CASE STUDY Chose one of the following: a) Global Food ...



Global Food Security: A Case Study

Food security is defined by The Agricultural Trade Development and

Assistance Act of 1990 as “Access by all people at all times to sufficient food and nutrition for a healthy and productive life” (cited in the USAID Policy Determination, 1992), and global food security is the ability to ensure this on a worldwide scale. There are many different issues surrounding the problem of global food security including: poverty; economic politics; policies; trade agreements and population growth.

This case study, however, focuses on three areas of scientific research: Green Revolution, biotechnology and agroecological techniques, which could increase and improve the production of arable crops in the hope of achieving global food security.

Green Revolution, a term coined by William Gaud of USAID in 1968 (Bourlag, 2008), is a method of intensive, industrial and input-heavy agriculture that has doubled grain production in last 40 years (Tilman et al, 2002; see Fig 1), an increase achieved primarily using existing cropland (Miller, 2007). The development and planting of high-yielding varieties (HYVs), of key crops such as hybrid corn and high-yield dwarf wheat (Miller, 2007; Brown, 2005) in monocultures is the first stage of green revolution agriculture. Large amounts of fertilisers, pesticides and water are then applied to the crop to maximise yield potential (Miller, 2007). A successful attempt to introduce this agricultural method globally could be a viable answer to the problem of food security.

Figure 1- Cereal production over the past 40 years (FAO, 2001; cited by Tilman et al, 2002)

The application of biotechnology in agriculture, including creation of genetically modified (GM) organisms, could help increase and improve the production of arable crops. The amount of staple crops lost due to pestilence, disease and weed competition is extensive (see Fig 2), and the financial implications of this are very serious: in the USA alone, plant diseases account for an annual loss of US$33 billion (Slater et al, 2008).

Figure 2- The proportion of potential yield lost to weeds, pests and disease, showing the actual proportion of crop available for human consumption to be 63% (Slater et al, 2008).

However, it is now possible to create pest, disease and herbicide resistant strains of many different staple crops using biotechnological techniques, a prospect that seems appealing to those striving for global food security (Slater et al, 2008). GM crops also have the potential to deal with wider issues around malnutrition, not just maximizing crop yield. For example, a rice strain known as ‘Golden Rice’, developed by Potrykos and Beyer, aimed to reduce vitamin A deficiency among those in developing countries. By transferring genes from a soil bacterium and the common daffodil into a rice strain, a form of rice was produced containing high levels of beta-carotene, a substance that the body can convert to vitamin A. Widespread consumption of Golden Rice could reduce childhood blindness caused by such deficiency, and reduce susceptibility to infectious diseases (Miller, 2007).

Increasing yield potential through biotechnology is a major focus in agricultural science, and as more is discovered about the biological processes of crop plants, more can be done to achieve this. Yield potential is complex, as it is dependent on a number of factors, including photosynthetic efficiency and harvest index. Scientists are now able to manipulate photosynthetic pathways and control the stage and nature of ripening in crop plants, and these advances in biotechnology could lead to increased production, and improve the predictability and storage of crops. (Slater et al, 2008).

Agroecology is defined as ‘the study of the relation of agricultural crops and environment’ (OECD, 1997), and agroecological techniques are those that ‘manage ecosystems that are both productive and natural resource conserving, and are culturally sensitive, socially just, and economically viable’ (Alteri, 1995). Intercropping and low-till farming are just two examples of the myriad of agroecological techniques available.

Alley-cropping, or agroforestry, is a popular intercropping technique used in areas with low rainfall. Crops are planted between alleys of trees, which reduce wind erosion, water loss through evaporation, and slowly release soil moisture. Alley cropping can also provide firewood, fruit and mulch, and can increase productivity by 5-10% (Miller, 2007). Polyculture, another type of intercropping, is the process of growing up to 20 crops on the same area of land with different harvesting times, meaning the plot is never left bare. This reduces soil erosion due to wind and water, significantly reduces pest problems by creating a habitat abundant in pest predators. It also reduces the need for fertilizers, as the different root depths of plants means that nutrients and water are captured more efficiently (Miller, 2007). It has also been suggested that polycultural systems can increase yield potential; for example, experiments with pigeon pea and sorghum grown together were shown to have a 62% greater yield than monocultures of the same varieties (Alteri, 1995).

The term ‘tillage’ refers to the inversion of soil, a method used for controlling weeds and pests, and to loosen the soil for sowing. Traditional tillage methods such as moldboard plow tillage, invert the soil to a depth of 15-30 centimetres, burying crop residues, but such processes leave the surface vulnerable to wind and water erosion (Magdoff and Weil, 2004). Conservation tillage, however, disturbs the soil as little as possible whilst inverting and sowing, reducing soil erosion to such an extent that USDA estimates that increasing the use of conservation tillage from 40% to 80% would cut soil erosion by half in the USA (Miller, 2007).

Agroecological techniques such as the ones described above could increase productivity, improve soil quality and reduce erosion. The relative financial accessibility of these technologies and methodologies mean that agroecological techniques could provide greater food security in the world’s poorest agricultural areas, helping towards the larger goal of global food security.

In approaching the present problem of food security, it is necessary to recognise the impact the introduction of Green Revolution technologies has had on world food production.

However, such high input agriculture seems unsustainable in the future; water availability is falling (Smil, 2000), the benefits of increased application of fertilisers are decreasing (Tilman et al, 2002; see Fig 3), and the fossil fuels and fertilisers on which such technologies rely, are prohibitively expensive for a large proportion of the world’s farmers (Hughes, 2009).

Conversely, biotechnology has the potential to produce crop plants able to adapt to a changing climate, and strains that address wider issues in food security, such as micronutrient deficiency, all in a relatively short amount of time (Murphy, 2007). It does, however, promote the loss of agro-biodiversity (Miller, 2007), increasing pestilent vulnerability, and fails to confront issues of soil degradation, water loss and nutrient runoff.

Agroecology, however, provides low-input, affordable and flexible methodologies that deal with agricultural land as ecosystems, and that can be adapted to suit environmental and social conditions. Although there is no evidence of the ability of these methods to increase yield on a global scale, as with Green Revolution technologies, many small-scale studies such as those mentioned by Uphoff (2004), Smil (2000) and Alteri (1995), suggest that crop yield can be significantly increased if appropriate technologies are applied.

Such methodologies do require the agricultural workforce to become trained and skilled in agroecological techniques, a process requiring a large amount of capital, were it applied worldwide. This, however, could subsequently produce a educated and proficient labourforce with the potential to pass on their knowledge and skills to future generations. In this way, I believe agroecology to be the only methodology discussed that addresses the sustainability aspect of global food security.

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