From the Food Security Forum 2014: Good food, good health: delivering the benefits of food security in Australia and beyond - 17 March 2014

1. International food and nutritional security
Responding to climate and economic
challenges
University of Sydney, 17 March, 2014
Udaya Sekhar Nagothu
Professor and Director (International Projects)
The Norwegian Institute for Agriculture and
Environment Norway

2. Food insecurity and human history
• Early humans -hunters and
gatherers/migration in search of
food
• Lydians (in Asia Minor) 3000 years
ago suffered from food scarcity for
18 years (Herodotus).
• Irish famine, Bengal famine (1943)
Famines in the Horn of Africa
• “Food delestage” in Congo
• Food riots in 2008 worldwide
• Millions of households are food
insecure worldwide

3. Food insecurity- global dimensions
Almost 870 million people were
undernourished in 2010/2012.
Of these 304 million people live in
south Asia and 234 million in Sub-
Saharan Africa- (FAO, 2012).
Up to 2 billion people globally lack
food security intermittently due to
poverty.
Lack of access and capacity to buy
food /nutritious food is a very
serious problem for some regions.
Poverty –entitlements-livelihoods -
food insecurity link well established

4. Food insecurity – global dimensions
• Up to 2 billion people suffer
from “hidden hunger”
(micronutrient deficiencies, in
particular Vit A, iron, and
iodine (WHO, 2002).
•
• In south Asia-the major
challenges are food availability
and malnourishment at the
household level (FAO, 2011).
• In Sub-Saharan Africa- both
under/and malnourishment
are the main challenges (UNDP,
2010).

5. Food insecurity- global dimensions
There are more people that are
overweight (around 1.4 billion) than
undernourished.
Obesity is a bigger health crisis
globally and the leading cause of
disabilities (GBD 2010)
Population expected to increase to
9.1 billion by 2050 (FAO, 2009) and
thus more demand for food
To feed the larger, urbanized
population, experts estimate that
food production must be doubled
Others advocate measures to
increase food access and nutrition

6. Food Security discourse
• Food security as a concept emerged in the mid-1970s
• Initial focus was on food production and supply - mid 70s to 80s
• Neglected sufficiency at household level, nutrition, environmental
sustainability.
• FS is about entitlements and distribution (Amartya Sen 1980).
• The World Food Summit in 1996 defined FS as:
– Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets
their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy
life (FAO, 2006)
• This definition later included dimensions of availability, access,
utilization and stability (FAO, 2006)
• More recent emphasis on the Right to Food and Food Sovereignty
movement (De Shutter, 2010 and Holt Giménez, 2013)

7. Major challenges/constraints to FS
• Climate change and
variability
• Economic factors
- Poverty and income inequality
- Rapid urbanization
- Shift in consumption patterns
-- Food trade and tariffs
• Agricultural stagnation
• Population growth
• Lack of entitlements and
insecure livelihoods (Pinstrup-
Andersen and Watson (2011)

8. Climate scenarios (2050) in South Asia
• Shift in the temperature and monsoon patterns/ uncertainty in
predictions
• Physics of monsoons cannot analyze when and where the monsoon
shifts will occur
• Areas recieving more rainfall will be more wet/and dry areas will be
even more drier
• Main challenge for
food production
 Post disaster recovery
 Vulnerablitiy of
small scale farmers/
- Impacts on food and
nutrtitional security

9. Responding to climate change
• Physical structure (dykes)
• Low cost water conservation
(e.g. farm ponds, new irrigation
systems)
• Climate smart farming systems
(eg., SRI and AWD in rice, crop
rotation)
• New crop varieties (drought and
saline tolerant)
• Integrated pest management
• Agro-ecological/organic farming
systems.
• Crop diversity and nutrition
• Reduce post harvest losses
• Mainstreaming gender in food
security and adaptation
• Policy and institutional measures

10. Some key drivers - Food production
• Vietnam and Myanmar
-Economic /land reforms
-Doi moi/economic policy (1986)
-the land law of 1988
-the new Land Law of 2003
-the Farmland Law, 2012 in Myanmar
(Nielson,2003; (Giesecke et al. 2013).
• China and India
-Science and technology (Green
revolution )
-New crop varieties
-Irrigation infrastructure
-Agricultural extension
-Mechanization
-Increasing income levels/ income
gaps/ entitlements
(Zhou 2013; Pritchard et. al 2013)

11. Key drivers - food access and nutrition
• Brazil
-Good goverance
- Political will
-Zero Hunger/or Fome Zero
-Cash transfers/Bolsa Familia
- Tripartite councils to govern
food security
-Legal frameworks
- National Food and Nutrition
Security Law, 2006
- Capacity building and
technology interventions

12. Conclusions- food and nutrition security
• Shift focus from the productionist
approach to sustainable food
systems/ improve food access.
• Food and nutrition sector - key
focus for both public and private
funds investment.
• Climate smart agriculture to help
mitigate and adapt to climate
change impacts
• Resilient food systems that are
integrated, diverse and efficient
• Reduce food waste in all stages
of production and consumption
• Mainstreaming gender, nutrition
security and health

13. Policy implications
• Policy frameworks need
a systemic approach
• Participation from
multiple sectors and
stakeholders.
• Policy frameworks - to
support convergence of
food production
livelihoods, nutrition,
and health
• Policies to support local
production/markets
• Public awareness about
food and nutrition