Key elements of food security
PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina while addressing a meeting on 'partnering for food security' attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and heads of government, state and representatives from more than a hundred countries dilated on the core food security concerns and what's more, presented a mitigation strategy.
Bangladesh can claim to have an authentic voice on the subject for some obvious reasons. On the positive side, Bangladesh had attained food self-sufficiency by putting nearly every inch of cultivable land under the plough. With the result that her needs for cereals import diminished progressively but for an interregnum of two years marked by lower global output.
On the flip-side, our vulnerabilities to droughts, floods and cyclones that had once been severely experienced periodically have now become something of a real threat -- thanks to the global climate change phenomenon. Apart from the vagaries of nature, we have also suffered through uncertainties in the global food market from which we have had to import to meet occasional deficits. Last few seasons have been crunch times with world food prices having sky-rocketed and even money could not easily buy it.
Little wonder, therefore, the PM's articulation of food security concerns and the ways to mitigate them was heard with respect and attention. Her sole emphasis was on access to food of the vulnerable and marginalised groups and, that too, in sufficient caloric quantities. That brings up the issue of fair and equitable 'food governance' at both national and international level.
It's no longer a question of simple food management, but more a matter of fair and equitable distribution of the available food on a global as well as national scale. It calls for an international policy input blending with regional and national policy choices. Thus production alone is not a full guarantee for food security, there is the issue of buffer stocking with adequate silo facility with eventual off-takes in times of stresses and strains.
In specific terms, the countries would need to 'agree on and implement sustainable agricultural policies, transfer of technology and equitable and fair trade rules for food and agricultural commodities'. It's important that special and preferential treatment be accorded to the LDCs, most of which are also confronted with critical climate change issues. While adopting a global approach we cannot be oblivious of the critical need to be driven by 'specific concerns of the relevant countries'.
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