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Thinking about food security equation
2007-05-26 09:41:51
By Elias Sabuni
The hunger that faces some parts of the world has little to do with science and technology, but more with the quality of policies and economic institutions in place.
Science has gone miles to develop new seeds, farm machinery, irrigation technologies, has improved storage facilities, food preservation and production technologies.
Access to farm science and technologies could fifer from one region to another, but basic knowledge and application techniques are already available.
Consistent application of new farm research and development innovations, even at the commercial level, has the potential for fighting hunger and malnutrition, the immediate real dimensions of food security.
At the global platform, ensuring food security would require a combined approach of the mind and heart of intellect and compassion.
For one thing, it is difficult to believe that annually, the world produces enough food for all, but one sixth of the world population goes to sleep hungry every night.
Research activities have produced several crop seed varieties and protective technologies, but some farmers, especially in developing countries have become laggards in the adoption of new innovations, as they feel more secure to continue using traditional seed varieties.
These, however, have failed to sustain productivity that copes up with increased population densities.
One dilemma seems pervasive in Africa, where we lack clearly directed science and technology adaptation strategies and incentives, especially so in agriculture.
But what happens when in fact the world has food surpluses, but some people are languishing in hunger on a daily basis?
Sir Arthur C. Clarke who writes both fact and fiction about food production gives some answers to the serious anomalies in the distribution of food.
He talks about capricious and uncaring market forces that he sees are prevent million of people from having at least one decent meal a day, while others are indulging in abundance.
In what looks like sarcastic way of telling things, Clarke jokingly says that for the first time in history, the number of severely malnourished persons now equals the number of those suffering from obesity. The number is about a billion in each group.
The range of foodstuff and varieties also differ from place to place, from the grains to fish and meat.
Birds and locusts for instance, long seen as pests ready for destroying crops in Africa, could at times be used as emergency food if the world could develop safe ways to trap them for food.
It is reported that several decades ago, a microbe that could turn oil into protein was discovered and the potential of its application was widely discussed, yet nothing much has happened since.
Harnessing the sea for food, minerals and energy has been a subject of concern about scientists, yet in spite of recent concerns about the declining fish harvests, we have barely tapped the food production potential of the sea. Conditioned by our cultural and economic habits, we consume only a small proportion of edible marine creatures.
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