resilience of agricultural returns. Results: We found that: 1) there was a strong linear trade-off between expected GMs and the expected volatility of those GMs in real lowland agricultural landscapes in the UK; 2) land-use diversification was negatively correlated with expected GMs from agriculture, and positively correlated with decreasing expected volatility in GMs; 3) the resilience of agricultural returns was positively correlated with the diversity of agricultural land use, and the resilience of agricultural returns rose quickly with increased land-holding size at small spatial extents, but this effect diminished after landholdings reached 12,000 hectares. Conclusions: Land-use diversity may have an important role in ensuring resilient agricultural returns in the face of uncertain market and environmental conditions, and land-holding size plays a pivotal role in determining the relationships between resilience and returns at a landscape scale. Creating finer-grained land-use patterns based on pre-existing local land uses may increase the resilience of individual farms, while maintaining aggregate yield across landscapes.

Establishment of a world food preservation center

Charles Wilson — 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z

A World Food Preservation Center (WFPC) is proposed in response to a pending civilization-threatening food shortage and our limited ability to adequately increase food production. Some estimates put losses of food in developing countries after it is produced and before it is consumed at 50%. These losses are particularly threatening to individuals and farmers who are living in the midst of food insecurity. Although numerous organizations have attempted to address this problem worldwide, the magnitude of the effort has not come close to the enormity of the problem. Most of these programs are also short-term and require continuous input by postharvest specialists from developed countries in order to be sustainable. A critical need exists for a substantial and sustainable worldwide program that can significantly reduce losses and waste of food in developing countries. The World Food Preservation Center proposed here meets this need by educating young scientists in developing countries about low-input, appropriate technologies for preserving food postharvest. It also conducts research on postharvest technologies especially suited for application in developing countries such as biological control, solar refrigeration, and coordinated transport and marketing schemes that support and sustain the local production of food commodities.

Determinants of yield differences in small-scale food crop farming systems in Cameroon

Genesis Yengoh — 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, small-scale farmers make up the majority of food producers. While recognizing that the yields per hectare for main food crops are generally low in small-scale food production systems in this region, there are considerable differences in yield output among individual farmers. At the very local scale, why do these differences exist? By examining factors that are associated with yield differences, policy can be better informed and tailored to respond to challenges of food production among this important group of producers. Results: When the influence of biophysical factors is controlled by sampling farmers within the same environment, the analysis distinguishes three clusters of factors with which food crop yield differences can be associated: the input, management and socio-cultural clusters. In the input cluster, the use of basic inputs such as animal droppings and improved seeds do significantly improve yields. However, there are constraints at farm and household levels that may have to be overcome to optimize the availability and use of these inputs. In the farm management cluster, the method of residue management and the control of pests and crop diseases are important in determining yield differences. Issues of gender rights and access to agricultural production resources dominate socio-cultural clusters. Conclusions: Small investments that are properly targeted to improve basic techniques of farming can make an appreciable difference in food crop yields and food security at the local level. While directed investments in services such as extension may contribute significantly to propagate the use of some technologies (composting, residue management, manure use), cost constraints limit the propagation of other technologies (advanced seed development and improvement, production of inorganic fertilizers) to higher levels of food governance systems. Women form an important population among small-scale farmers and play an indispensable role in food production. Addressing constraints to their access to food production resources (physical, financial, cultural, legal) would be a vital step towards sustainably improving food production. Present food demand trends in sub-Saharan Africa offer an opportunity through which many small-holder farming communities can be drawn out of poverty if some local-level challenges to yield improvement can be overcome.

Supporting food security in the 21st century through resource-conserving increases in agricultural production

Norman Uphoff — 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z

The Green Revolution was accomplished under a set of demographic, economic, climatic and other conditions in the 20th century that have been changing and will surely be different and more difficult in the decades ahead. The suitability and sustainability of any given agricultural technology depends on factors like resource availability and productivity, energy costs, and environmental constraints. The achievements of Green Revolution technologies in the 1960s and 1970s came at a critical time of impending food shortages, and the world’s people would be worse off without them. However, the rate of yield improvement for cereal production has been slowing since the mid-1980s.Looking ahead at the foreseeable circumstances under which 21st century agricultural producers must try to assure food security, there will be need for technologies that are less dependent on resources that are becoming relatively scarcer, like arable land and water, or becoming relatively more costly, like energy and petrochemical-based inputs. This paper considers agroecologically-based innovations that reduce farmers’ dependence on external inputs, relying more on endogenous processes and existing potentials in plants and soil systems. Such resource-conserving production represents a different approach to meeting food security goals.While these innovations are not yet fully understood and are still being researched, there are good agronomic reasons to account for their effectiveness, and scientific validations are accumulating. Enough successes have been recorded from making changes in the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients that more attention from researchers, policy-makers and practitioners is warranted, especially given the need to adapt to, and to mitigate the effects of, climate change. The same agroecological concepts and management methods that are enhancing factor productivity in rice production are giving similar results with other crops such as wheat, finger millet, sugarcane, mustard, and tef.Genetic potentials are the starting point for any and all agricultural production, and current efforts to improve food security and nutrition through plant breeding efforts should continue. However, future research and production strategies could beneficially seek to capitalize on biological processes and potentials existing within crops and in their supporting soil systems, rather than focusing so predominantly on making modifications in genetic factors. Scientific advances in the domains of microbiology, soil ecology and epigenetics could foreseeably assist farmers in meeting production and income goals with resource-economizing methods. It remains to be seen to what extent agroecologically-informed methods can help farmers meet expected agricultural production requirements to ensure global food security, but this direction deserves more attention and support.

Rothamsted¿s aphid-resistant wheat ¿ a turning point for GMOs?

Mark Lynas — 2012-10-09T00:00:00Z

Rothamsted Research mounted a successful counter-campaign in response to a threat by environmental protesters to destroy their research project examining aphid-resistant genetically modified (GM) wheat. This involved the use of online media, petitions, and other tools, by which researchers engaged directly with media and the general public in defense of their work. Lessons are suggested for other researchers in the controversial field of GM plant breeding.