the food crisis

8/7/2019 The Food Crisis

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The Food Crisis

Group: Water


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MALTHUS, THE FALSE PROPHET

1798 : AnEssay on thePrinciple ofPopulation

1803 : theidea of moral

restraint

1970 :Malthusianheresy re-emerged


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There is no shortage of food in the

world today

| According to the United Nations Food andAgriculture Organization, enough food is produced

in the world to provide over 2800 calories aday to everyone substantially more than theminimum required for good health, and about

18% more calories per person than inthe 1960s, despite a significant increase in total

population.


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| In fact, over the last 20 years, world food

production has risen steadily at over

2%

a year,

while the rate of global populationgrowth has dropped to 1.14% a year.

| Population is not outstripping food supply.


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| . The fact that there is already enough food to feedthe world shows that the food crisis is not a

technical problem it is a social andpolitical problem.


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| World Hunger Programs executive director Josette

Sheeran says, There is food on theshelves but people are pricedout of the market.


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| The surge of so-called food riots not only in poor

countries like Haiti, but in resource-rich countrieslike Braziland even in the industrialized nationsofEurope and the United Statesreflects thefact that people are not just hungry, they are

rebelling against a dangerous andunjustglobal food system.


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Enough food to feed 100 millionpeople rots away!

in Punjab and Haryana, by official accounts, 100lakh metric tons of grain has been stored in theopen. According to an estimate, 10 per cent ofthis is rotting. That's enough to feed 100 millionpeople for three months.


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Hungers Timeline

| 2002850 million hungry people. The World FoodSummit+5 admits to poor progress on the MillenniumDevelopment goals.

| 2008862 million hungry people. The FAO High-LevelConference on World Food Security announces thatinstead of reducing the ranks of the hungry to 400million, hunger has increased.

| The World Bank re-calculates its projections for extremepoverty upwards from 1 billion to 1.4 billion. Over 3billion people live on less than $2 a day.

| 12% of the U.S. population is still hungry. Despite $60billion yearly in government food nutrition programs andthe explosion of over 70,000 food banks and emergencyfood programs across the nation, one in six children inthe U.S. go hungry each month and 35 million people

cannot ensure minimum daily caloric requirements.


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TO FEED OR NOT TO FEED!

Why, hen o h food i vailable, areover850 illion peoplehungryand alnouri hed?

Whydo18,000 childrendieofhunger everyday?

Whycant theglobal food industryfeed thehungry?


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The global food industry is not organized to feedthe hungry; it is organized to generate profits

for corporate agribusiness.


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Assault on traditional farming

| Manifestation of a farm crisis

| Countries bullied on adoption policies that promoteexport crops

| Millions of people starving in countries that export

food


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One-fifth of the population in India is hungryand 48% of children under 5 yrs aremalnourished.

Nevertheless, India exported US$1.5 billionworth of milled rice and $322 million worthof wheat.

Kenya imports 80% of its food - and 80% of

its exports are other agricultural products


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Impact

| Shift to Industrial Agriculture has lead tounemployment and poverty

| Industrial Farming has left many homeless andstarving and at the cost of poisoning air, water and

soil.


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Causes of the World foodCrisis


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1.LAND FRAGMENTATION->POORPRODUCTION


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2.POPULATION GROWTH INCOUNTRIES IN CRISIS


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3.GROWTH OF MIDDLE CLASS


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Groundwater Depletion


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Decline in world food stockpiles

| Faster pace of food growth and ease of importationcausing less emphasis on stockpiles

| Data stocks calculated as a residual betweenProduction and Consumption


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World eats more than itproduces: Cereal StocksDecline

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007*


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Financial Speculation

| Indiscriminate lending and real estate speculationeroded investment in food commodities

| Commodity Index Funds

| Changes in demand and supply| Around 40 food exporting countries have imposed

some sorts of trade restriction of food.

| Institutional investors, contributing to food andenergy price inflation


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Cropshortfalls from atural isasters

| Cyclone argis on Burma &Myanmar

| Australia savagemulti-year drought

| Stem Rust in Uganda


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INCREASEINOILPRICES

Dependency on Oil for Agriculture

Fertilizers and Pesticide production

Energy at all stages of food production

Increase in Oil prices


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BIO-FUELPRODUCTION

Subsides

Divergence to Oil producing crops

Increase in prices

Examples:

US corn

EU Palm Oil


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Structural Adjustment Program

World Bank &IMF Subsidies Withdrawal

Devaluation of currency

WTO Lowering ofImport Tariffs

Removal of protection to small farmers

Non Removal of Subsidies by Developed Countries

Impact


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CONSEQUENCES


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Consequences

| The poorest and the hungriest will still be poor and

hungry by 2015.

| One of every four children under the age of five is stillunder-weight.

| Climate change will create new threats for lowincome countries and pose a challenge to food security.

| The effect of climate change on undernourished peoplein sub-Saharan Africa may tripled by 2080.


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HOW TO OVERCOME THE FOODCRISIS


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Poor-country governments, with thesupport ofdonors, should:

| Reach small-scale producers

| Invest in social protection programmes

| Assistance programmes should encourage localcommunities to design community based food reserves

| Adopt trade measures that protect small-scale producers,strategic agricultural sectors, and emerging companies


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| Avoid resorting to trade measures

| Support the creation and strengthening of trade unions,producer organisations, and womens groups in particular

| Promote access to assets and services, particularly forwomen farmers

| Address the problems of waged agricultural workers

| Build community-level resilience to climate change


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In addition, rich countries, the WorldBank and other donors should:

| Coordinate their action and funding through a UnitedNations-led mechanism, building on the work done by theHigh Level Task Force on food prices.

| Increase investment in development assistance toagriculture in developing countries, particularly forsmallholders.

| Stop pressing for rapid liberalisation and opposing adequate

safeguards for developing countries in multilateral,regional, and bilateral trade negotiations and agreements.

| Reform their agriculture and trade polices


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As a result of continuous man-nature conflicts, the per capita foodgrain and water availability in India is about one-third of the worldaverage.

EFFECTS

Also been a gradual reduction in the water flow of the Himalayanrivers as a result of depleting glaciers

Rampant use of ground water for construction and industrial usewithout focus on harvesting

Over-dependence on monsoon

FOODCRISIS z HOWPREPAREDISINDIA ?


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The government has tried to address the issuethrough several initiatives

Subsidies for micro-irrigation

optimizes water usage for agriculture

National watershed development project for rain fed areas

Artificial recharge to ground water through dug wells in hard rockareas and rural water supply

Enhancement programme through the catchment area approach.

National river linking project


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A Huge Opportunity for agriculture

Farming is no longer a preferred profession in India

High degree of uncertainty in income

High monsoon dependence along with low irrigation

Limited access to affordable credit

Outdated techniques

Fragmented land holdings also mean unviable mechanisation andlower productivity

Government's MSP policy which kick-started the green revolutionhas in some cases led to surplus cultivation of certain agri-commodities such as wheat, rice and sugarcane in UttarPradesh/Maharashtra leading to wastages


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The Central Government is aware of the challengesand has initiated several policy initiative

Seeds Bill (2004)

ensure availability of quality seeds to farmers

On wed 20/10/2010 Cabinet Approved moving additional amendments

Regulate the quality of seeds and planting materials

Ensure the availability of quality seeds to the farmers;

Protect the rights of the farmers

Curb the sale of spurious and poor quality seeds

Increase private participation in seed production

Distribution and liberalise imports of seeds and planting materials.


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Amendments to the APMC(Agricultural

Produce Market Committee) Act

Advice on production planning

Marketing information

Securing markets for the farmers

Advice on improved marketing practices


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Nutrient-based Subsidy Policy

Incentivize the farmers to go for balanced fertiliserapplication and ensure soil regeneration

Effective from April 1, 2010.

The subsidy will be admissible for the three macronutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium

(K) one secondary nutrient sulphur (S) and twomicro nutrients zinc and boron


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National Horticulture Mission and the

National Food Security Mission

Aims at widening the food basket and improving

productivity early results already indicate gains of >25per cent in many districts.

These initiatives need to be implemented vigorously, as

the agriculture sector has a huge potential which can beunlocked to ensure long-term food security.


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India-China The Current Scenario

China faces an equally daunting task

China seems to be in a better position as its totalfertility rate (TFR) is already below the replacement

rate, whereas India would achieve a TFR of 2 only by2050.

China, as an authoritarian state, is perceived to beable to respond to a crisis in a military-like disciplineunlike a democratic India with its quasi federalstructure, linguistic divide and coalition compulsions

However, it has been proved beyond doubt that athriving and vibrant democracy such as India has beenable to prevent famine-like situations post-

independence


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India-China The Current

ScenarioThe democratic process also has ensured thatpolitical parties have tilted towards the doctrine ofeconomic reforms with a human face and schemessuch as NREGA have taken shape and beenimplemented to the benefit of the bottom of thepyramid.

Nevertheless, the democratic process needs to beenhanced through decentralized decision making, and

increased cooperation between the Centre and theState Governments to implement the policies andreforms in agriculture.


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The trade-off between food security anddevelopment

Manipurs population

The Loktak hydropower project

Toubul

The project is under the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation(NHPC) Ltd

water levels 768.9 m throughout the year

80,000 hectares of arable land have been destroyed


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At one time (the people of) Toubul had no dearth of

rice in their homes. But after the barrage came, almost

every house is compelled to buy rice from the market forconsumption, says Gyaneshor.

Behind his statement is the hope that one day the water

will dry up and he will be able to sow paddy again.


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When the 105-megawatt Loktak hydropower project wasfirst commissioned in 1983, it was in the hope that theproject would rapidly usher in an era of industrial,commercial and agricultural prosperity in the otherwise

backward state.

But the question being asked today is whether thedisadvantages outweigh the advantages.

the food crisis

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