RESEARCH QUESTION: How have sustainable practices helped in the eradication of food insecurity?
WORD COUNT: 1979
INTRODUCTION
Food insecurity has always been at the limelight of global issues. Stemming from issues like food waste, poor public transits and more, it seems to be increasing day by day. A document published by EatrightPRO,2021, suggests that the United Nations (UN) estimates world population to skyrocket to 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. This implies that in this age of the Anthropocene, our food availability depends on how it is managed by humans. According to research carried out by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO),2008, it suggests that food security is when everyone constantly has access to enough food physically available to them and affordable such that it meets their requirements for a healthy living. Yet what we fail to realize is that not everyone is given this privilege for there is a prospect that people may not have access to ample food either presently or in future. About 153 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experienced extreme food insecurity in 2015 (Sicar, A., 2018), this high rate of food insecurity is contrary to UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 2; zero hunger. As such having a sustainable lifestyle can be a way forward to this global issue. Living sustainably involves minimizing the use of the earth’s natural resources by making sustainable choices and counteracting negative environmental concerns (Sustainable Jungle, n.d). Consequently, this report targets at digging into possible options of sustainable practices that can help annihilate this problem, in order to make food accessible to everyone.
ISSUES
There are many concerns that have sprung up from food insecurity. I chose this topic because despite the earth’s abundant resources, not everyone has the privilege of not experiencing a feeling of extreme hunger. Now with the continuous trend in population growth, there are higher chances that more people would not have food, raising the rate of poverty and hunger worldwide. As such, I thought it was wise that such an issue should be addressed and how living sustainably can help tackle this problem. This report therefore focuses on those methods of sustainability that can aid in deciphering this hurdle at a global and national scale. At the national level, I shall be evaluating my home country; Cameroon.
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO FOOD SECURITY
Sustainable agriculture
According to Guzdek G.,2020, we are so close to consummating our natural resources yet food insecurity still poses an ever-present issue. There might not necessarily be a lack of resources, but a lack of proper maintenance of land to grow food needed to feed the world, is a problem. Experts believe that about 26.4% of the world population face moderate to acute levels of food insecurity making an amount of about 2 billion people (Meacock J., 2021). The distribution of food in many foods insecure settings are affected by factors like inundation, droughts and pests’ invasion. The employment of cover crops in these areas can help alleviate the effects of these factors. Some cover crops like radishes, legumes, wheat, corn and even oats extract carbon out of the air and convert it to nitrogen (natural fertilizer) and grow without needing the soil to be tilled. Cover crops protect the soil from erosion and enrich the soil with nitrogen thereby increasing soil fertility. This in return raises the yield of crops, consequently ensuring the availability of food. In the US for example, Joe Biden has earmarked $30 billion to help pay farmers implement this sustainable practice (Folk E., 2020).
Ifad organization (2020) cited (Mabiso & Benfica, 2019), saying that Africa’s population is fast growing with 2.2 billion people expected to be reached by 2050. In addition, SSA reports for more than half of world population growth between 2019 and 2050. This growth however diminishes the access of food to each and every inhabitant.
Sustainable agriculture has been universally commended as the primary method to address the obstacle of meeting the food requirements of the rapidly growing population of SSA while ensuring that of the future generations. In SSA, the incorporation of livestock, like cattle, into agriculture contributes to raising food security as it is used as animal draught power and the usage of animal manure brings about the nutrients needed for crop production in Africa (A.A. Ayantunde et al.,2018).
Livestock ownership is essential for fighting food insecurity in many African countries. In the Northern and Adamawa region of Cameroon, for example, there is inadequate food especially with the growing population as such farmers and herdsmen have begun to engage in livestock farming (Djamen, P. et al., 2006). With the increase in demand for meat, herdsmen and farmers have raised the supply of it from their livestock. This has not only fought against hunger but these people now earn an income from this practice as northerners earn a living through the selling of meat especially in a form called ‘Suya’. In order to prove this, I carried out a survey where I asked a considerable number of my family members and friends, including friends on the internet by carrying out a poll (all aged between 11 to 63years of age). The poll conveyed that a majority of them, 68%, often consume ‘suya’. Their purchases thereby provide income to the sellers, permitting them to afford their own food as poverty is another cause of food insecurity.
Furthermore, Aquaculture has become one of the largest food producing sectors in the world. Four million ponds have been located in rural southern Bangladesh and through a recent initiative carried out by CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research), the ponds are being used by the women as sources of food and income (Kabi A., 2014). This in return educates and trains the women on new aqua farming techniques.
In my home country, Cameroon, aquaculture in the form of fish farming has been practiced since 1948(FAO, 2021). Nevertheless, there has been a decline in domestic food catches and the government was forced to import frozen fish which has been more disadvantageous to them. In consequence, they decided to revive the sector and encourage fisheries and Aquaculture in Cameroon. Cameroon’s favorable geographical location and climate favors the implementation of this procedure. Regions like Adamawa, Centre, East, Littoral, West and even North West indulge in this practice which has led to the rise in the fish supply of the various rural environments and even the country as a whole. Fish farmers gain income via the sale of surpluses thus feeding the rest of the population combating food insecurity, and the income gained permits these farmers to be able to afford food.
Training and educating youths
Research from the University of Nairobi-Kenya suggests that the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Ukamba Christian Community Services (UCCS) in Mwingi District, reaches out to Community Based Organizations (CBOs) like Nzauni CBO in which this CBO divides willing households into self–help groups. Each group fights against famine; some groups establish green house, tree nursery, sand dams and other upgrading projects to fight food insecurity (Muoko, S. 2010). Households sell the seedlings and use the money to purchase food and their basic needs. Above all UCCS put in follow-up strategies to ensure the sustainable utilization of resources by both CBOs and self-help groups.
Likewise in Cameroon, agricultural faculties did not exist that much but now new ones are being created to educate the youths. The youths are the future leaders of tomorrow as such training and educating them towards agriculture as agricultural engineers and veterinary technicians for example, is another mechanism of fighting the issue of food insecurity in the country. This is because in the long term they will practice what they have been taught and research on new agricultural strategies that will aid in combatting the threat of food insecurity. For example, we have the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural sciences (FASA) at the University of Dschang and Higher institute of Agriculture and Rural development in Bamenda, which aims at guiding students to use technology consequently ensure local, national and even international food security as well as rational management of resources.
Sustainable transport
Without proper transportation, many families are denied access to nutritious food. For many low-income individuals, mobility and housing locations affect their ability to have food. Certain neighborhoods especially in the rural areas are being located farther away from stores and markets without any proper transit means for them to get food.
A survey from Portland State University from the Transportation Research and Agricultural Center (TREC) suggests that out of a total of 437,502 food insecure individuals in Tampa Bay, 31% of them do not have adequate access to proper means of transport. It also says that although there is a bus stop in Tampa Bay, transits should be made more straight-forward and efficient for the people. More transits should be used in areas where food insecurity is the highest as it is cost effective. In addition, strategies to increase grocery stores should be implemented in those rural areas for the transportation-disadvantaged.
In Cameroon, however, it is the opposite as urban areas instead do not have access to nutritious and affordable food. The main source of income in the rural areas is gotten through farming as such transportation does not really affect them in terms of food supply. On the other hand, the urban areas are especially affected due to the poor farm to market roads. This ergo causes foodstuff like tomatoes, to take a lot of time to reach the cities, causing them to perish. This shortage raises the prices of food, rendering it more expensive for people in the cities to afford food, most especially if they are of low incomes.
Creating good tarred roads limits this wastage and betters the transport of food to the cities. Example from Ekondo-Titi (a rural area) to Douala (a city) in Cameroon, the bad rural-urban roads cause little food to arrive in the city. Due to this, the people in that urban area suffer from the high prices imposed. In the past, people were transporting food items on their heads and walking long distances but with the introduction of motor-bikes locally known as “benskin” and taxis, transportation of food is eased. This thereby aids in the eradication of food insecurity.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, writing this report has opened my eyes as I am now able to see the gravity of the situation of food insecurity. My view on this has changed a lot as I have further realized the harm, I caused with my own hands by wasting food. Many women, men and children in different parts of the world, walk for miles just to get drinking water, which I find to be quite outrageous. As such, we as humans need to bring heads together and solve this problem.
Governments as well as NGOs should fund micro-entrepreneurship skills in the youths to enable the eradication of poverty consequently, food insecurity. Alternatively, governments should enforce and establish strict laws and regulations, such as food distribution at subsidized prices to the population, to promote food security and penalties should be imposed on any citizen who go against these laws.
Conversely, educating the citizens, most especially the youths, on the impact of how our day-to-day activities affect the world's food system and even educating them on sustainable practices that aids in food security, would tremendously help in fighting against this issue.
This helps in ensuring that people understand the risk we put ourselves and the earth in. Food insecurity is not only a present issue but it is a problem that can extend into the future and affect future generations’ needs, as such the nonchalance exercised by people should immediately be stopped. We have to re-evaluate this issue as a core issue. Altogether, we need to watch our ways, save the earth and minimize its resources to ensure that food is on the table of all, before things get out of hand and beyond us.
REFERENCES
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