Mehwish Mustaqeem Sialkot
Food is the material that we eat to satisfy our appetite.It essentially consists of protein carbohydrates and fat.It meets the physiological needs for growth maintains various processes of body keeps our bodies warm and supplies us with energy.It is one of those vital factors that ensure human existence.Every nation strives to obtain sufficient food to meet its nutrient needs properly.
To fulfil nutrient needs has become an overriding concern for every nation of the world. Food shortage is an acute problem of present era. It makes people suscepible to potentially fatal diseases such as dysentery whooping cough and tuberculosis. It stymies mental and physical growth in children. Mostly malnourished people live in china india africa and latin america.
Presently the world faces two problems in producing an adequate food supply. The first challenge is to obtain enough food security that is to ensure that all people get sufficient food to live a healthy life. Producing sufficient food supply does not mean that all people are able to get it. Sometimes people are too poor to buy an adequate food supply or they cannot manage to get food due to some natural or man made calamity.
For example a war or drought may prevent them from getting ample food supplies. The factors that affect food production are as follows.The massive exodus of farmers from the countryside to the cities affects adversely the production of food stuff. Some farmers own little farms. They cannot compete with the owners of big farms.Therfore they leave farming and migrate to cities to seek better opportunities of income.Some farmers do not know the productive farming techniques.This also affects the quality and quantity of food.
Farming needs water arable land and some sort of energy such as petroleum to run the farming equipments.Human and animal labour is also needed to till that land.These are vital requirements for food production but they are unevenly distributed around the world.It has been estimated that 38 percent of the world,s total cultivated land has been degraded by human mismanagement such as poor ploughing overgrowing and defective irrigation.Fast flowing water washes away the topsoil and cuts gullies in luxuriant land.
This natural geographical process is accelerated by poor agriculture and other human activities.This loss of fertile land due to soil erosion results into pressing problems of agriculture.Water is the most essential element for the growth of all crops.But unfortunately many countries of the world lack sufficient water needed for ample growth of food stuff.The people living in arid regions face severe scarcity of water.
This results in limited food production that consequently leads to terrible drought.Arable land is continuously shrinking.Much land is being replaced each year by homes shopping plazes industries and roads.This has become necessary to accommodate the ever growing population.Modern farming techniques cause salinization stunts plant growth and makes soils unusable.Moreover these techniques depend on extensive use of fossil fuels i.e oil gasoline and natural gas.
This extensive use of fuels damages the ozone layer.Canals of water are necessary for the irrigation of land would remain largely uncultivated and barren.However occasionally these canals waterlog soil and raise the salt level which sometimes renders the soil unusable.The factors that affect food security are as follows.Food production must keep pace with the increasing growth of population.
Owing to green revolution the world has succeeded in coping with the problems of food.We have managed to produce bumper crops by using irrigation fertilizers pesticides and new seed varieties. But in future the food production may not keep up with the rapidly growing population.
To control population growth is important to ensure food security but low population growth does not guarantee food security nor does high population growth causes food insecurity.For example the population growth rate in china is only 0.6 but 11 percent of its people are undernourished. And this malnutrition in china is partly caused by poverty.Besides high population growth there are other food rated factors that cause food insecurity.
Death of water lack of arable land and poor farming techniques may cause food insecurity. Sometimes food security iz affected by other food related factors. Such factors include adequate markets sound highways food transporatation and crisis. Sometimes grains supplies are affected by our reliance upon a small number of crops varieties. Agriculture needs diverse crop varieties to provide stable food supply so that the failure of one or two crops may not cause food shortage.
The world can decipher food crisis by strategic planning and effective management.They must take suitable steps to eliminate the factors that cause low food production. Then without food security ample food production would be ineffective. Food security is even more crucial than food production to defuse the crisis.
