Food accessibility is another pillar of food security. This refers to the situation where by the peoples have sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Sen (1989) defined food accessibility as the ability to secure entitlements through a set of resources which include legal, political, economic and social, that an individual requires to obtain access to food. The availability or presence of food does not necessarily mean that the person have access to food, but the person will have access to food through his/her entitlements. The increase of climate change effects such as droughts has resulted in the loss of entitlements for rural inhabitants. There are two ways in which food accessibility can be promoted which …show more content…
This can be enhanced through promoting small holder production mostly in rural areas. In Chivi, emphasis must be given to small grains production due to their ability to survive in harsh conditions. Chivi District is characterised with recurrent droughts and rainfall variability which has consistently reduced agricultural production in the area and resulted in high levels of food insecurity. The production of finger millet in Chivi has increased food accessibility to those farmers who have adopted this production. Finger millet and sorghum are drought resistant crops and this has made them to be more preferable in dry and hot areas like Chivi. Farmers that produce small grains harvest better even in bad seasons and this will promote their food security. Households that produce small grains, food accessibility is within their reach. This shows that small grain farmers can no longer go without food as compared to farmers who produce …show more content…
Finger millet is the most nutritious small grain and it played a major when it comes to combating diseases and fighting infant mortality. In Chivi, the communities used finger millet meal for making porridge for children. It is also highly recommended for people with health problems. According to Taylor (2003) finger millet as the most nutritious grain and can be easily digested, is recommended mainly for infants and the elderly. Instead of families eating one meal of sadza every day, finger millet has diversified the food in the households. Reed (1976) pointed out that finger millet has high protein, fat and minerals than sorghum, rice and corn. It is recommended for pregnant women and also for those suffering from HIV/AIDS in order to boost their immune systems. This shows that the adoptionof finger millet and sorghum as the main staple can help in evading diseases and thus positively cutting down medical expenses. Households who were not in small grain production started to join the production of finger millet and sorghum due to their ability to survive in harsh conditions. One of the respondents pointed out
Farm and Food Policy Project. (2007, March). Making healthy food more accessible for low‐income people. Retrieved from Farm and Food Policy Project: http://www.farmandfoodproject.org/
Poverty is regarded as the major cause of food insecurity. A household food security depends on access to food. America has access to good healthy food. However, a family too poor to buy them do not enjoy food security. Rosenbaum and Neuberger (2005) report that each year the number of people using government food assistance programs grows. “Food stamps are targeted to those with the greatest need for help in purchasing food… [and] helps to lessen the extent and severity of poverty (Rosenbaum and Neuberger 2005)”.
Healthy food access has been an issue reported among people living in food deserts. A food desert is characterized as an area with a limited access to quality, low cost and nutritional rich foods. People in poorer economic neighborhoods purchase their groceries on a budget. Their budget determines how much food they can buy to last an entire month. The lack of grocery stores within neighborhoods affects the health of people within food deserts.
On the other hand , poor people lack both time and money , so it’s unlikely for them to go miles away just for a dish of green salad while there may be several children waiting to be cared and several jobs waiting to be done . Some families also lack corresponding knowledge , make them even more tend to choose unhealthy food. Though the food desert problem and its effect to residents’ diet is unquestionably exist , some researchers still doubt its importance and ponderance . One opinion
Improving agricultural standards can help in producing more food and thus counter the lack of food factor. One way to improve agricultural standards is to develop the irrigation methods used. Irrigation is closely related to poverty. Irrigation benefits the poor through higher production, higher yields, lower risk of crop failure and higher year-round farm and non-farm employment. Irrigation leads to high value market-oriented agricultural production [1].
Food Security in the South Pacific: An Annotated Bibliography Silke Groeneweg What are the effects of climate change and subsequent rising sea levels on the food production and security of the inhabitants of islands in the South Pacific? In the past few decades, climate change has become a more prevalent problem in the minds of researchers and the public alike. For the inhabitants of small island nations in the South Pacific, there is no issue more pressing or potentially detrimental to their lives.
Although all rights are important, the right to food is one of the most important rights in development of nation. Right to food can be analyse in terms of sustainability, adequacy, availability and accessibility. For the examination of these in terms
Since climate change and its impacts on households food security are multifaceted and complex. Thus, exploring such situations demand the use of mix of theories for better understanding of the problem and look for solutions to the respective geographical settings. This section briefly describes theories to be applied. Despite the concept ‘food security’ was emerged at the beginning of the 1970s, famine and malnutrition have a long history in human life. Consequently, from the time of Malthus different scholars have developed theories to explain famine.
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
In conclusion, the world population is expected to grow by 100 million every year. Above ninety five percent of this population growth will come from the developing countries. This would put pressure on available resources for survival especially food in this regions. Potato production and consumption has increased in developing countries more than any other crop in the last fifty years. It is one of the most vital commodities in the world. It is grown commercially in 130 countries and about 320 million tons produced annually. It has since become a staple food for more than one billion of the world population. Potato will most likely play an increasing role in the world’s future food supply.
Krishnaraj, Maithreyi. 2006. “Food Security, Agrarian Crisis and Rural Livelihoods.” Economic and Political Weekly 41 (52): 5376-5388.
There are those that believe our planet has reached its maximum capacity to sustain humanity and we need to reduce our population to rectify it. It is also said that our planet is well capable of providing both the nutrition and caloric needs for humanity, both now and into the future as well. Regardless of where one’s opinion of the facts fall between these two arguments, global food security is not where it should be. Uneven development could be argued to be a cause of this. But it is not the only issue affecting the planet.
Food security is when all people have physical, social and economic access to sufficient food to meet necessities for daily life, at all times. Food security is determined by availability, access, utilization and stability, all of which can be significantly impacted by interactions between income, agriculture industry and population growth (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2009). Population growth is defined as the change in the resident population over a length of time and only comes from two sources: natural increase and immigration. Developing countries, such as South Africa, are more susceptible to food insecurity. Although South Africa has a high per capita income for a developing country, an annually decreasing population growth rate and is a major food producer, an estimated 14 million people, 35% of the population, suffer from food insecurity (Vella, 2012).
One of the most complex issues in the world today concerns human population. The number of people living off the earth’s resources and stressing its ecosystem has doubled in just forty years. In 1960 there were 3 billion of us; today there are 6 billion. We have no idea what maximum number of people the earth will support. Therefore, the very first question that comes into people’s mind is that are there enough food for all of us in the future? There is no answer for that. Food shortage has become a serious problem among many countries around the world. There are many different reasons why people are starving all over the world. The lack of economic justice and water shortages are just merely two examples out of them all.
...earch and extension, rural infrastructure, and market access for small farmers. Rural investments have been sorely neglected in recent decades, and now is the time to reverse this trend. Farmers in many developing countries are operating in an environment of inadequate infrastructure like roads, electricity, and communications; poor soils; lack of storage and processing capacity; and little or no access to agricultural technologies that could increase their profits and improve their livelihoods. Recent unrest over food prices in a number of countries may tempt policymakers to put the interests of urban consumers over those of rural people, including farmers, but this approach would be shortsighted and counterproductive. Given the scale of investment needed, aid donors should also expand development assistance to agriculture, rural services, and science and technology.