Food Security in Brazil - Coursework Example

Food Security in Brazil     By         Location Table of Content Food Security in Brazil ABBREVIATIONS/Acronyms 3 1.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 2. INTRODUCTION 4 2.1.BACKGROUND INFORMATION 4 2.2.STUDY OBJECTIVES 4 ISSUES OR CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY 5 Poor production methods 5 Poor Seeds 5 Land Ownership And Poverty 6 MEASURES TO FOOD INSECURITY 7 RECOMMENDATIONS 8 Bibliography 9 ABBREVIATIONS/Acronyms 3 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 2. INTRODUCTION 4 2.1.BACKGROUND INFORMATION 4 2.2.STUDY OBJECTIVES 4 ISSUES OR CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY 5 Poor production methods 5 Poor Seeds 5 Brazil climate 6 Land Ownership And Poverty 6 MEASURES TO FOOD INSECURITY 7 RECOMMENDATIONS 8 Bibliography 8 ABBREVIATIONS/Acronyms GDP- gross domestic product HIV/AIDS - human immune virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY According to the World Health Organization website, The World Food Summit of 1996 sough to define food security noting that it exists “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Brazil, like most of the developing countries faces a major challenge of hunger where more than six million citizens are facing starvation (The Economist 2009). There is an urgent need to come up with policies that will boost the food production and also help prevent wastage of produce. The purpose of this report will be to finding the causes of food insecurity, the measures that would be appropriate to take critically evaluate the problem of food insecurity and be able to give the findings. The final part gives the recommendations that, if adopted, will significantly increase food security in Brazil. The reforms that have been taken by the government of Brazil are clearly analsed and the recommendations given will help the increase the manangement of food and thus will help to boost the food security.In general, the report will help to come up wit better methods of food manangement and thus increase the food security. 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1.BACKGROUND INFORMATION Understanding the root causes of food insecurity will help to offer a solution to this problem. Since food security remains a chronic issue, it is also better to understand the economy of Brazil and how trade enhances the food production in the country. This will help a lot when coming up with comprehensive measures of food insecurity. Acarding to World Food Summit of 1996, food security was defined as a situation when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. But mostly, the concept of food security is looked at as including both physical and economic access to food that meets peoples dietary needs as well as their food preferences. In Brazil, health problems related to dietary excess are an ever increasing threat, and thus malnutrion and foodborne diarrhea are become double burden. 2.2.STUDY OBJECTIVES The main objective of this study is to delve in to the food security issues in Brazil and give the recommendations that will help better the current situation. The study will also analyse the causes of food insecurity, and measures that are currently in place to boost food security. It will also look at the weakness of the existing measures and reasons why these measures have not handles the problem of food insecurity effectively. The recommendations will be put in place by the government of Brazil to help solve the problem of food insecurity. ISSUES OR CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY The causes of food insecurity to most developing countries are mostly due to poor management and implementation of policies. Poor production methods In Brazil, poor methods of production have accelerated the problem of food insecurity. The poor production methods have been caused by poor quality land and weather conditions(Rigler and Bisas, 2010, p220). This is because the quality and quantity of food produced vary with seasons, weather patterns, land quality and geographical conditions (Paarlberg, 2012, p128). This is because each region has different growing conditions with the other and thus produce different variety of food. For example, the large central region has almost perfect climate has plentiful of rains in the summer within warm and dry winters making it perfect for food production but the method employed by the farmers in planting is poor (Nagathu, 2015,p78) and this leads to low production of food. Furthermore, the fertilizers which is mostly needed to boost food production is unavailable to mast of the farmers thus contributing to poor production methods. Poor Seeds These have also contributed greatly to the ability of Brazilian population to produce food that can meet the demand of its population (Braun 2008, p.91). This poor seeds and leads to low production and thus leaving the people in need of food from other parts of the world (Cheru and Modi 2013, p.12).The seed at some instances have failed to germinate or have been incompatible with the climate in the region. This leads to great loss by the farmers thus affecting their ability to provide and also other basic needs as money is spent trying to buy food, this worsens the situation because most of the people population in Brazil are poor thus unable fully to feed themselves. They give emphasis on the production of cash crops which they lack the skills necessary (Nagathu, 2015, p176). Most of the people in Brazil have turned to growth of crops for export which cannot be eaten without first undergoing processing yet they do not have processing machines. Furthermore, this crops performs poorly due to lack of skill and knowledge required to manage them. . Brazil climate. The northeast part of Brazil suffers from recurring droughts and receives abut twenty inches of rain a year. This makes it impossible for the farmers in this region to plant and harvest enough food. This is the same cause with the southern part with receives enough rains that is enough to grow the required crops but this region is prone to floods and frost thus all the planted crops are destroyed by this floods(McDonald, 2010, p57). Futher more climate in this regions has recently changed significantly thus making it difficult to predict the weather season and this has led to crop failure. Land Ownership And Poverty Most of the land in the large central region is owned by several rich individual, further the adoption of green land reform in Brazil has denied the poor farmers who are the main producers of staple food a chance to own land (Ehui, 2008, p105). Most of the poor population have no means to purchase the inputs required so as to produce enough food. This inputs includes the fertilizers and the quality food used in production (Lois, 2010p89). Use of pesticides have also turned the soil acidic thus forcing the farmers to spend more by purchasing basic fertilizers to neutralize. Poverty has also been accelerated by HIV/AIDS which have affected most the poor people (Pope and Mrlow, 2009, p76). Brazils GDP has weakened consistently due to increase in poverty levels and this has resulted to food insecurity. MEASURES TO FOOD INSECURITY The problems of food insecurity can be greatly reduced if correct actions and actions could be taken. These measures would include the following: The government through research have come up with quality seeds that can produce enough food so that the population can be able to feed itself (Nerlove and Basel 2006 and Nord, 2007, p.14). through mechanized food production methods, the government has sough for a long lasting solution. Further, land reforms have also been introduced in Brazil to ensure that there is equitable land distribution.The agrarian land reforms have been introduce so that land is now more effectifely be utilized and thus leading to increase in food production. The government has conducted seminar to educate the people on the need to plan for their families. Family planning seminars have been organized so that the population growth can be matched by the growth in food production. This will ensure that the food produced is enough to feed the population and store some in case of an emergency and thus will have enough food security. This has helped the poor families to reduce the burden of feeding their families and thus there is more food security. This has also increased the countrys GDP by 3% in the last three years. The government of Brazil has invested heavely in agriculture machinerary to ensure that land will be effectifely utilised and food production has been enhanced.In year 2012, the government purchased machinery worth millions of shilling so that production of food can be made easy. This has resulted to an increase in in levels of production in the last two years. The government has also sensitized the public matters of financial literacy. In the year 2012, more than two millions citizens received financial literacy knowledge to help them overcome poverty problems. This has boosted the financial position of people and thus has increased the living standards of the people thus contributing to food security. RECOMMENDATIONS Through this report, it is will be possible to significantly increase the food production in Brazil and hence have a food secure nation. The government of Brazil should also come with better methods and ways to control the HIV/AIDS manace that has greatly affected the the food productivity. The government has also done very little to help enhance the trade which contributes to thirty percent of the countrys economy. If more is done in this sector, more food can be produced and this can greatly help to boost the food security. If most of the measures taken by the government discussed in this report will continiue to be implemented, the Food security in Brazill will be greatly boosted and probably be a food secured country by the year 2050. Bibliography Barrett, C. 2008. Food security and food assistance programs. In B. Gardner and G. Rausser, eds, Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Elsevier Science. B.V .Volume 2. 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