Food Resources

Food resources are derived from:

• 76% from crop lands: This includes grains, vegetables, fruits, and other crops grown on farmland.
• 17% from range lands: This accounts for livestock farming where animals graze, providing meat and other animal products.
• 7% from fisheries: This comes from marine and freshwater sources like oceans, rivers, and lakes, providing fish and other aquatic food sources.

Sustainable Agriculture (FAO Definition)

Sustainable agriculture is an approach that:

• Conserves land, water, and genetic resources: The focus is on maintaining and improving the natural resources required for agriculture.
• Does not degrade the environment: It aims to avoid negative environmental impacts such as soil erosion, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
• Is economically viable and socially acceptable: Sustainable agriculture must be economically feasible for farmers and must be supported by the community.

The Impact of Climate Change on Food Production

A 2020 report from the America’s Universal Ecological Fund assessed the effects of climate change on food production. The key findings included:

• Global food production will not meet the demands of a growing population (7.8 billion): This suggests a significant shortfall in food supply.
• Food prices may rise by 20% over the next decade due to climate-related disruptions such as floods and droughts.
• Deficits in key crops:
  • Wheat: A 14% shortfall is expected, with global production falling to 663 million tons by 2020, while demand is estimated at 772.3 million tons.
  • Rice: An 11% deficit is predicted, with a gap of 82.9 million tons by 2020.
  • Maize: A shortage of 85 million tons is expected by 2020, with production growing to 849.1 million tons but demand reaching 933.7 million tons.
  • Soybean: A slight surplus of 5% is projected, unlike the other grains.

World Food Problems and Environmental Concerns

Several environmental and socio-economic factors impact global food production:

1. Population Growth: In many developing countries, food production is not keeping pace with population growth.
2. Poor Agricultural Practices: Practices like slash and burn and shifting cultivation degrade forests and soil quality.
3. Land Degradation: Annually, 5 to 7 million hectares of farmland are lost, often due to overuse of chemicals and water scarcity.
4. Soil Exploitation: Fertile soils are being exploited at a rate faster than they can recuperate, exacerbating food security challenges.
5. Conversion of Ecosystems: Forests, grasslands, and wetlands are converted to agricultural lands, leading to ecological damage.
6. Use of GMOs: Genetically modified crops can affect ecosystems if not managed properly.
7. Exhaustion of Fish Resources: Both marine and inland fish populations are declining due to overfishing and habitat destruction.
8. Food Inequality: Some communities, such as tribal populations, face severe malnutrition, especially among women and children.
9. Loss of Genetic Diversity: Modern agricultural practices, including the widespread use of commercial seeds, reduce the genetic variability of crops, making them vulnerable to diseases.

Food Security

Food security is defined as the ability of people to access sufficient, safe, and nutritious food at all times. Conditions for ensuring food security include:

• Food availability: There must be enough food produced.
• Accessibility: People must be able to access the food, either through purchasing or local availability.
• Nutrition: The food must fulfill nutritional needs.

Food Insecurity Statistics

• 18 million people die annually from starvation or malnutrition, many of whom are children.
• The world’s carrying capacity for food production is under pressure due to population growth, climate change, and environmental degradation.

Options to Achieve Food Security

1. Institutional Support for Small Farmers: Support small-scale farmers to keep them in agriculture, preventing urban migration.
2. Trade Issues: Improve international food trade policies, ensuring food flows from surplus to deficit regions. The dumping of underpriced food in developing countries by developed nations undermines local farmers.
3. Protecting Genetic Diversity: Expand protected areas and use seed banks and tissue culture facilities to preserve plant species and their genetic traits. Conservation of wild relatives of crops can help combat future challenges.
4. Environmental-Friendly Farming: Shift from chemical-intensive agriculture to organic farming, using techniques like integrated pest management (IPM) and integrated nutrient management (INM).
5. Urban Agriculture: Encourage growing food in urban settings using sustainable methods such as vermicomposting.
6. Prevention of Land and Water Degradation: Employ soil conservation methods and manage watersheds effectively to combat land degradation.
7. Population Control: Effective population control programs can ease the burden on food production systems.
8. Education: Educating women, particularly in rural communities, on nutrition and sustainable practices is key to improving food security.
9. Changing Dietary Habits: Reducing excessive meat consumption and shifting to more sustainable diets can ease pressure on food production.
10. Women’s Role: Women’s empowerment in agriculture and nutrition is crucial for improving food security, especially in rural communities where they are key contributors.
11. Alternative Food Sources: Explore new avenues for food production, such as non-wood forest products like mushrooms, fruits, and seaweed. Popularizing less-known crops like Nagli can also contribute to food security.

Pesticides

Pesticides refer to a wide array of chemicals used to kill or control organisms that are considered harmful or undesirable. These include specific categories such as insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, and fungicides. The primary types of synthetic organic insecticides are:

1. Organochlorines (chlorinated hydrocarbons): These include chemicals like DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), which was once widely used to control diseases carried by insects, such as malaria, typhus, and plague. Despite its beneficial impact on public health, DDT was banned due to its ecological effects, particularly its persistence in the environment and its ability to accumulate in fatty tissues through biomagnification (also known as bioconcentration). Other organochlorine pesticides include methoxychlor, chlordane, and aldrin, which have been shown to cause cancer and birth defects in animal studies.
2. Organophosphates: A class of chemicals that also target pests by interfering with their nervous system. These chemicals are widely used in agricultural and domestic pest control.
3. Carbamates: These are similar to organophosphates in their mode of action, disrupting the transmission of nerve impulses in pests.

In addition, certain herbicides, such as 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (which contains dioxin, a potent toxin), are common water pollutants.

Salinity

Saline soils are those that contain a high concentration of soluble salts that can adversely affect plant growth. These salts are typically chlorides and sulphates of sodium, calcium, and magnesium. The soil’s electrical conductivity (EC) is often used to determine its salinity. Soils with an EC above 4 dS/m are considered saline, although some sources use a lower threshold.

Salinity impacts plants by reducing the availability of water due to osmotic pressure. This makes it more difficult for plants to absorb water, even though it may be present in the root zone. Additionally, certain ions from the salts may be toxic to plants and hinder the absorption of other essential nutrients.

Reclamation and Management of Saline Soils

1. Scraping: This method involves physically removing the salts that have accumulated on the soil surface. Though it can provide temporary relief, it does not solve the underlying problem of salt disposal.
2. Flushing: Involves washing away salts from the surface with water. However, it is limited in effectiveness as it only removes a small portion of the salt.
3. Leaching: The most effective method for removing salts from the root zone. It involves applying large amounts of fresh water to the soil surface, allowing the water to infiltrate and carry salts away through drainage systems. It is especially useful in soils with deep water tables and requires sufficient natural or artificial drainage.

Waterlogging

Waterlogging occurs when excessive moisture in the soil deprives plant roots of necessary oxygen. This can result from natural flooding or over-irrigation, where the water table rises to the root zone or capillary water extends into the root zone. Waterlogging can be caused by poor drainage, water infiltration from rivers, seepage from canals, or excessive irrigation.

Effects on Plant Growth

1. Oxygen Deficiency: Waterlogged soils reduce the amount of oxygen available to plant roots, impairing their ability to absorb nutrients and water. This condition is particularly harmful to germinating seeds and young seedlings.
2. Nutrient Deficiency: Prolonged waterlogging causes nutrients like nitrogen to be leached from the soil through denitrification, where nitrogen is converted to gaseous forms and released into the atmosphere as nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas.
3. Reduced Nitrogen Fixation: Legumes and other crops that rely on nitrogen fixation in their root nodules may see reduced growth due to waterlogging, which limits bacterial activity essential for this process.

Effects of Waterlogging:

1. Anaerobic Conditions: Excess moisture creates anaerobic conditions in the soil, leading to the stunted growth of crops due to the lack of oxygen in the root zone.
2. Growth of Water-Loving Wild Plants: Waterlogging encourages the growth of wild, water-loving plants, which can compete with crops for resources.
3. Impossibility of Tillage Operations: Waterlogged soils become too saturated for proper tilling, hindering soil preparation and crop planting.
4. Accumulation of Toxic Salts: Water movement can bring salts into the root zone, potentially causing soil alkalinity and further hindering crop growth.
5. Lower Soil Temperature: Excess moisture lowers soil temperature, which can slow down bacterial activities and impede crop growth.
6. Reduced Crop Maturity: Crops grown in waterlogged conditions may mature earlier than expected, leading to poor yields and undeveloped grains.