Discuss some of the strategies to improve food supply in the developing world

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: In the past few decades, food production has increased in the developing world. However, for most areas, including Sub Saharan Africa, this increase has not been enough to meet the needs of the fast growing population. In order to increase the supply of food to meet the rapidly increasing population, the following four strategies are some of the strategies discussed in the textbook: expand agricultural land, increase agricultural productivity, improve food sources, and finally, improve exports.

Expanding agricultural lands: Historically, world food production increased primarily by expanding the amount of land devoted to agriculture. When the world's population increased more rapidly during the Industrial Revolution beginning in the eighteenth century, pioneers could migrate to sparsely inhabited territory and cultivate the land. New land might appear to be available, because only 11 percent of the world's land area is currently used for agriculture. But excessive or inadequate water makes expansion difficult. The expansion of agricultural land has been much slower than the increase of the human population for several decades.

Increase agricultural productivity: New agricultural practices have permitted farmers worldwide to achieve much greater yields from the same amount of land. The green revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, fueled in part by scientific breakthroughs in high yield seeds and other new technologies, led to an increase in agricultural productivity. It was largely responsible for preventing a food crisis in developing countries during the 1970s and 1980s. More research and investment is needed to develop higher yielding varieties of crops suited for the specific conditions of regions.

Improved food sources: Improved food sources could come from higher protein cereal grains. People in developing countries depend on grains that lack certain proteins. Hybrids with higher protein content could achieve better nutrition without changing food-consumption habits. In some regions, some foods are rarely consumed because of taboos, religious values, and social customs.

Exports: With excess food available in the developed world, exporting food to the developing world can be a way of alleviating food shortages in those regions. Trade in food has increased rapidly, especially since 2000. The three top export grains are wheat, corn, and rice. Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands and the United States are the four leading net exporters of agricultural products. Many critics of globalization cite subsidized farm exports as a huge problem for the farmers of the developing world, leading to gluts in grain markets, etc., which combine to force more farmers off their lands. A typically example of this would be the effects of NAFTA, which critics say, force many Mexican farmers to leave their farms to seek other employment.