Food security

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food security exists when people have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to lead active, healthy lives.

The eradication of hunger has long been an international objective which is expressed in the UN Millennium Development Goals and the new UN sustainable development goals. To achieve this goal, it is vital to attain food security, better nutrition and sustainable agriculture.

The right to food is also defined by the UN as a human right.

The situation today

In 2009, more than a billion people were estimated to be suffering from hunger and undernourishment. Despite the growth in world population, this number has fallen to below 800 million in 2015. The majority of undernourished people live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this region approximately one in four lacks adequate access to food.

Sub-Saharan Africa is also the only region globally where the number of people who are suffering from hunger is  increasing.

Explanations for inadequate access to food include high population  growth  and poor exploitation of agriculture and fisheries. Overall, the world produces enough food for the entire global population today. The fact that many suffer from lack of food is therefore not just a question of production. Social, economic and political factors also lead to an uneven distribution of resources.

In addition, FAO estimates that roughly 30 per cent of all food produced globally will never be consumed. In developing countries, this food loss primarily arises along the supply chain from food producer to consumer. It is attributable mostly to poor access to food markets for smallholder farmers and artisanal fishers.

What is food security?

FAO states that food security rests on four pillars: availability, access, utilization and stability.

• Availability refers to the supply of food. For farmers and fishers, availability depends on what they are able to harvest from land or sea. Availability for the urban population is more dependent on storage, transport and trade.
• Access refers in part to having the means to acquire food. Even though a country has good food availability, access to food may be unevenly distributed in the population.
• Utilization is partly linked to people’s ability to absorb the nutrition the body needs. This is dependent on a varied diet, health and food security.
• Stability entails having sufficient food over a period of time. Availability and access must be secured in changing environmental, political and economic circumstances.

Increased need for food

The world population is estimated to reach nine billion in 2050. According to the FAO, this requires a 60 per cent increase over the current level of food production. Such an increase will exert great pressure on food production systems globally.

The global resource base is already under pressure today due to climate change, overuse of water, degradation and pollution of agricultural land, overfishing and loss of biological diversity. As a result, demands for increased food production represent an enormous challenge in the years ahead.

Small-scale food producers can potentially increase agricultural and fisheries production through technological innovation and more optimal use of their investment resources. FAO has calculated that greater focus on women’s rights and framework conditions in agriculture would bring about a 30 per cent increased production in the case of women farmers.

Better access to markets for domestically produced food would increase income opportunities for poor farmers and artisanal fishers. At the same time, food waste can be reduced, and urban populations will get better access to food produced in their own country. Strengthening the role of private actors in the value chain for products from land and sea to the table will be important in this respect. 

Norwegian strategy

Norway targets food security within the agriculture and fisheries sectors. Business development and research are important aspects of Norwegian support.

In 2013, Norway launched the strategy Food Security in a Climate Perspective,   as a  policy framework for  the period from 2013−2015. The strategy emphasized the introduction of more climate-smart agriculture among smallholder farmers in developing countries, but also dealt with private sector development linked to agricultural production and fisheries, as well as measures to reduce food wastage. Gender was a cross-cutting theme.