World Food Day: investing in food security for a better future

Roots of change: make migration work for rural development

By José Graziano da Silva 

Throughout history, one of the most effective strategies for people to look for a better future has been to move; in most cases, leaving impoverished rural areas in search of more productive opportunities elsewhere.

Indeed, migration has since our earliest days been essential to the human story—the source of multiple economic and cultural benefits. But when migration is out of extreme need, distress and despair, it becomes another story.

Forced migration is rooted in conflicts, political instability, extreme poverty, hunger, environmental degradation and the impacts of climate change. In these situations, people have no choice other than to move.

This year’s slogan for World Food Day (October 16), “Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development”, addresses the structural drivers of large movements of people in order to make migration safe, orderly and regular.

This is all the more pertinent today because the number of hungry people is on the rise again after decades of progress.

According to the 2017 State of Food Security and Nutrition report (SOFI), 815 million people suffered from hunger in 2016, an increase of 38 million people compared to 2015 (777 million). This was largely due to conflicts, droughts and floods around the world.

In fact, conflicts have driven northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen to the brink of famine and triggered acute food insecurity also in Burundi, Iraq and elsewhere. Globally, there are now around 64 million people forcibly displaced by conflict and persecution, the highest number since the Second World War. Furthermore, drought, due to an unusually powerful El Niño, has sharply reduced access to food in much of Africa.

Rural households often bear the brunt of these drivers. Most of the world’s poor live in rural areas, and many rural youth, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, migrate in the absence of productive opportunities.  

But let’s set the story straight: Despite widely held perceptions, most of those who migrate remain in their countries of origin. There are around 763 million internal migrants worldwide, one in every eight people on the planet with the majority moving from the countryside to cities. Of the 244 million international migrants recorded in 2015, one-third came from G20 countries and consisted of people who moved to pursue more productive opportunities. South-South migratory flows are now larger than those from developing to the developed nations.

Make migration a choice

Conflict, rural poverty, and climate change, all demand increasing attention as they drive up distress migration as a last resort, which generates a tangle of moral, political and economic problems for migrants, their eventual hosts and the transit points in between. We all have roots and few of us wish to sever them. In fact, even in the most extreme situations, people would rather remain at home.

Inclusive rural development can help on all fronts, curbing conflict, boosting sustainability and making migration a matter of choice rather than desperation.

Decent employment opportunities–which can be generated by productive agriculture and supporting activities ranging from seed research and credit provision to storage infrastructure and food processing businesses–are urgently needed to convince a fast-growing young population in rural areas that there are better fates than hazardous journeys to unknown destinations.

Migration itself is part of rural development; seasonal migration is closely linked to the agricultural calendars and remittances are a huge force for improving both rural welfare and farm productivity. Migrants’ contribution to development needs to be recognised and cherished, as they are the bridges between countries of origin, transit and destination.

The FAO is working to address the root causes of migration. This means promoting policy options that favour vulnerable people. It includes youth job training and inclusive access to credit, crafting social protection programmes that offer cash or in-kind transfers, specific measures to support those returning to rural areas of origin, and offering assistance for the provision of seeds, fertilisers and animal-health services, fine-tuning early warning systems for weather risks and by working for sustainable natural resource and land use.

As co-chair in 2018 of the Global Migration Group, comprising 22 UN agencies and the World Bank, the FAO will advocate for solutions that make migration an act of choice and not a desperate last resort. Agriculture and rural development have a key role to play in this.

The writer is Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Kokum cultivation can turn the tide for small farmers

By Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava

Srihari kurade proudly walks through his orchard of kokum (Garciniaindica), a wild fruit that is famous for its therapeutic properties. With more than 2,400 trees spread over seven hectares (ha) of land, his orchard in South Goa is the world’s largest kokum plantation. Kurade is also perhaps the only farmer in the region to have taken up systematic large-scale plantation of the fruit that is endemic to the Western Ghats. Almost every part of the sweet and tangy fruit has some medicinal or industrial use.

Still close to 85 per cent of the fruit used to go waste every year till 2010, according to a survey conducted by Goa non-profit the Western Ghats Kokum Foundation (WGKF). The survey says that the fruit is cultivated in small plantations in North Karnataka, Goa, southern Maharashtra and parts of Kerala and the collective acreage under itis not more than 1,000 ha in the Konkan region. However, WGKF, and other local groups, are now trying to rewrite the story of the healthy fruit.

The primary reason farmers shy away from growing kokum is that it clashes with mango harvest. “Mango has a lucrative market unlike kokum. Besides, this tree is mainly found in deep forests making transportation difficult. Thus most of the fruits go waste,” says Miguel Braganza, joint secretary of WGKF. Though kokum has been popular as a traditional medicine, it was widely used only in kitchens as a culinary item till about 2000, says Ajit Shirodkar, chairperson of WGKF. 

The harvest season and the shelf-life of the fruit are very short. “The harvest season of kokum is between the second week of May and the end of the month. Once the rains start in the first week of June, even the plucked fruits start to decay. As a result, farmers are forced to sell them,” says Shirodkar.

A healthy option
Almost every part of the sweet, tangy fruit has some medicinal or industrial use

The transformation

The kokum story saw a positive twist in 2000 when WGKF was set up with the sole motive of making the fruit popular. In the next few years, the group surveyed and catalouged the available varieties of kokum. The foundation then worked on creating awareness among farmers and academics for the promotion of the fruit. “When we asked farmers to take up kokum plantation on a large scale, they said there are no buyers. That is when we came up with the idea of manufacturing value-added products of kokum. So in the past four to five years, value-added products such as kokum juice, kokum syrup and kokum date have become popular in the region,” says Shirodkar.

And the impact is visible. Several small-scale firms have started to earn good profits from kokum products while ensuring better prices to the farmers. One such firm is Sindhusfurti Natural Food and Research Pvt. Ltd. that is promoted by Konkan Nisarg Manch, a Sindhudurg-based non-profit that works in the Konkan belt to generate livelihood opportunities by promoting neglected natural resources. The company shares 11 per cent of its profits with kokum farmers. “Our main focus is to provide farmers due value of their produce,” says Santosh Pednekar, head of sales and marketing at Sindhusfurti. Last year, the company bagged a US contract to export three tonnes of dry kokum. The contract was fulfilled with the help of 50 small farmers and nine self-help groups. “We agreed to export our products only on the condition that they will pay Rs 100 per kg to the farmers as against the prevailing price of Rs 35-40 per kg. In return, we promised to hygienically collect the fruits,” says Pednekar. This pushed the local price of kokum to Rs 120 per kg. “Till two years back, I sold them for Rs 35-40 per kg. Last year the rate increased to Rs 60 per kg. This year, I am expecting to sell the fruit for over Rs 100 per kg,” says Kurade.

Sindhusfurti is now trying to popularise kokum rind in Indian markets by targeting yoga centres, health centres, and medical shops. It has bagged a contract with the Central and Western Railways to sell kokum soda at stores, platforms and trains. Retail chain Big Bazar is also selling Sindhusfurti products at its Maharashtra outlets.

Challenges ahead

The recent attempts have helped in convincing farmers to cultivate kokum, but a lot remains to be done. For starters, standardisation and certification of kokum products is required “to expand the product’s market at national and international level”. 

“Right now, everybody is processing products as per convenience. This is not good for the market,” says Shirodkar. Scientists at the Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth (BSKKV), Ratnagiri have prepared standard procedures for popular kokum products and are developing procedures for certification. The agriculture university is also developing kokum varieties that can be harvested much before the monsoon, says B N Sawant, agriculture scientist at the BSKKV’s regional fruit research station in Sindhudurg. 

Shirodkar also warns against false claims made by sellers about the fruit. “Several fly-by-night operators are selling Garcinia and other varieties found in Sri Lanka and Thailand as a wonder fruit that can reduce fat in weeks. Such exaggerations are not scientifically proven and can hamper the reputation of the fruit,” he adds. Braganza says the long-term challenge is to create a market that benefits both farmers and customers.

From neglected to future smart: traditional crops in the Himalayas

By Lipy Adhikari

If you eat, you are involved in agriculture.

With this succinct observation, American poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry reminds us of our place in the world food production system. We may not be farmers, but each of us contributes to the food trends and habits of our time and plays a part in determining global agricultural practices. As the world celebrates World Food Day, let us take a moment to reflect on food and agriculture, and how smart and secure farming practices can contribute to the betterment of mountains and people in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH).

“Minor crops”, “neglected and under-utilised crop species (NUS)”, and “crops for the poor” are all terms that have been used, over the years, to refer to crops traditionally grown in the mountainous HKH, a region that spans Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Crops like milletd, buckwheat, barley, and sorghum, among others, fall under this category. National agricultural policies in the region do not pay much attention to these traditional crop varieties. Mostly, our policies and practices focus on the production of three major crops: rice, wheat and maize. Does this mean that we are narrowing down our agricultural produce, our farming practices and our dietary habits to include only these limited varieties? Who is responsible for framing such specific crops-based policies in our countries? It seems as if farmers and policy makers in the region have been convinced that they need to focus their attention only on these three crops and their varieties.

Of the 30,000 identified edible plant species, humans have historically used more than 7,000 as food. Today, only 150 crop species are commercially cultivated. Of these, 103 provide up to 90 per cent of the calories an average individual consumes. Rice, wheat, maize and potato alone account for 60 per cent of human energy supply.

It does not make sense for a region like ours, where many still depend on subsistence agriculture, to focus on cultivating only a few crop species, especially considering the fact that 78 per cent of the world’s mountainous regions are not suitable or only marginally suitable for growing crops. It makes sense that diverse, local crop varieties are promoted to cope with marginal and heterogeneous environments.

Crops we normally identify as NUS are vital to sustainable agriculture and have been farmed by indigenous communities for centuries. Many of these crops are well adapted to coping with the negative impacts of climate change, as they can withstand the stresses of extreme environmental conditions, can grow in degraded, marginalised wastelands as well as drought-affected areas with minimum input, and are highly pest resistant.

Barley and buckwheat, which have short growing duration and are highly resistant to weeds, for instance, are cultivated in the higher altitudes of the Tibetan plateau and the Kosi Basin. Both crops are highly nutritious and vital for food security in HKH. Similarly, finger millet, which is categorised as a neglected species, is one of the richest sources of iron and calcium, and has been a part of traditional mountain agriculture for millennia. Despite this, the overall production of these traditional crops is on the decline. In India alone, acreage under millet cultivation has decreased to 0.2 per cent from 0.4 per cent of the total cultivable land (142 million hectares).

In Nepal, one major reason rice is the grain of choice, even in mountainous regions where millet or buckwheat grows abundantly, is a social one. While millet and buckwheat are poor man’s grains, rice, particularly white rice, is the grain associated with high societal status. Although millet and buckwheat are far more nutritious, it is hard to get people to replace rice meals with meals featuring these grains without changing their perceptions first. The idea that these grains are meant to be fed to livestock or are only to be consumed by the poor who cannot afford white rice is strongly entrenched in Nepali society.

In recent years, scientists, researchers, and institutions have diverted the focus of their attention from major cereals to minor ones. Many studies have emphasised on the importance of traditionally-grown cereals in the mountains for increased agricultural production, enhanced crop diversification, and improved environmental conditions. The Food and Agriculture Organization recently renamed NUS future smart foods (FSFs) to highlight their importance and move past the negative connotations.

While this is a step in the right direction, a new name by itself will not serve any purpose. The need to create awareness among farmers as well as consumers about the high nutritional content of these cereals is urgent. We, who are aware of the nutritional benefits of FSFs and their possible contributions to healthy calorie intake, should ourselves be able to skip rice for millets or a buckwheat dinner. Consumers have to change our food habits if we are to motivate farmers to revive traditional agricultural systems. Now, is the time to broaden and diversify our palates and our farming culture with FSFs.

The writer is research associate livelihoods, ICIMOD

Violence, conflict push up global hunger crisis

By Deepanwita Gita Niyogi

In a development that can seriously defeat the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of achieving zero hunger by 2030, a new report warns that global hunger is on the rise again. After declining for over a decade, hunger increased in 2016 and now affects 815 million people worldwide (11 per cent of the global population).

The United Nations report titled The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 blames increasing conflicts and violence in several parts of the world for the rise in the number of hungry people. In 2015, 777 million were estimated to be hungry.

“Over the past decade, conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature,” the heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) say in their joint foreword to the report.

According to the report, the food security situation has deteriorated in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South-Eastern and Western Asia. Worsening has been seen in conflict situations, often made worse by droughts and floods. Owing to the size of population, the highest number of undernourished people lives in Asia. The FAO estimates that in 2016 almost 520 million people in Asia, over 243 million in Africa and more than 42 million in Latin America and the Caribbean did not have access to sufficient food energy.

Malnutrition rules the scene

Multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions of people worldwide. The increase—38 million more people than the previous year—is largely due to conflicts and climate-related shocks, the report points out. Some 155 million children aged under five are stunted while 52 million suffer from wasting.

Side by side obesity rules the scenario. An estimated 41 million children are now overweight, the report adds. This is mainly due to changes in dietary habits. An estimated 41 million children (about 6 per cent) under five were considered overweight in 2016, up from 5 per cent in 2005. When it comes to Asia-Pacific, many countries in the region face the triple burden of malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity.

Africa under scanner

Africa continues to suffer as a result of violence and famine. Famine struck parts of South Sudan for several months in early 2017, and there is a high risk that it could reoccur there as well as appear in other conflict-ridden countries such as northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, the report says.

The oil-rich country has been embroiled in a civil war ever since it gained independence from Sudan. The Unity State, bordering Sudan, has been at the centre of some of the most violent skirmishes. War has disrupted the means of livelihood for people, who are predominantly farmers. They have also lost their livestock and farming tools.

FAO identifies 19 countries with a protracted crisis situation. Of these, 14 have been in this category since 2010, 11 of which are in Africa. Protracted crises are contexts in which a significant proportion of the population is acutely vulnerable to hunger, disease and disruptions to livelihoods over prolonged periods.

The report also shows how violence affects women negatively. Conflict situations mean increased sexual violence targeted at women. Such violence tends to affect their ability to support families, the report adds. Also, rural women have less access to resources and income, which makes them more vulnerable, and hence, more likely to resort to riskier coping strategies.

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