(1) What do you think are the three most significant natural factors affecting food security and why? OR (2) Identify three most promising (bio)technologies that may make agriculture more sustainable and explain why DUE TODAY @ 11:59 PM!!!!!!!

The state of food security in the world right now is wanting, and the rate at which the globe is experiencing climate change is inexplicable. According to a research carried out by the World Food Program and the World Health Organization, the number of chronically malnourished people in the world is estimated to have increased drastically in the year 2016 to 815 million from 777 million in 2015. However, over the last few years, progress has been made; the number of malnourished people in the year 2000 was approximately 900 million. Nevertheless, ensuring food security has become an issue in our communities due to the many changes experienced daily. Subsistence farmers, in particular, are experiencing a lot of constraints, such as unfavorable bio-physical conditions and limited arable land (Rasul et al., 2014). Furthermore, the consequent reduced agricultural production has affected food security and changed the overall vulnerability of many people around the world (Hussain et al., 2016). They have become more dependent on genetically modified foods which can be bad for their health at times. Now, there exist ways in which people can achieve food security in the face of climate change. According to a commission of agriculture formed in the year 2000 to investigate the issue of food security and climate change, several strategies and approaches can be put in place to improve on the food situation across the world. I believe these methods would best help achieve food security in the face of climate change.

The Commission suggested that world leaders should integrate sustainable agriculture and food security into national and global policies (Beddington et al., 2012). One way in which this can be done is for governments to make sustainable climate-friendly agriculture central to green growth. According to research, governments should support financial commitments for regional programs to improve food systems and agriculture. This strategy should include specific research on alternative agricultural practices and an enhanced capacity to speed up transitions between establishment phases and the study.

Similarly, governments should find a way to finance strategies that support viable agricultural production systems that are not prone to damage during weather changes. In other words, they can develop mitigation and adaptation strategies and implement agrarian programs. Also, governments can include researchers who can come up with ways in which agricultural sectors can benefit from sustainable farming practices. Global donors can also play a key role. They can identify finance mechanisms that can be used to sustain various systems and interventions that build on the enormous potential synergies between climate change and agriculture. In simple terms, when world leaders prioritize food security as a recurring item, they can find a way to invest the vast sums of money allocated in the agricultural sector.

Secondly, the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change recommended that nations should significantly raise the level of global investment in food systems and agriculture in the coming years (Beddington et al., 2012). In such a scenario, they should adjust national research development budgets to reflect on the importance of sustainable agriculture in poverty reduction and economic growth. Also, they can redirect the federal investment towards improving market connectivity, and revitalizing agriculture in both irrigated and rain fed areas. When they do that, they'll achieve their long-term goal of raising the level of global investment.

Equally, all nations can adopt the following actions suggested by the Commission under the said recommendation. They can facilitate communication linkages among innovative farmers who have produced valuable adaptations. They can also build the case for increased output that resulted from farmer-to-farmer education and empowerment (Beddington et al., 2012). World leaders can also develop local and community capacity associations to help drive home the agricultural principles developed by world economic forums. Such actions can help world leaders convince local and international farmers to share their ideas on the global stage.

World leaders can also sustainably intensify agricultural production while reducing other negative environmental impacts of agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Commission, sustainable intensification can increase the level of food output while achieving land-based mitigation. In other words, when this concept is implemented correctly, it can use sustainable technologies to increase production in the long run without experiencing negative environmental consequences. So, when world leaders use sustainable intensification, they are maintaining other ecosystem services that can help deal with the issue of food security.

Also, there are other options that people can exploit to deal with the issue at hand. For instance, in mountainous countries, governments should set up different food security policies for plains and mountains. The reason being, plains are different from mountains in terms of type, nature, and magnitude of vulnerabilities. Lu et al. (2012), argue that there is a need to re-evaluate agricultural policies as some current policies appear to be inappropriate. They don't seem to be in line with the projected climate change the world is experiencing.

According to Rasul and Karki (2007), food securities in mountainous countries usually don't attract as much attention from development planners and researchers as one would like. So, the government should encourage private investment in post-harvest activities and production to attract the said researchers and development planners. Furthermore, they should have a way of persuading these two parties to capitalize on opportunities to manage out-migration and frequent labor shortages in agriculture. Also, the government should give researchers the resources they need to identify specific zones that can sustain high-value crops such as fruits and vegetables. Such zones may be exploited through land-use intensification and efficient water use.

In conclusion, the above-leveraged points and the two concepts can genuinely take a significant step towards dealing with the issue food security. Furthermore, a platform can be created for researchers to conduct and design empirical studies in the same area to further understand what is causing these two complications. There needs to be an establishment of different adaptive measures to achieve food security in the face of climate change. Everyone should have the drive to help those in need and the drive to accept change whenever an opportunity is presented unto us.

References

Beddington, J. R., Asaduzzaman, M., Fernandez, A., Clark, M. E., Guillou, M., Jahn, M. M., ... & Scholes, R. J. (2012). Achieving food security in the face of climate change: Final report from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change.

Hussain, A., Rasul, G., Mahapatra, B., & Tuladhar, S. (2016). Household food security in the face of climate change in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region. Food Security, 8(5), 921-937.

Lu, J., Su, Y., Manandhar, S., & Ahmad, A. (2012). The role of tree crops in local adaptations to climate variability – Cases in China, Nepal and Pakistan. Kunming Institute of Botany: Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Studies.

Rasul, G., & Karki, M. (2007). Pro-poor Policy Agenda for Sustainable Agriculture Development in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region: Talking Points 2/07. Kathmandu: ICOMOD.

Rasul, G., Hussain, A., Khan, M. A., Ahmad, F., & Jasra, A. W. (2014). Towards a framework for achieving food security in the mountains of Pakistan. In ICIMOD Working Paper 2014/5. Kathmandu: ICIMOD.