Food security phd thesis

Food security phd thesis

Food Security Phd Thesis evaluation Food Security Phd Thesis of your ideas and writings. You have more important things and affairs on the agenda. You aren’t afraid to score better grades. You aren’t afraid to live your best student life free from hateful writing routine and endless assignments! Feb 18,  · The objectives of this dissertation were: (i) to identify stakeholders in the public distribution system, specifically those involved in its rice supply chain; (ii) to understand how rice supply chain stakeholders interpreted indicators of agri-food supply chain performance; (iii) to examine technology acceptance and adoption among key stakeholders involved in food distribution, who were adopting a Cited by: 1 For 8+ years, our master specialists on subjects related to "Food Security" have helped master-level graduates, high school graduates, and doctoral-level learners around the world by providing the most comprehensive research assistance online for "Food Security" subjects and coursework. If you require assistance with your dissertation, doctoral thesis, research proposal, or any other kind of college

"Topics in food security: Measuring performance and technology adoption" by Shweta Chopra

Nevertheless, more than one in seven people today still do not have access to sufficient protein and energy from their diet, and even more suffer from some form of micronutrient malnourishment 3. The world is now facing a new set of intersecting challenges 4. The global population will continue to grow, yet it is likely to plateau at some 9 billion people by roughly the middle of this century, food security phd thesis.

A major correlate of this deceleration in population growth is increased wealth, food security phd thesis, and with higher purchasing power comes higher consumption and a greater demand for processed food, meat, dairy, and fish, all of which add pressure to the food supply system, food security phd thesis. At the same time, food security phd thesis, food producers are experiencing greater competition for land, water, and energy, and the need to curb the many negative effects of food production on the environment is becoming increasingly clear 5, 6.

Overarching all of these issues is the threat of the effects of substantial climate change and concerns about how mitigation and adaptation measures may affect the food system 7, 8.

A Major crop plants and B major types of livestock. This challenge requires changes in the way food is produced, stored, processed, food security phd thesis, distributed, and accessed that are as radical as those that occurred during the 18th- and 19th-century Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions and the 20th-century Green Revolution. Patterns in global food prices are indicators of trends in the availability of food, at least for those who can afford it and have access to world markets.

Over the past century, gross food prices have generally fallen, leveling off in the past three decades but punctuated by price spikes such as that caused by the s oil crisis, food security phd thesis.

In mid, there was an unexpected rapid rise in food prices, the cause of which is still being debated, food security phd thesis subsided when the world economy went into recession However, many but not all commentators have predicted that this spike heralds a period of rising and more volatile food prices driven primarily by increased demand from rapidly developing countries, as well as by competition for resources from first-generation biofuels production Increased food prices will stimulate greater investment in food production, but the critical importance of food to human well-being and also to social and political stability makes it likely that governments and other organizations will want to encourage food production beyond that driven by simple market mechanisms The long-term nature of returns on investment for many aspects of food production and the importance of policies that promote sustainability and equity also argue against purely relying on market solutions.

So how can more food be produced sustainably? In the past, the primary solution to food shortages has been to bring more land into food security phd thesis and to exploit new fish stocks.

Some new land could food security phd thesis brought into cultivation, but the competition for land from other human activities makes this an increasingly unlikely and costly solution, particularly if protecting biodiversity and the public goods provided by natural ecosystems for example, carbon storage in rainforest are given higher priority In recent decades, agricultural land that was formerly productive has been lost to urbanization and other human uses, as well as to desertification, salinization, soil erosion, and other consequences of unsustainable land management Further losses, which may be exacerbated by climate change, are likely 7.

Recent policy decisions to produce first-generation biofuels on good quality agricultural land have added to the competitive pressures Thus, the most likely scenario is that more food will need to be produced from the same amount of or even less land.

Moreover, there are no major new fishing grounds: Virtually all capture fisheries are fully exploited, and most are overexploited. In this article, major strategies for contributing to the challenge of feeding 9 billion people, including the most disadvantaged, are explored.

Particular emphasis is given to food security phd thesis, as well as to the combined role of the natural and social sciences in analyzing and addressing the challenge. There is wide geographic variation in crop and livestock productivity, even across regions that experience similar climates. It has been estimated that in those parts of Southeast Asia where irrigation is available, average maximum climate-adjusted rice yields are 8.

Similar yield gaps are found in rain-fed wheat in central Asia and rain-fed cereals in Argentina and Brazil, food security phd thesis. Another way to illustrate the yield gap is to compare changes in per capita food production over the past 50 years. In Asia, this amount has increased approximately twofold in China, by a factor of nearly 3. Substantially more food, as well as the income to purchase food, could be produced with current crops and livestock if methods were found to close the yield gaps.

Low yields occur because of technical constraints that prevent local food producers from increasing productivity or for food security phd thesis reasons arising from market conditions.

For example, farmers may not have access to the technical knowledge and skills required to increase production, the finances required to invest in higher production e. After harvest or slaughter, they may not be able to store the produce or have access to the infrastructure to transport the produce to consumer markets.

Farmers may also choose not to invest in improving agricultural productivity because the returns do not compare well with other uses of capital and labor. Exactly how best to facilitate increased food production is highly site-specific. In the most extreme cases of failed states and nonfunctioning markets, the solution lies completely outside the food system. In some situations, such as low-income food-importing countries, investing purely in generating widespread income growth to allow food purchases from regions and countries with better production capabilities may be the best choice, food security phd thesis.

When investment is targeted at food production, a further issue is the balance between putting resources into regional and national infrastructure, such as roads and ports, and investing in local social and economic capital 21, A yield gap may also exist because the high costs of inputs or the low returns from increased production make it economically suboptimal to raise production to the maximum technically attainable.

Poor transport and market infrastructure raise the prices of inputs, such as fertilizers and water, and increase the costs of moving the food produced into national or world markets. These need to be carefully designed and implemented so that their effects on global commodity prices do not act as disincentives to production in other countries The globalization of the food system offers some local food producers access to larger markets, as well as to capital for investment.

At the aggregate level, it also appears to increase the global efficiency of food production by allowing regional specialization in the production of the locally most appropriate foods. Because the expansion of food production and the growth of population both occur at different rates in different geographic regions, global trade is necessary to balance supply and demand across regions.

However, the environmental costs of food production might increase with globalization, for example, because of increased greenhouse gas emissions associated with increased production and food transport An unfettered market can also penalize particular communities and sectors, especially the poorest who have the least influence on how global markets are structured and regulated, food security phd thesis.

Expanded trade can provide insurance against regional shocks on production such as conflict, epidemics, food security phd thesis, droughts, or floods—shocks that are likely to increase in frequency as climate change occurs.

Conversely, a highly connected food system may lead to the more widespread propagation of economic perturbations, as in the recent banking crisis, thus affecting more people. There is an urgent need for a better understanding of the effects of globalization on the full food system and its externalities. The yield gap is not static. Maintaining, let alone increasing, productivity depends on continued innovation to control weeds, diseases, food security phd thesis, insects, and other pests as they evolve resistance to different control measures, or as new species emerge or are dispersed to new regions.

Innovation involves both traditional and advanced crop and livestock breeding, as well as the continuing development of better chemical, agronomic, and agro-ecological control measures. The maximum attainable yield in different regions will also shift as the effects of food security phd thesis change are felt.

Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels can directly stimulate crop growth, though within the context of real agricultural production systems, the magnitude of this effect is not clear 7. More important will be the ability to grow crops in places that are currently unsuitable, particularly the northern temperate regions though expansion of agriculture at the expense of boreal forest would lead to major greenhouse gas emissionsand the loss of currently productive regions because of excessively high temperatures and drought.

Closing the yield gap would dramatically increase the supply of food, but with uncertain impacts on the environment and potential feedbacks that could undermine future food production. These include the release of greenhouse gases [especially methane and nitrous oxide, which are more damaging than CO2 and for which agriculture is a major source 26 ], environmental pollution due to nutrient run-off, water shortages due to overextraction, soil degradation and the loss of biodiversity through land conversion or inappropriate management, and ecosystem disruption due to the intensive harvesting of fish and other aquatic foods 6.

To address these negative effects, it is now widely recognized that food production systems and food security phd thesis food chain in general must become fully sustainable The principle of sustainability implies the use of resources at rates that do not exceed the capacity of Earth to replace them.

By definition, dependency on nonrenewable inputs is unsustainable, even if in the short term it is necessary as part of a trajectory toward sustainability. There are many difficulties in making sustainability operational. Over what spatial scale should food production be sustainable? Clearly an overarching goal is global sustainability, food security phd thesis, but should this goal also apply at lower levels, such as regions or oceansnations, or farms?

Could high levels of consumption or negative externalities in some regions be mitigated by improvements in other areas, or could some unsustainable activities in the food system be offset by actions in the nonfood sector through carbon-trading, for example? Though simple definitions of sustainability are independent of time scale, food security phd thesis, in practice, how fast should we seek to move from the status quo to a sustainable food system?

The challenges of climate change and competition for water, fossil fuels, and other resources suggest that a rapid transition food security phd thesis essential. Nevertheless, it is also legitimate to explore the possibility that superior technologies may become available and that future generations may be wealthier and, hence, better able to absorb the costs of the transition.

Finally, we do not yet have good enough metrics of sustainability, a major problem when evaluating alternative strategies and negotiating trade-offs. This is the case for relatively circumscribed activities, such as crop production on individual farms, and even harder when the complete food chain is included or for complex products that may contain ingredients sourced from all around the globe.

There is also a danger that an overemphasis on what can be measured relatively simply carbon, for example may lead to dimensions of sustainability that are harder to quantify such as biodiversity being ignored, food security phd thesis.

These are areas at the interface of science, food security phd thesis, engineering, and economics that urgently need more attention see Box 1. The introduction of measures to promote sustainability does not necessarily reduce yields or profits. One study of agricultural sustainability projects in developing countries, involving One-quarter of the projects reported a doubling of yield. Research on the ability of these and related programs to be scaled up to country and regional levels should be a priority Fig.

Niger was strongly affected by a series of drought years in the s and s and by environmental degradation. From the early s, donors invested substantially in soil and water conservation. The total area treated is on the order ofha, most of which went into the food security phd thesis of degraded land. The project in the Illela district of Niger promoted simple water-harvesting techniques. Contour stone bunds, half moons, stone bunding, and improved traditional planting pits zai¨ were used to rehabilitate barren, crusted land.

More thanha have been rehabilitated, and crop yields have increased and become more stable from year to year. Tree cover has increased, as shown in the photographs.

Development of the land market and continued incremental expansion of the treated area without further project assistance indicate that the outcomes are sustainable 51, In exactly the same way that yields can be increased with the use of existing technologies, many options currently exist to reduce negative externalities Net reductions in some greenhouse gas emissions can potentially be achieved by changing agronomic practices, the adoption of integrated pest management methods, the integrated management of waste in livestock production, food security phd thesis the use of agroforestry.

However, the effects of different agronomic practices on the full range of greenhouse gases can be very complex and may depend on the temporal and spatial scale of measurement. More research is required to allow a better assessment of competing policy options. Strategies such as zero or reduced tillage the reduction in inversion ploughingcontour farming, mulches, and cover crops improve water and soil conservation, food security phd thesis, but they may not increase stocks of soil carbon or reduce emissions of nitrous oxide.

Precision agriculture refers to a series of technologies that allow the application of water, nutrients, food security phd thesis, and pesticides only to the places and at the times they are required, thereby optimizing the use of inputs Finally, agricultural land and water bodies used for aquaculture and fisheries can be managed in ways specifically designed to reduce negative impacts on biodiversity.

Strategies designed to close the yield gap in the poorest countries face some particular challenges Much production is dominated by small-holder agriculture with women often taking a dominant role in the workforce. Where viable, investment in the social and economic mechanisms to enable improved small-holder yields, especially where targeted at women, can be important means of increasing the income of both farm and rural nonfarm households.

The lack of secure land rights can be a particular problem for many poor communities, may act as a disincentive for small holders to invest in managing the land more productively, and food security phd thesis make it harder to raise investment capital In a food security phd thesis of rising prices for food and land, it can also render these communities vulnerable to displacement by more powerful interest groups.

Where the political will and organizational infrastructure exist, title definition and protection could be greatly assisted by the application of modern information and communication technologies.

Even so, there will be many people who cannot afford to purchase sufficient calories and nutrients for a healthy life and who will require social protection programs to increase their ability to obtain food. However, if properly designed, these programs can help stimulate local agriculture by food security phd thesis small holders with increased certainty about the demand for their products. There is also a role for large-scale farming operations in poor-country agriculture, though the value and contexts in which this is feasible are much debated

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Food Security Phd Thesis, rise to rebellion jeff shaara homework help, when your love one dies essay, manchester essay phrasebank/10() Food Security Phd Thesis evaluation Food Security Phd Thesis of your ideas and writings. You have more important things and affairs on the agenda. You aren’t afraid to score better grades. You aren’t afraid to live your best student life free from hateful writing routine and endless assignments! Feb 18,  · The objectives of this dissertation were: (i) to identify stakeholders in the public distribution system, specifically those involved in its rice supply chain; (ii) to understand how rice supply chain stakeholders interpreted indicators of agri-food supply chain performance; (iii) to examine technology acceptance and adoption among key stakeholders involved in food distribution, who were adopting a Cited by: 1