Food Crisis: A Challenge

Often, we come across the term food crisis. But somehow we do not consider it important to ponder and pause over it. Many, in fact, terms talks around this as a fad. Reality is otherwise. Food crisis indeed is emerging as a big a challenge for human kind. It raises many questions on their abilities to address this task that pose a threat to human kind’s existence itself. We must take it earnestly and devise strategies to deal with situation created by food crisis.

Global food demand is expected to double by 2050 even as our natural resources are continuously shrinking. Across world, inadequate attention to agriculture has led to rise in food prices and the food riots are still fresh in our memory. Over a billion people earn less than a dollar a day and more than 800 million suffer from hunger. Majority of them live in rural areas and are dependent on agriculture. Food crisis has further been aggravated because of climate change and diversion of arable land to urbanization and industrialisation. Floods and droughts too are making the poor vulnerable. 

The World Bank’s World Development Report had said in 2007, “... agriculture has effectively served as a basis for growth and reduced poverty in many countries, but many more countries could benefit, if governments and donors were to reverse years of policy neglect and remedy their under- investment and mis-investment in agriculture...” Naturally, time has come for all to address this issue.

The 2030 vision of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) of ensuring “food and income security for all, through technological innovations and sustainable agriculture” is significant in this backdrop. It sets as its mission the ability to “Harness power of science and education with a human touch for higher and sustainable agricultural production.” Science and technology can be harnessed in increasing productivity, enhancing input-use efficiency, reducing cost and post-harvest losses, minimizing risks and improving quality of food commodities. 

This vision document also states that ICAR is committed to bring a demand-driven and technology-led revolution in the country to meet challenges of the rising demand for food, improving livelihood opportunities of farmers, and for ensuring sustainable farming and agricultural growth. It speaks of by harnessing untapped opportunities in domestic and global markets. 

It is time for scaling up agricultural research and development and their applications. This would augment farmers’ income, generate employment opportunities, conserve natural resources, restrict imports, promote exports and increase value-addition for higher and inclusive agricultural growth. Food crisis is a monumental challenge. We must empower our farmers along with judiciously integrating technologies into their farmes to be able to move in the direction of addressing this.