How Has Supply Chain Impacted Food Security - Assignment Example

?Food Security Programs and Supply Chain Introduction Food is an essential ingredient for mankind. As long as food supply is abundant there is a natural tendency to take its supply for granted, and wastage of food is common. Transition from abundance to scarcity of food can be triggered by natural calamities. A community can face famine in rapid succession. However, recovery from hunger can be a slow process and requires efficient planning and management. This is because arable land has become limited, and so global food security needs to develop new technologies to focus on food production on limited land without having to depend on excess supply of water and fertilizers. Moreover, drastic climate changes have become common due to the rising global warming. To ensure food security, it is necessary that innovations be made in the food production, storage and distribution processes. Resources need to be utilized effectively and in constrained manner to determine the boundaries of future food production environment. Improving food security is also necessary for economic development of nations since hungry workers cannot be productive. Almost 75 percent of global population lives in rural areas and are dependant on agriculture. Enhanced food security can help them fight poverty and make them resilient so that they can participate in economic activities. Global food crisis leads to rising food price, and in recent years food price inflation has sparked political demonstrations in many countries leading to national and regional instabilities (Sustainable economic development, 2011, p.3). Shortage of food and difficulty in distribution process are common elements in many countries especially in the developing countries. This leads to chronic hunger among a large proportion of global population resulting in malnutrition, higher infant mortality rates and premature deaths due to failure of vital body organs. That growing commodity prices have become a matter of grave concern has been accepted by the United Nations through its warning that there is paucity of funds to curb global malnutrition in this “new face of hunger” (Borger, 2008). The head of UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran has expressed concern that an extra half billion dollars is needed to bring the situation under control. The major causes that have been recognized are huge disparities of income between developed and developing countries, usage of land for production of biofuel, drastic climate changes etc (Borger, 2008). The first part of this paper focuses on food security systems of five nations, and the second part discusses the impact of supply chain on food security programs. Section I Food Security According to the World Food Summit of 1996, food security is “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” (WHO, 2013). In other words, food security ensures that nutritious food is affordable and easily accessible to all sections of the world population to satisfy both their dietary requirements and food preferences. In reality, malnutrition and diarrhea have become common food related problems in most countries. Food security is essentially based on three pillars which are availability, accessibility and nutrition. This means food must be consistently available at reasonable prices to all people, there should be sufficient resources for all people so that they can access all food items, and there should be knowledge and awareness about proper nutrition and care (World Bank[1], 2009, p.14). Global experiences and events Persistent increase of food prices every year all over the world is a major contributory factor for global food crisis. UN’s WFP is assisted by voluntary contributions and it provides basic food items to 78 million people in 73 countries which is not even one-tenth of the total malnourished population of the world. In 2008, WFP’s budget was ?1.5 bn which was not even sufficient for maintaining existing food supplies because of rapid increase of good prices by 40 percent and also increase of fuel costs (Borger, 2008). There are number of long term causes recognized as factors causing global food crisis. Firstly, in the last thirty years national governments have been cutting expenditure on agricultural investment and also in foreign agricultural assistance programs. Secondly, in countries like Asia there has been rise in average income which has changed the dietary patterns of the common people. Thirdly, there has been government intervention in free markets mainly through agricultural subsidies. In addition, there are several short term causes for global food crisis. Increasing demand of biofuels has resulted in land and agricultural products being used for biofuels. Moreover, increase of fuel costs has raised the price of fertilizers and food transport. Then there has also been decline in reserve periods of grains from 100 days in 2000 to 55 days in 2008, and this has caused instability in the global food market. Also, countries have started to impose restrictions on food exports to curb the rising food prices. Finally, drastic climate changes like “record flooding in West Africa, a prolonged drought in Australia and unusually severe snowstorms in China” have largely affected the global food problem (Borger, 2008; World Bank, 2009, pp.163-164). Section II Food security in India Although India has been experiencing a growth in economic condition in recent years, it still has 25 percent of the world’s total population suffering from extreme lack of food. India has a poor population of 300 million of which 30 percent lives in rural areas, with as high as 43 percent of children below the age of five suffering from malnutrition. India plays a major part in global agriculture since farming is one of the principle occupations in this country. As per World Bank reports, India “has the world’s largest area under cultivation for wheat, rice, and cotton, and is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and spices” (Food Security Portal, 2012). Food security in this country relies on production of cereal crops like rice and wheat, and on increasing production levels of fruits, milk and vegetables in order to meet the demands of incessantly growing population with rising income levels [World Bank[2], 2012). In spite of ample food products in India, there is still the persistent food insecurity at the micro level. National Food Security Bill (NFSB) has been launched in 2012 in order to address this issue by shifting from “current welfare approach to a rights based approach” (p.8) with the aim to completely remove hunger and malnutrition. In order to ensure nutritional food to all people, the core aim of this Bill is to supply subsidized grains to 1.2 billion people which means almost 66 percent of India’s population. This involves the government acquiring massive quantity of food grains and a pervasive distribution network. All these will require huge financial costs. The need is to adopt a strategy that will be successful in the long run and at the same time protecting the national interest. NFSB carries many operational difficulties since sufficient quantity of grain has to be always available to the public authorities and this can put great pressure on the Indian agriculture. There are however many factors that can impede consistency in the availability of food grains like uncertainty in the growth of food grain production, impact of climate changes on land and reliance on monsoon rains. Therefore, to fulfill the terms of the Bill it is important that government duly participate in increasing production, enhancing procurement and managing huge storage of food grains. By using right kind of policies and technologies it is possible to serve the poor and manage proper functioning of grain markets. Efficiency of this Bill can also allow private sectors to deal with the storage and distribution of grains, thus saving national resources which in turn can be used for educational and skill enhancement sectors. This will increase productive capacity of specific groups and this can ensure food and nutritional security in the long run (Gulati et al., 2012, pp.8-9). In India, all three pillars of food security need to be addressed as they are inter-related like availability and accessibility of food leads to proper nutrition. Availability of food is essential for food security. In this respect, India is “self sufficient in cereals but deficit in pulses and oil seeds”. Moreover, increasing income has led to changing demand pattern of “fruits, vegetables, dairy, milk, poultry and fishery” (Dev & Sharma, 2010, p.38). This requires increase in production of variety of crops and improvement in related activities like efficient management of land and water, improvement of research facilities etc. In order to make food accessible to all, it is required that the poor people become educated so that they can be employed to increase their food buying capacity. The government has many social protection programs, but they are mostly inefficient. To improve nutrition, it is needed to create awareness through education, for instance, women should be provided with nutrition education before implementing breast feeding measures. In India, major reason for high level of food insecurity is flawed designing and implementation of programs (Dev & Sharma, 2010, pp.39-40). Food security in Bangladesh Bangladesh suffers from extreme poverty enhanced by frequent natural calamities and growing population. However, in the first ten years of this decade the country has experienced economic growth as a result of which percentage of population below poverty line has fallen from 49 in 2000 to 31.5 in 2010. In spite of this, there is high level of food insecurity in the country among 37 million people which comprises quarter of the population (World Food Programme, 2013). The Bangladesh government has introduced the Food-For-Work (FFW) program after the famine of 1974. In the aftermath of the famine, the country was deluged with donations and so the initial goal of the program was to provide food security to the poor using the donated resources. Subsequently, it became a developmental program with major focus on improvement of agricultural sector, efficient management of food distribution and marketing, protection of human lives from natural disasters and creating opportunities for seasonal employment for the poor. The FFW program is a distribution channel for food grains with the objective of attaining food security through sufficient supply of food grains (Ahmed et al., n.d., p.49). The program’s target group consists of any people who are “poor, willing and available to do mainly earthwork for food wages” (Ahmed et al., n.d., p.52). Various NGOs and donor agencies work under this program, each with their own operations. FFW has been successful in creating seasonal employment opportunities in earthworks thus benefiting almost 4 million people in Bangladesh. This has indirectly benefited agricultural production due to enhanced infrastructural works and marketing prospects. In the long run, this has increased economic growth leading to increased “food security at both household and national levels” (Ahmed et al., n.d., p.55). Since FFW program has a specific target group, therefore it increases income and food security of only those who need them. Since employment opportunities involve mainly earthwork, so only people with greatest needs are affected by the program. Moreover, FFW pays wheat as wages. This serves the purpose of providing nutrition to the poor and also since wheat is considered as inferior product in rural areas, so only the poorest people agree to work for wheat. Also, most of the program’s resources are used during January-May which is not considered as suitable period for agriculture. Therefore, only the poor farmers work during this season (Ahmed et al., n.d., pp.56-57). FFW has increased agricultural production by providing technological innovations in facilities like irrigation, drainage and protection from floods. FFW plays a dual role of “providing employment to food-insecure households and individuals, and creating community assets for which private resources are difficult to mobilize” (Ahmed et al., n.d., p.64). Food security in South Africa South Africa is one of those rare countries that has almost no experiences of mass famine and draught. This is due to the fact that agricultural production is developed by a stable political system. The South African people have acquired necessary skills and knowledge about agricultural facilities like irrigation to make land arable for crop production and rearing of animals. Almost 50 percent of the nation’s water is used for the purpose of farming (Actesa Comesa, n.d.). South Africa is faced with challenges with respect to the three pillars of food security – accessibility of food to all people, affordability of food by matching the prices with the average income level of the people, and providing people with maximum choices for nutritious food. There are other challenges which include proper management of food emergency systems so that people can become capable to afford food by their own efforts, protection of people from natural disasters, and assessment of the effects of food security programs on target population (Agriculture Republic of South Africa, 2002, pp.5-6). The goal of the Integrated Food Security Strategy “is to attain universal physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food by all South African at all times to meet their dietary and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (Agriculture Republic of South Africa, 2002, p.6). The current food security system of South Africa performs two functions. Firstly, it ensures that the country is capable of meeting its national level food demands by enhancing domestic agricultural production, importing those food items that cannot be produced in the country, and exporting items with comparative advantage. Secondly, it strives to remove poverty which is reflected by unequal distribution of food, low income level making food less affordable, low nutrition level and unemployment. There is however food security on national level as the country “produces its main staple foods, exports its surplus food, and imports what it needs to meet its food requirements” (Agriculture Republic of South Africa, 2002, p.20). Among the main food items, rice is wholly imported as it is not domestically produced. Among other foods, domestic requirement of maize is fulfilled by 100 percent and surplus is exported. Also, production of wheat satisfies 95 percent of domestic needs, livestock by 96 percent and dairy products except cheese by 100 percent (Agriculture Republic of South Africa, 2002, p.20). The Household Food Security Programme focuses on ensuring that every household in South Africa is either able to produce food for own requirement or is able to purchase food. This program has changed the perspective of students and has improved the living standards. This program provides job opportunities for those communities who want to understand the intricacies of food security. This program is totally sustainable since it involves participation of community members in meeting their economic and nutritional needs (Chivhinge, n.d.). Recently on October 24, 2013, President Jacob Zuma has introduced the government’s food security program, Fetsa Tlala. The objective of this program is to encourage communities to grow food for self-sufficiency and food security (The Presidency, 2013). Food security in Australia Since the food price crisis 2008, food security programs have become an integral part in international policy agendas. In Australia, food security is closely linked to the nation’s political stability and carries the possibility of affecting national security. Efficient food security programs have made Australia one of the leading food exporting nations in the world. It indicates that Australia is completely self-sufficient in food sector leading to overall good health and well-being of Australian people. There is minimum possibility of food insecurity affecting the common Australian people because the nation enjoys nutritious food at cheap price. However, persisting global climate change may create a situation where Australia may have to import food items more than it can export. Therefore, it is imperative that the nation continues to develop technologies associated with production and distribution of food to maintain food security in future years (PMSEIC, 2010, p.1). Australia’s food security deals with two major challenges – availability and accessibility of food. It ensures universal availability of food by investing in agricultural processes and infrastructure in order to increase food production. It also invests in social protection systems that provide job opportunities to the disadvantaged people thus helping them to fight chronic poverty. This increases their food buying capacity which leads to universal accessibility of food. Australia copes with the two challenges of food availability and accessibility through three pillars. Firstly, Australian organizations invest in agricultural enhancement programs and food policies along with research and development programs related to food production and distribution. Secondly, Australia helps the developing countries in strengthening their food markets and improving their market access. Australian organizations improve the living standards of the rural population by increasing their income by providing employment opportunities. This involves intervention of both governments and public sector companies, and improved financial policies. Finally, Australia in order to build community resilience promotes introduction and management of social protection programs to protect the poor population from shocks like food price inflation. These programs protect the poor communities from lack of nutrition, education and health services. The final objectives of food security in Australia are increased availability of food in markets and poor families, enhanced revenues of poor men and women, and more employment opportunities for poor men and women (Sustainable economic development, 2011, pp.4-7). Food security in the UK The agricultural industry in UK is highly productive and sustainable. However, the industry faces huge challenges from various national and international factors in relation to food production and consumer level satisfaction. The challenges became more prominent during the global food price spike of 2008. Almost 40 percent of the total domestic food requirement is met by importing food items. The supply chain of food and drink sector is the single largest contributor of the country’s GDP (7 percent) with valuation of ?80B n. In spite of hugely successful agricultural industry, UK has to rely on import of food items and flourishing export markets for its economic development, which means that UK is not self-sufficient in food production. In spite of the apparently full supermarkets, UK’s food supply chain can be largely affected by economic and environmental factors like irregular rains can have negative impact on harvests, and existence of exotic diseases like “bluetongue and African swine fever” can destroy the livestock industry (Global food security, n.d.). According to food security index 2012, UK holds the bottom position in the list of Western European countries, ranking behind countries like Germany, France and Italy (Evans, 2012). The challenges faced by UK food security are long term. This is because continuous rise in world population and changing demand patterns of consumers are increasing requirement of foodstuffs leading to massive inflation of food price. Moreover, UK food security faces other possible problems in the form of diseases like bluetongue virus affecting sheep rearing industry in UK. Another major problem is sharp decline of UK’s insect pollinators like bees, moths and butterflies. Although, the reason behind this decline is not clearly known, it is however clear that this has affected food production since one-third of crops is pollinated by insects. Therefore, increasing decline of insect pollinators has the possibility of creating food crisis and inflation of food prices (Global food security, n.d.). Recent studies have proved that excessive floods endangering UK’s precious farmlands are major risk producing elements of food security of the country. Since 2011, there has been continuous deterioration of weather condition in UK resulting in floods negatively affecting food production making UK a net importer of wheat. According to Anne McIntosh, a Conservative MP, “record rainfall in the past two years has led to extensive flooding, cost the economy millions and caused disruption and distress to householders and communities across the UK”. This has caused fund insufficiency in recent years which is to remain as such up to 2020 (Carrington, 2013). The UK government separates food security programs from self-sufficiency and emphasizes that “UK food security is currently best served by free trade” (The UK Government’s Vision for the Common Agricultural Policy, 2007, p.177). However, this approach of the government is so strongly embedded that UK’s best interests are often being ignored. Also, resilience is considered as important for ensuring food security at national level. Therefore, the UK government focuses on food imports from different countries to overcome the risks from climate change, natural calamities, unstable market conditions and health crises. The main theory framing this approach of the government is that agriculture should be “rewarded by the market for its outputs, not least safe and good quality food, and by the taxpayer only for producing societal benefits that the market cannot deliver” (The UK Government’s Vision for the Common Agricultural Policy, 2007, p.177). Section III Supply chain Survey results have proved that almost 25 percent of produced food items get lost within the food supply chain which amounts to around 614 kcal/cap/day. More aggravating facts are that almost 23- 24 percent of water, land and fertilizers are used to produce the lost food items, and if the food loss can be saved then an additional one billion people could be supplied with food. Therefore, saving the loss and wastage of food is one major step towards ensuring global food security, and this will also enhance efficiency in the usage of resources for food production. However, it has also been seen that food wastage is a total loss since it is used for other purposes like animal feel and biofuel production (Kummu et al., 2012, p.477). The strategies for reducing food loss and wastage can lead to providing solutions in tackling scarcity of resources in specific areas and eradicating malnutrition among the poor population. Also, such strategies can open new avenues for research and development regarding efficient food supply chain. Moreover, food loss reduction can enhance food and water security in various parts of the world (Kummu et al., 2012, p.488). For most rural households, agriculture is their main source of income and escape from poverty. However, recent climatic studies have predicted that severe climate changes can negatively affect the crop producing environment and the natural resources needed for efficient food supply chain, especially in the tropical countries. This can threaten the survival of many private enterprises, in addition to hindering development of rural areas and rising poverty levels of rural population. However, it is not much advantageous to prevent greenhouse gas emissions since the effects of past emissions can still have long term impacts. Therefore, the need is to correctly assess the climate changes for taking adaptive measures. Investments need to be done on research for innovative agricultural methods that will produce climate-sensitive crops. Although farm level measures are necessary, they are however not sufficient to tackle the problems within the food supply chain. Technical knowledge is needed along with knowledge of functions of wholesalers, retailers etc. to facilitate investments on avoidance of negative impacts of climate change on food security and rural development. In order to have an efficient, cost effective and sustainable global food supply chain, it is important to implement farm level measures on global supply chains (Benedikter, 2013, pp.1-2). Conclusion In the ongoing global economic crisis, when prices of food and agricultural facilities remain unstable, it is needed that economic perspective should improve the functioning of food supply chain to strengthen its efficiency and competitiveness. This is also because of the fact that the core problem of food insecurity in countries lies in inefficient distribution and marketing of food than in the actual failure of food production. In order to ensure food security on global level, it is necessary that climate be recognized as not only source of natural calamities that disrupts agricultural process and food production, but also as natural resource. Climate is a renewable form of resource and can have different impacts depending on time and space. Study of climate change is absolutely a precondition in order to make efficient and effective use of other natural resources like land, plants and animal genetic materials. Proper utilization of climatic affects can lead to sustainable production of crops, animals and soil resources. For this, efficient, cost effective and sustainable food security programs need to be designed and implemented. In the backdrop of social and economic conditions, food security programs are top priority for majority of governments, and also for public and private organizations. Such programs are implemented throughout global food supply chain to ultimate consumers. References 1. Actesa Comesa, n.d. Helping women become farmers in South Africa. [Online] Available at [Accessed October 31, 2013] 2. Agriculture Republic of South Africa, 2002. The Integrated Food Security Strategy for South Africa. [pdf] Available at; [Accessed October 31, 2013] 3. Ahmed, A.U. et al., n.d. Bangladesh’s Food-For-Work Program and alternatives to improve food security. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed October 31, 2013] 4. Benedikter, A. et al., 2013. Global Climate Change and Food Supply Chains: Policies for Collective Adaptation. [pdf] CIAT. Available at: [Accessed October 31, 2013] 5. Borger, J., 2008. Feed the World? 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