Food Security

 According to the UN's Committee on World Food Security, food security implies that all people have physical, social, and economic access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food that fits their food choices and dietary needs for an active and healthy life at all times.

Food security was a concern thousands of years ago, with central authorities in ancient China and Egypt known to release food from storehouses during famines. Food security is defined as the "availability at all times of adequate, wholesome, diversified, balanced, and moderate world food supplies of essential commodities to maintain a steady growth of food consumption and to counterbalance variations in production and pricing" at the 1974 World Food Conference.

Similarly, home food security is defined as having enough food for all members to live an active, healthy life at all times. People who are food secure do not have to worry about hunger or starvation. Food insecurity, on the other hand, is described by the US Department of Agriculture as a scenario in which "nutritionally appropriate and safe foods are limited or uncertainly available." Droughts, transportation disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and conflicts are all risk factors that might interrupt or make important food supplies unavailable in the future.

The Sustainable Development Goals are the most important worldwide strategy for reducing hunger and poverty. The second goal: Absolutely no hunger, in particular, establishes universally agreed-upon aims for ending hunger, improving food security and nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture by 2030.

Don’t confuse food security with food safety.

There’s another term called food safety which you may think is the same thing as food security. Both terms refer to people having access to safe and healthy food, there’s a fine line that differentiates them both.

Food safety is a scientific method/discipline that describes how to handle, prepare, and store food in a way that avoids food-borne disease. A food-borne disease outbreak occurs when two or more instances of a similar illness emerge as a result of consuming a common meal.  This contains a number of procedures that must be followed to avoid health risks. Food safety and food defence frequently intersect in this way to protect customers. Within this line of thought, there are two tracks: safety between industry and market, and then safety between market and consumer. 

Another term to refer to food security is food hygiene.

Food insecurity

The rise in hunger over the last few years can be attributed to several factors. Since the financial crisis of 2008-9, slowdowns and downturns have collaborated to deteriorate socioeconomic circumstances, increasing the prevalence of undernourishment. Extreme weather events, changing climatic conditions, and the development of pests and illnesses, in combination with structural imbalances and a lack of inclusive policies, have triggered tenacious cycles of poverty and hunger. 

In the meanwhile, high import and export dependency ratios make many economies more vulnerable to external shocks. Debt has swelled to levels considerably surpassing GDP in many low-income nations, weakening development prospects.

Here are a few ways you can ensure food security.

• Make food chains more efficient: Invest in improving food production efficiency from farm to fork. This will necessitate further research and development in agricultural methods such as insect resistance and pesticide usage. It also entails shortening supply chains, reducing wastage from farm to fork using modern technologies, and encouraging customers to buy local and seasonal products.

• Educate farmers and customers: The importance of education in enhancing agricultural efficiency and technology adoption is widely known. Farmers are seeking information on a wide variety of topics to gain knowledge or enhance their skills and entrepreneurial potential as agriculture transitions from subsistence to commercial. Literacy appears as a key driver of technological adoption and the use of modern inputs such as fertilisers and equipment.

A well-educated workforce makes it easier to train and acquire the new skills and technology needed to increase production. As a result, literacy will have a significant impact on crop increase and local food supply.

Consumers should be informed about the environmental, social, and economic worth of food. Lower consumption of expensive, protein-rich foods that take more money and land to produce, and reduce demand for a year-round supply of seasonal crops through clearer explanations of food miles.

• Taking action on climate change: Food security in India can be attained by paying more attention to concerns like climate change and global warming, as well as promoting climate-smart agricultural production systems and land use regulations on a large scale to help adapt to and reduce the negative consequences of climate change.

• Water management that is incorporated: India must increase crop production per unit of land and water resources. Groundwater depletion at alarming rates, as well as growing environmental and socioeconomic challenges, pose serious dangers to humanity. Improving irrigation water management is critical for increasing output and productivity, food security, and poverty reduction. Agriculture is the largest water consumer, accounting for more than 80% of water withdrawals. Diverting water from agriculture to other industries is under strain. According to estimates, water availability for agricultural usage in India might be decreased by 21% by 2020, resulting in lower yields, particularly rice, price increases, and a danger to poor people's food security. Other industries' water requirements cannot be overlooked. As a result, an integrated water usage policy must be developed and executed with caution. Modern irrigation systems, including sprinklers, drip irrigation, and fertigation, as well as other water-saving measures, need to be utilised on a bigger scale.

• Nutrient management that is incorporated: The usage of nutrients in a balanced manner must be emphasised. In both irrigated and non-irrigated rainfed environments, phosphorus shortage is the most widespread soil fertility issue. Enhancing location-specific research on effective fertiliser techniques, improving soil testing services, developing improved fertiliser supply and distribution networks, and developing physical and institutional infrastructure are all needed to increase fertiliser efficiency.

• Enhanced varieties: Farmers in certain places are unable to obtain information about new and better varieties, and some lack access to high-quality seeds of these kinds, resulting in lower yields. This scenario must be rectified by establishing a nationwide network to monitor and coordinate actions with the different State government officials involved in crop production.

• Cooking classes: Reduce food waste by teaching students where their food originates from and how to make a quick and healthy dinner without wasting any ingredients. The goal would be to offer kids a better understanding of food shopping so they can learn to plan meals and only buy what they need. This will minimise food waste as well as the prevalence of prevalent food-related health problems including obesity and diabetes.