FOOD SECURITY CHALLENGES
Food security challenges…
Food security means that all people at all times have social, physical, and economic access to sufficient food. It must be safe and nutritious food that meets consumer preferences. Thus, it fulfills the dietary needs for an active and healthy lifestyle. Therefore, sufficient quantities of food of good quality must be available. It may be supplied through domestic production or made available by importing. For some countries, it may include food aid too.
Food access refers to individuals having adequate resources or entitlements to acquire relevant foods for a nutritious diet. So, entitlements mean the set of all commodity bundles over which a person may establish command amid legal, political, economic, and social arrangements. It applies to the community they live in. Therefore, it may include any traditional rights—for example, access to common resources.
Food utilisation
Food utilisation should be through sufficient diet, clean water, sanitation, and health care. It must reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological requirements are met. Therefore, this brings out the importance of non-food inputs in food security. There needs to be stability. As such to be food secure, a population, household, and individual should have access to enough food at all times. There should not be any risk of losing access to food due to any sudden shocks. For example, due to climate crisis, economic or political situation. It includes any cyclical events for example seasonal food shortages.
Thus far, the concept of stability refers to both, the availability and access dimensions of food security. Changing Policy Concepts on food security have evolved in the last thirty years. This evolution reflects changes in official policy thinking. World Food Conference first originated the term in 1974.
Food availability
The food security definition was in terms of food supply. It was to assure the availability and price stability of basic food items. Thus it was viewed at the international and national levels. It is to ensure food availability at all times of enough world food supplies of basic foods. Thus, to sustain a consistent food consumption expansion. It must offset any fluctuations in production and prices.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) focuses on food access. It leads to a definition based on the balance between the demand and supply side of the food equation. Hence, to ensure that all people at all times have physical and economic access to basic food they may require. There was a revision to this definition to include the individual and household levels. In addition, include regional and national aggregation for food security analysis.
Poverty and hunger
The highly influential World Bank report on Poverty and Hunger in 1986 looked on the temporal dynamics of food insecurity. According to this report, there was an introduction to distinguish between chronic food insecurity, associated with problems of continuing or structural poverty, and low incomes. It includes transitory food insecurity. This involves periods of intensified pressure that may be caused by natural disasters, economic collapse or conflict. Thus, this was complemented by the theory of famine. It highlights the effect of personal entitlements about food access.
