A Summary of A Reality of Food and Food Security

Hello Nokviewers

I Hope you celebrated the World Food Day in your own little way. Today’s post is about food, its importance for living, food as a necessity of a country , the issue of food security, Scroll down to read more

In the world, no matter what the status of a human being, there are certain basic necessities of life that are required for a healthy living; these include shelter, clothing and food. Food is important as it is a means of subsistence (livelihood) and the adequacy of which in quantity and quality is a key requirement for healthy and productive life[i]. It has been scientifically proven that an average man cannot survive (90) ninety days without food. Through this, it can be seen that food is important for man, animal and all living things to be alive.

It is useful to note that food is a vital element in state and nation’s strength and this is why states, nations and countries often plan to have a sense of security with relation to food. This has made it necessary that each country must produce enough food for its own expanding needs, Nigeria not excluded. This is where we as individuals, a state, a nation and Food and Agriculture Organization comes into improve Food Security and save developing countries from famine, hunger, malnutrition and diseases and has been done through several mediums such as its collaborative efforts with Government of different countries and different organization like World Bank, World Health Organization.[ii]

According to the United Nations, food security has been recorded to have approximately (200) two hundred definitions but the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, defines the concept of Food Security as a situation in which all the people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for a active, healthy and productive life.[iii]

The dimension of food security is that there should be availability of food, there should be economic and physical access to food, the food should be utilized that is the food should be used well to meet dietary need, and lastly there should be stability of supply of the food that is available, the access to the food, and utilization over a long period of time. With this, food security can be divided into four dimensions which are food availability, food accessibility and food utilization and food stability. [iv]

Most importantly, there are challenges that have hindered food security and this challenge varies from across countries, states and Nations. Food Security analysts have defined a challenge which is the lack of access to enough food (food insecurity) this may be chronic or transitory. Chronic food insecurity which is depicted by continuously inadequate diet caused by inability to acquire sufficient food in terms of  quantity and quality while transitory food insecurity is a temporary decline in household access to enough food. It results from instability in food price, food production or household income and in its worst, famine.[v]

I hope we all understand the importance of food.

feel free to like, share, and leave a comment below. Also check out my youtube channel it is about Music, History and Tourism .

check out my youtube channel it is about Music, History and Tourism

---

References

[i]Olayemij.k ,food security Nigeria, journal of development policy, centre research report no.2,1998,pp 1;86

[ii] Food security magazine

http://coin.fao.org/cms/world/nigeria/Home.html

[iii]Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2010) The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2010: Addressing food insecurity in protracted crises. Rome: FAO.

[iv] Ibid ^iv

[v]FAO.pratical guide : Basic concept of Food Security(PDF) retrieved July 12,2013

Picture from Shutterstock