Food Security最新文献

Scholars have proposed agroecology as a promising method for promoting sustainable and socially just agricultural production systems. However, the extent to which agroecological practices will generate the yields required to ensure sufficient food globally remains unclear. This notion is particularly true in the context of Africa, where agricultural productivity is low but levels of hunger and malnutrition are high. To address this knowledge gap, this article undertakes a systematic review of empirical studies to assess the overall status of agroecology-related research in Africa. Using descriptive and meta-analytical methods, we evaluate empirical evidence on the effect of agroecological practices on land and labour productivity. Our analysis of 501 peer-reviewed articles reveals that the body of agroecology-related literature in Africa has been growing in the past 10 years from approximately 10 to more than 70 studies per annum before and after 2014, respectively, with a strong focus on East Africa, particularly Kenya. The majority of the reviewed studies relate to but do not mention agroecology in the title or abstract. Thus, solely relying on studies that use the term may introduce bias and overlook valuable research contributions to the field. The meta-analysis could identify 39 agronomic studies with 392 observations in which agroecological practices were compared to monocrop systems (defined as plots where similar plants grow alongside each other simultaneously and sequentially from one season to the next) with or without inputs as the control groups. The meta-analysis indicates that agroecological practices are associated with a positive and significant difference in land productivity, compared to that for monocrop systems especially so when monocrops are grown without inputs. However, the size and direction of yield differs by practice, crop, climatic factor, soil property and type of control.

Food security is a matter of both global and national concern in India. In a country such as India, where consuming leftovers and reducing food wastage is an ingrained moral and religious belief as opposed to other cultures, especially in some highly industrialised ones, this article explores the possibility that providing citizens with solutions that are mindful of their cultural acceptability will lead to the effective implementation of policies at micro levels. One of the facets of food security, food utilization, is an aspect which can be improved at the individual and household levels. It constitutes one such opportunity in India because of the inherent belief system of the country. My investigation is based upon the theory of Johan Pottier (1999) who stated that while food security is a global issue and much policies is directed at that scale, policies are not well-grounded in a bottom-up understanding of foodscapes of those at whom it was aimed. The paper uncovers unanimity regarding the notions of consuming leftovers and curbing food waste as religious beliefs among various religions across India. It also compares the cultural acceptability of reusing leftovers and reducing wastage in India with developed nations such as the USA and the UK. This work thus emphasizes on avenues for further exploration about how anthropologists can be mobilised in situations which involve purely qualitative solutions. This research is specific in regard to the Indian population.The article attempts to provide a solution to implement policies in India with the intervention of anthropologists as a supporting machinery.

Climate change has increased the frequency and severity of climate extremes, but the influencing magnitudes of climate extreme events on maize yield in China remain unclear. Here, the impact of climate extremes on maize yield over Mainland China during the past four decades is assessed based on the concurrence of climate extremes (mean climate) and maize yields using the event coincidence analysis. Climate extremes during the maize growing season are represented by 14 extreme climate indices. Results showed that 95% of maize planting regions over Mainland China showed significant increases in maize yields, with an average increase of 0.071 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ from 1982 to 2016. Correlations between maize yields and climate indices are spatially heterogeneous. The area where maize is significantly affected by temperature extremes changes (2.7–15.4% of grids) is greater than the area affected by precipitation extremes (3.8–10.7% of grids). Positive maize yield events are more likely to coincide with positive temperature extremes and negative precipitation extremes. The proportion of years with significant events coincidence rates between positive yield events and positive evapotranspiration events is the highest, accounting for 94.29%. Our results implied that to adapt to the impact of climate events on maize yield, reliable extreme climate projection and maize planting growth season adjustment are required to ensure food security.

Over the recent years, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has seen an increase in population growth, urbanization, and per capita income. As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in the demand for animal source foods. In order to meet this demand, most countries have resorted to intensifying the production of conventional livestock. However, this increase in production comes with several environmental, nutritional, gender-related and economic challenges that are a rising concern. It is therefore imperative to explore the comparative advantages and disadvantages of other livestock species, which are currently consumed in SSA but are not recognised in widely adopted policies. Herein, using a novel conceptual framework, we present a systematic review of four selected neglected species, namely, grasscutter, guinea fowl, guinea pig, and rabbit. The review was conducted following the checklist for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), and 89 sources of literature were included. The results highlight that embracing these neglected livestock species could confer several benefits, including an enriched nutritional profile (high-quality protein, low fat, high dressing percentage), increased gross economic returns, environmental sustainability, and sustained empowerment of minority groups, especially women. Overall, this review shows the untapped nutritional and socio-economic potential of neglected livestock species, which, if incorporated into mainstream production, could improve food security and reduce unemployment in SSA.

This study investigates the household food self-sufficiency of smallholders in the upper Mekong region of Southwest China, where traditional self-sufficient farming has rapidly transformed into a commercialized economy. Using household survey data from 945 smallholders in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, the study employs a two-stage Tobit model to estimate the impact of agricultural transformation on the household food self-sufficiency of smallholders. The results, which are based on 2018 data, reveal that the average self-sufficiency rate for all foods was 40.7%, and that of grain was even lower at 33.4%. Changes in land use, specifically the substitution of food crops with cash crops, and labor allocation, namely, engagement in off-farm labor markets, are the main drivers of the reduction in household food self-sufficiency. A 10% increase in the share of cash crops results in a 4.2% decrease in the rate of household food self-sufficiency, whereas adding one additional crop to the portfolio leads to a 6.4% increase. Moreover, households with at least one family member engaging in off-farm labor have a 13.1% lower self-sufficiency rate than those without. This study contributes to a better understanding of the household food self-sufficiency of smallholders in the context of land use change and rising off-farm employment, while the findings provide a reference for policy design to ensure household food security for smallholders in the upper Mekong region.

Around the world, food security assessments are used by Non-Governmental Organizations and states to assess caloric sufficiency, hunger, and dietary diversity in order to evaluate health and nutrition, orient development programs, including food aid, and offer an early warning of hunger and famine. And yet, scholars tell us that the concept of food security has historically been muddy, and difficult to pin down, resulting in a plethora of assessments, tools and indicators, with significant variability. There is growing scholarly agreement that moving beyond “food security” is essential and that scholars, practitioners, and policymakers would do well to conceptualize agri-food systems as complex, and pay more attention to socio-ecological dynamics, political systems, culture, and health and well-being. Food Sovereignty offers a conceptual framework to bring together these dynamics and in the past decade, there has been an emerging body of Food Sovereignty metrics, assessments and indicators that highlight the complexities of the relationships between food, health, environments, culture, gender relations, and economies through a food sovereignty lens. At the local level, food-sovereignty assessments have gained traction in the past decade, but we know very little about these tools, where they align and diverge, and whether they engage with multi-scalar analysis of food systems. In this paper, I examine these community-based food sovereignty assessments, paying attention to how they align and diverge and illustrating what researchers, communities and policymakers can learn from community-based FSAs to date.

Variations in agricultural and energy prices have direct and cascading effects on economic and agri-food systems. In this study, we developed a dynamic general equilibrium model to simulate the impact of the global price shocks induced by the Russia-Ukraine war on welfare and food security in Nigeria. In addition, we analysed the effectiveness of different policy options, specifically a reduction in indirect taxes and an increase in cash transfers to affected households, in the short and long term. The results showed that the shocks create opportunities for Nigeria, particularly in the trade, livestock, and agricultural sectors. This leads to an increase in GDP, employment, and incomes. However, these effects fade over time due to the rise in food prices that negatively affects food consumption and some food security indicators. Moreover, the comparative analysis of mitigation scenarios revealed that targeted public cash transfers to households are more effective than reduction in consumption taxes on food in mitigating the negative effects on households.

Fungal activity in stored wheat grains can lead to quality deterioration, especially in the form of mycotoxin accumulation. This study proposes an approach for assessing wheat quality by analyzing the wheat grain mycobiome using high-throughput sequencing technology. Wheat grain samples were collected from China's major production areas during both the harvest and storage stages to investigate the temporal and spatial trends in fungal distribution. The results revealed significant differences in the fungal diversity and communities during different stages of wheat processing, with a more complex fungal co-occurrence network in stored wheat than in harvested wheat. Aspergillus was the keystone taxon in the network of the stored wheat mycobiome. It was assigned to the “Unspecified_saprotroph” group and was found to contribute significantly to the differences in fungal community structure between harvested and stored wheat. We also constructed a Random Forest (RF) model to predict the freshness of the wheat grains. The RF model exhibited a strong ability to correctly determine the wheat grain stage based on the mycobiome present on the surface of the wheat grains, achieving a 98.28% accuracy rate, which confirmed the potential of mycobiome analysis for assessing wheat grain quality. This study provides a new perspective for assessing grain quality and sanitation security, which is significant for the supervision of food safety.

The USDA Economic Research Service has monitored food insecurity at national and state levels since 1995 using the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement. But if a food insecurity measure is to inform action and target interventions, it must be constructed for smaller geographic levels that consider geographic price differences. This article constructs a novel measure of food insecurity using an alternative approach based on financial needs of households, known as the household living budget (HLB). The HLB is defined as the income required to satisfy a household's essential needs, enabling it to maintain a modest yet sufficient standard of living while covering federal and state income taxes. The HLB is constructed at the census tract level and incorporates three key determinants of food insecurity: household size and composition, household income, and food costs. We demonstrate how the HLB along with publicly available data can be used to construct a food insecurity measure using a residual income approach to assess if households are able to afford paying for food expenditures and assess the qualification thresholds of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Food insecurity estimates are obtained for households in Washington, D.C. and benchmarked to regional results provided by a survey sponsored by the Capital Area Foodbank.

The Ugandan self-reliance integration mechanism is one of the most progressive refugee integration policy of the world. Within this policy framework, refugees are provided with a land to cultivate and are free to work and decide their residence. This work provides quantitative evidence on lights and shadows characterizing such policy. Final objective of this work is to guide interventions aimed at increasing effectiveness and sustainability of such mechanism in the light of the rising refugee population in the country. Taking advantage of a unique panel dataset representative of around 80% of Ugandan refugees (as of 2018), this study specifically investigates the impact of cash and food transfers on a range of outcomes related to food security and self-reliance. Results show that both transfers reduce the likelihood of implementing negative coping strategies. However, transfers’ relative effectiveness depends on beneficiaries’ characteristics, context specificity, and outcome assessed. In particular, food transfers improve households’ diet, while cash transfers are more suitable to support self-reliance, but only for refugees that cultivate a sufficient extent of land. These findings are expected to add insights for policymaking to alleviate the refugees’ short-term humanitarian needs while paving the way to build long-term and sustainable pathways towards self-reliance.