Turning Adversity into an Advantage for Food Security Through Improving Soil Quality and Providing Production Systems for Marginal Saline Lands: ICBA Perspectives and Approach

Author(s):  
Shabbir A. Shahid ◽  
Faisal K. Taha ◽  
Shoaib Ismail ◽  
Abdullah Dakheel ◽  
Mahmoud Abdelfattah
2019 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Roberts

Since its early rudimentary forms, phosphate fertilizer has developed in step with our understanding of successful food production systems. Recognized as essential to life, the responsible use P in agriculture remains key to food security.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Nasser Baco

Previous studies suggested that maize is set to become a cash crop while ensuring food security better than any other crop. However, climate change has become one of the key production constraints that are now hampering and threatening the sustainability of maize production systems. We conducted a study to better understand changes here defined as adaptations made by smallholder farmers to ensure food security and improve income through maize production in a climate change context. Our results show that maize farmers in northern Benin mainly rely on traditional seeds. Drought as abiotic stress is perceived by farmers in many agro-ecological zones as a disruptive factor for crop production, including maize. When drought is associated with pest damages, both the quantity (i.e. yield) and the quality (i.e. attributes) of products/harvests are negatively affected. The adverse effects of drought continue to reduce production in different agro-ecological zones of the country, because of the lack of widespread adoption of tolerant varieties. The study suggests actions towards the production of drought-tolerant maize seeds, a promotion of seed companies, the organization of actors and value chains. Apart from climate change, the promotion of value chains is also emerging as one of the important aspects to take into account to sustain maize production in Benin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-174
Author(s):  
Agi Costa Cassimo ◽  
Paulo César Nascimento ◽  
Patrícia Lima De Lima ◽  
Carlos Gustavo Tornquist ◽  
Carlos Alberto Bissani ◽  
...  

Small family farms constitute a major part of land use in the surrounding regions of Brazilian cities, as these farms not only contribute to the food supply, but also help conserve rural landscapes and improve environmental services. This study evaluated agricultural impacts on soil quality in seven family farms in Porto Alegre municipality, Rio Grande do Sul state, RS. Selected production units (PUs) were managed as conventional or organic farms, producing horticultural crops, fruits and pastures, besides native forests. Soil samples were collected from representative areas for five use and management types, under disturbed and undisturbed conditions, at 0–20 cm depth. Physical and chemical attributes were analyzed, comparing the effects of types of land use. Data analysis showed that more affected attributes were soil density, macro and microporosity, phosphorus content, pH and electrical conductivity. Macroporosity, phosphorus, zinc and cooper contents are the greater threats to soil quality. Horticulture, under both agroecological and conventional production systems caused major changes compared to natural conditions.


Author(s):  
Constanza Gutiérrez-Gómez

Abstract The livestock sector faces an important challenge in the medium and long term since it must satisfy an increasing demand for animal products as a result of the increase in population and the world economy but safeguarding natural resources and at the same time minimizing the environmental contamination, especially the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributed to livestock husbandry. For Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), this becomes more relevant given the importance of the sector for the food security of rural communities, particularly for small-scale producers. In this manuscript, we address the main challenges of LAC in this context, from a global perspective that includes the demographic, economic, cultural, and environmental effects. The biggest global challenge for the LAC livestock sector for the coming decades is how to satisfy the growing human demand for animal protein in a sustainable way maintaining the food security of their communities. The efforts to achieve these goals require focusing on improving the efficiency of both animal husbandry and production systems. Therefore, it is necessary to implement technologies of sustainable intensification and it is urgent that those who make political decisions become aware of these issues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Smeets-Kristkova ◽  
Thom Achterbosch ◽  
Marijke Kuiper

Nigeria is one of the most dynamic economies in Africa. Strong GDP and population growth coupled with urbanization trends place tremendous pressures on natural resources and the food systems that are dependent on them. Understanding the impact of these “mega trends” is important to identify key leverage points for navigating towards improved nutrition and food security in Nigeria. This paper contributes to the Foresight Project of the Food Systems for Healthier Diets which aims to analyse how the food system in Nigeria is expected to transform in the next decades, and to identify the leverage points for making sure that the transformation contributes to balanced consumer diets. For the food systems foresight, a well-established global economy-wide model, MAGNET, is applied that enables to capture the interlinkages among different food industry players in one consistent framework. By linking MAGNET to the GENUS nutritional database, it is further possible to relate the developments occurring on a macro-level with detailed macro and micronutrient consumption. Model projections suggest that a process of intensification of agriculture in combination with land substitution appears critical for the evolution of food and nutrition security, and for shifts towards healthy diets for the population. Intensification results in greater diversity of the production systems, which in turn cascades into positive effects on the diversity in the food supply and better food security outcomes.


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