scholarly journals Complicating food security: Definitions, discourses, commitments

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 117 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Ramp
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Security Research ◽  
Research And Policy

Food security is now commonly seen as one of the defining global issues of the century, intertwined with population and consumption shifts, climate change, environmental degradation, water scarcity, and the geopolitics attending globalization. Some analysts suggest that food security threats are so urgent that philosophical scruples must be set aside in order to concentrate all resources on developing and implementing radical strategies to avert a looming civilizational crisis. This article suggests that definitions of food security invoke commitments and have consequences, and that continued critical and conceptual attention to the language employed in food security research and policy is warranted.

scholarly journals Application of a 1 km2 resolution model for climate change effects upon Benin and Nigeria vegetable agriculture

GEOMATICA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 93-106
Author(s):  
Colin Minielly ◽  
O. Clement Adebooye ◽  
P.B. Irenikatche Akponikpe ◽  
Durodoluwa J. Oyedele ◽  
Dirk de Boer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Amaranthus Cruentus ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Climate Change Effects

Climate change and food security are complex global issues that require multidisciplinary approaches to resolve. A nexus exists between both issues, especially in developing countries, but little prior research has successfully bridged the divide. Existing resolutions to climate change and food security are expensive and resource demanding. Climate modelling is at the forefront of climate change literature and development planning, whereas agronomy research is leading food security plans. The Benin Republic and Nigeria have grown and developed in recent years but may not have all the tools required to implement and sustain long-term food security in the face of climate change. The objective of this paper is to describe the development and outputs of a new model that bridges climate change and food security. Data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 5th Regional Assessment (IPCC AR5) were combined with a biodiversity database to develop the model to derive these outputs. The model was used to demonstrate what potential impacts climate change will have on the regional food security by incorporating agronomic data from four local underutilized indigenous vegetables (Amaranthus cruentus L., Solanum macrocarpon L., Telfairia occidentalis Hook f., and Ocimum gratissimum L.). The model shows that, by 2099, there is significant uncertainty within the optimal recommendations that originated from the MicroVeg project. This suggests that MicroVeg will not have long-term success for food security unless additional options (e.g., new field trials, shifts in vegetable grown) are considered, creating the need for need for more dissemination tools.

scholarly journals Mitigation efforts will not fully alleviate the increase in water scarcity occurrence probability in wheat-producing areas

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. eaau2406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Trnka ◽  
Song Feng ◽  
Mikhail A. Semenov ◽  
Jørgen E. Olesen ◽  
Kurt Christian Kersebaum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Representative Concentration Pathway ◽  
Occurrence Probability ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Change Mitigation

Global warming is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of severe water scarcity (SWS) events, which negatively affect rain-fed crops such as wheat, a key source of calories and protein for humans. Here, we develop a method to simultaneously quantify SWS over the world’s entire wheat-growing area and calculate the probabilities of multiple/sequential SWS events for baseline and future climates. Our projections show that, without climate change mitigation (representative concentration pathway 8.5), up to 60% of the current wheat-growing area will face simultaneous SWS events by the end of this century, compared to 15% today. Climate change stabilization in line with the Paris Agreement would substantially reduce the negative effects, but they would still double between 2041 and 2070 compared to current conditions. Future assessments of production shocks in food security should explicitly include the risk of severe, prolonged, and near-simultaneous droughts across key world wheat-producing areas.

scholarly journals Horticultural Agroforestry Systems Recommended for Climate Change Adaptation: A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Montes Colmenares ◽  
R. Castro Brindis ◽  
C. Villanueva Verduzco ◽  
M. Pérez Grajales ◽  
M. Uribe Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
High Input ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Forestry Sector ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

High input costs, environmental degradation and climate change have generated new challenges in the agriculture, horticulture and forestry sector. The objective of this paper is to identify the main horticultural agroforestry systems useful for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Agri-horticulture, Horti-olericulture, Silvi-olericulture, Horti-pasture, Horti/Silvo-medicinal, Horti/Silvo-ornamental, Horti-silviculture, Horti-entomoforestry and Horti-Pisciculture are horticultural agroforestry systems recommended. Agroforestry systems in comparison with monoculture systems, have better use of water, soil and light, can help reduce the application of herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, fertilizers, increasing food security, biodiversity protection and climatic change adaptation. We recommended national politics, subsidies, technical support and credits for global farmers.

scholarly journals How We Stopped Worrying about Cyber Doom and Started Collecting Data

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Valeriano ◽  
Ryan C. Maness
Keyword(s):  
Cyber Security ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Security Research ◽  
The Future ◽  
Cyber War ◽  
General Tone ◽  
Research And Policy

Moderate and measured takes on cyber security threats are swamped by the recent flood of research and policy positions in the cyber research field offering hyperbolic perspectives based on limited observations. This skewed perspective suggests constant cyber disasters that are confronting humanity constantly. The general tone of the debate argues that cyber war is already upon us and our future will only witness more cyber doom. However, these hyperbolic perspectives are being countered by empirical investigations that produce the opposite of what is to be expected. It is generally observed that limited cyber engagements throughout the geopolitical system are the dominant form of interaction. Our task here is to offer a different path forward. We first posit what can be known about cyber security interactions with data as well as what cannot. Where is the water’s edge in cyber security research? We then examine the known works in the field that utilize data and evidence to examine cyber security processes. Finally, we conclude with an offering of what types of studies need to be done in the future to move the field forward, away from the prognostication and generalizations so typical in the discourse in this constantly changing and growing field.

scholarly journals Science, Technology and Food Security: An Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Antoine Bernard De Raymond ◽  
Frédéric Goulet
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Security Research ◽  
The One ◽  
Analysis Of Knowledge ◽  
Global Food

After the 2008 food price crisis, food security once again became a priority on the international political agenda. This introduction to the special issue tackles the links between this reprioritisation of food security on the one hand, and science and technology on the other hand. First, this special issue introduces the new controversies emerging around food security. Trying to articulate food security with other global issues, actors involved into these debates have elaborated at least two new food security frames, global food security and food sustainability. Second, this issue highlights the role played by knowledge infrastructures in shaping debates on food security. The formal constraints of models or foresights tend to format our ability to assess and act upon food insecurity. A sociological analysis of knowledge infrastructures thus helps to democratise food policies. Third, technosciences are embedded in dense fields of meaning, moral values and contribute to the making of sociotechnical imaginaries. The articles in this issue show that food security research is not just about knowledge, but also about how life ought to be lived. Last, food security articulates science with politics and policies. In particular, the debates about technologies are complemented by disputes about the regulations that should encourage or oppositely restrict their implementation.

scholarly journals Future Irrigation Water Requirements of the Main Crops Cultivated in the Niger River Basin

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 439
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Oumarou Abdoulaye ◽  
Haishen Lu ◽  
Yonghua Zhu ◽  
Yousef Alhaj Hamoud
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Sugar Cane ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Niger River ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Precise agricultural predictions of climate change effects on crop water productivity are essential to ensure food security and alleviate water scarcity. In this regard, the present study provides an overview of the future impacts of climate change on the irrigation of agricultural products such as rice, millet, maize, cassava, sorghum, and sugar cane. These crops are some of the most-consumed foodstuffs in countries of the Niger River basin. This study is realized throughout 2020 to 2080, and three Global Climate Models (GCMs) (CSIRO, MIROC5, and ECHAM. MPI-ESM-LR) have been used. The GCMs data have been provided by the IPCC5 database. The irrigation water requirement for each crop was calculated using Smith’s CROPWAT approach. The Penman–Monteith equation recommended by the FAO was used to calculate the potential evapotranspiration. The inter-annual results of the IWR, according to the set of models selected, illustrate that the largest quantities of water used for irrigation are generally observed between January and March, and the lowest quantities are the most often seen between July and September. The majority of models also illustrate a peak in the IWR between March and April. Sorghum and millet are the crops consuming the least amount of water for irrigation; followed by cassava, then rice and corn, and finally sugar cane. The most significant IWRs, which have been predicted, will be between 16.3 mm/day (MIROC5 model, RCP 4.5) and 45.9 mm/day (CSIRO model, RCP 4.5), particularly in Mali, Niger, Algeria, and rarely in Burkina-Faso (CSIRO model, RCP4.5 and 8.5). The lowest IWRs predicted by the models will be from 1.29 mm/day (MIROC5 model, RCP 4.5) to 33.4 mm/day (CSIRO model, RCP 4.5); they will be observed according to the models in Guinea, southern Mali, Ivory Coast, center and southern Nigeria, and Cameroon. However, models predict sugarcane to be the plant with the highest IWR, between 0.25 mm/day (Benin in 2020–2040) and 25.66 mm/day (Chad in 2060–2080). According to the models’ predictions, millet is the crop with the most IWR, between 0.20 mm/day (Benin from 2020 to 2060) and 19.37 mm/day (Chad in 2060–2080). With the results of this study, the countries belonging to the Niger River basin can put in place robust policies in the water resources and agriculture sectors, thus ensuring food security and high-quality production of staple crops, and avoiding water scarcity while facing the negative impacts of climate change.

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