Rajul Pandya-Lorch

Food security and sustainable use of natural resources: a 2020 Vision

Abstract At the threshold of the twenty-first century, widespread poverty, food insecurity, and environmental degradation cause severe human suffering and threaten to destabilize global, regional, and national economic and ecological conditions. If these trends continue unabated, the world will not be a pleasant place to live for most of humanity. The International Food Policy Research Institute has developed a 2020 Vision of a world where every person has economic and physical access to sufficient food to sustain a healthy and productive life, where malnutrition is absent, and where food originates from efficient, effective, and low-cost food and agricultural systems that are compatible with sustainable use and management of natural resources. With foresight and decisive action, we can create the conditions that will permit this vision to be realized by 2020. There are several challenges to assuring food security and sustainable use of natural resources: (i) widespread poverty and inadequate human resource development, which inhibit peoples capacity to grow and/or purchase the needed food; (ii) large increases in developing-country populations, especially in urban areas, which will substantially increase food needs; (iii) gross under-investment in agricultural research in developing countries and inadequacies in availability of and access to agricultural inputs–such as water, fertilizer, pesticides, energy, research, and technology, which leads to lagging yield increases in more-favored areas and low and variable yields in less-favored areas; (iv) degradation of natural resources—such as soils, forests, marine fisheries, and water—which undermines production capacity; (v) inefficient functioning of markets and inadequate infrastructure as well as weakened capacity of developing-country governments to perform their appropriate functions; and (vi) insufficient domestic resource mobilization—savings and investment—and declining international assistance, which restrains economic growth and development. These challenges can be overcome and the 2020 Vision of food security and sustainable use of natural resources realized if all relevant parties—individuals, households, farmers, local communities, civil society, private sector, national governments, and the international community—take appropriate action and change their behavior, priorities, and policies. Priority actions include investing more in poor people, accelerating agricultural productivity, assuring sound management of natural resources, strengthening the capacity of developing-country governments to perform appropriate functions, and expanding and realigning international development assistance. The worlds natural resources are capable of supporting the 2020 Vision, if current rates of degradation are reduced and replaced by appropriate technological change and sustainable use of natural resources.

Food for all in 2020 : can the world be fed without damaging the environment ?

Approximately 780 million people world-wide are chronically undernourished, and past gains in food production have been associated with environmental problems, yet global demand for cereals is projected to increase by 56% and for meat by 74% between 1990 and 2020. The International Food Policy Research Institute has developed the view that every person in the world can have access to sufficient food to sustain a healthy and productive life, that malnutrition can be abolished, and that food can originate from efficient, effective, and low-cost food systems that are compatible with sustainable use of natural resources. Moreover, IFPRI has concluded that these conditions can be achieved by the year 2020, if the world commits itself to specified changes in behaviour, priorities, and policies. In order for these changes to occur, sustained action is needed in six areas: (1) strengthening the capacity of developing-country governments; (2) investing more in poor people; (3) accelerating agricultural productivity; (4) assuring sound management of natural resources; (5) developing competitive markets; and (6) expanding and realigning international development assistance. We have the knowledge and the capacity to meet the food needs of every person without damaging the environment. What is needed is political will and commitment on the part of all members of society to take the required action.

Prospects for food demand and supply in Central Asia

Abstract Central Asia has experienced massive economic and social shocks during the past decade following the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. Demand for cereals, particularly for staple cereals and meats, has fallen significantly even as production and productivity have plummeted. Although agricultural reforms were launched in 1991, the performance of the agricultural sector has been weak across the region. Prospects for food security in Central Asia appear mixed. Projections indicate that a growing and urbanizing population in Central Asia with rising incomes will increase demand for cereals by 32% between 1995 and 2020 to reach 24 million tons, and for meat by 47% to reach 2.9 million tons. Improvements in crop productivity will be essential to meet the increases in demand projected for the region. Cereal production is forecast to keep pace with demand such that Central Asia will be virtually self-sufficient in cereals. However, national food self-sufficiency or food security does not necessarily translate into household or individual food security. Moreover, self-sufficiency comes with a high price-tag of opportunities foregone and inappropriate use made of resources. Given the growing enthusiasm for food self-sufficiency in Central Asia, it is imperative that research be undertaken to assess the full costs and benefits of such a policy.

Prospects for world food security and distribution

Despite global availability of food, the world is not food secure: in the late 1980s, over 780 million people were undernourished, more than 180 million children underweight, and around 1.1 billion people living in poverty. As almost 100 million people are added to the world’s population every year in the next quarter century, it is clear that whether enough food is available to feed all people and whether all people have access to the available food in needed quantities depends on actions the world community takes today. IFPRI projections suggest that the gap between production and consumption will widen in all developing countries by 2020. The better-off countries will be able to fill the gap through commercial imports, but the poorer countries will lack sufficient foreign exchange to avert widespread food insecurity. Agricultural development, by producing more food and ensuring better access to food via employment creation and income growth, is the key to improving world food security. The long lag time between investment in agricultural development and corresponding improvements in food security require that a commitment be made now to improve world food security, otherwise many more people will go hungry and malnourished in coming years.

Assuring A Food-Secure World in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities

ABSTRACT Prospects for a food-secure world will remain bleak if the global community continues with business as usual. However, with foresight and decisive action to improve both availability of food and access to food, global food security can be assured. IFPRIs 2020 Vision initiative has identified six priority areas of action: (i) strengthen the capacity of developing-country governments; (ii) invest in the productivity of low-income people; (iii) strengthen agricultural research and extension systems; (iv) promote sustainable agricultural intensification with sound management of natural resources; (v) develop efficient, effective and low-cost agricultural markets; and (vi) expand international cooperation and assistance, and improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

Global policy on sustainable agriculture: A 2020 vision

Publisher Summary Recent research by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and others show that the extent of future food insecurity, hunger, and unsustainable exploitation of the environment will depend on appropriate economic and social policies rather than on absolute limitations of the earths carrying capacity. However, failure to design and implement appropriate policies and other action to assure sustainable management of natural resource may lead to a situation where the earths carrying capacity is reduced to a level where it does become the limiting factor to the well-being of future generations. The current large number of food-insecure and malnourished people combined with the risk to future generations call for action now. This chapter focuses on the policies and related action required. The action needed will require changes in behavior, priorities, and policies, and it will require developing and strengthening the needed relationships among individuals, households, farmers, local communities, nongovemmental organizations (NGOs), national governments, and the international community. The first area of action is to selectively strengthen the capacity of developing country governments to perform appropriate functions such as establishing and enforcing property rights, promoting private-sector competition in agricultural markets, and maintaining appropriate macroeconomic environments. Predictability, transparency, and continuity in policymaking and enforcement must be assured. Governments must also be assisted to get out of areas that are best handled by the private sector or civil society.