Proceeding of 2013 International Seminar on Climate Change and Food Security ISCCFS 2013
Palembang, South Sumatra -Indonesia, 24-25 October,2013
65 unemployed people, homeless people, and orphans; dependent populations e.g., elderly people, children
under five, and disabled and ill people; women of reproductive age; ethnic minorities; and low literacy households.
A household is considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Hunger is the bodys signal that it needs food. Once we have eaten enough food to satisfy our bodies needs,
hunger goes away until our stomachs are empty again. People who do not get enough food often experience hunger, and hunger can lead to malnutrition over the long term. But someone can become malnourished for
reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. Even people who have plenty to eat may be malnourished if they dont eat food that provides the right nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. Hunger is also an effect of
poverty and poverty is largely a political issue. Access to food and other resources is not a matter of availability, but rather of ability to pay. Poverty is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing,
shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment. The effects of poverty may also create a
poverty cycle operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global.
2.2. Millenium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals MDGs are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the worlds main development challenges. The first goal is related to the topic of this paper which is to
eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. MDGs will never be achieved unless there are strong efforts from all world population since there are many constraints hampering. They should be considered as challenges
instead of problems. These challenges can be divided into two basic categories: challenges related to the availability of food and challenges related to access to food.
2.2.1. Challenges related to the availability of food a.
Water shortage Water shortages are identified as a potential food security challenge. Water is a key determinant of
crop yields. Many countries are already facing significant water scarcity issues. Thus, rapid growth in water demand, coupled with escalating costs of development of new water sources, could be a serious threat to
future growth in food production, especially if it requires meeting household and industrial water demand through water savings from irrigated agriculture.
b. Climate
Another challenge is likely to be the climate. Food security and climate change are inextricably linked. The most immediate effects of climate change on food production will involve changes in
temperature, precipitation, length of the growing season, and changes in C0 2
concentration.
2.2.2. Challenges related to access to food
a. Purchasing power
When people do not have incomes, they cannot buy enough food. Undernourished people in many of Asia
‘s low-income countries have been attributed to insufficient purchasing power among the poorer segments of the population. Many poor countries do not grow enough food to be self-sufficient and given
their poverty, they are unable to import food to make up for the deficit. b. Children living in rural areas are nearly twice as likely to be underweight as children in urban areas
There are strong, direct relationships between agricultural productivity, hunger, and poverty. Three- quarters of the worlds poor live in rural areas and make their living from agriculture. Hunger and child
malnutrition are greater in these areas than in urban areas. Moreover, the higher the proportion of the rural population that obtains its income solely from subsistence farming without the benefit of pro-poor
technologies and access to markets, the higher the incidence of malnutrition. Therefore, improvements in agricultural productivity aimed at small-scale farmers will benefit the rural poor first.
c. Political instability and war are close to food insecurity
Food security and political stability are often linked, although the relationship is complicated and not necessarily direct or causal. However, evidence suggests that food security can be upset by a lack of
Proceeding of 2013 International Seminar on Climate Change and Food Security ISCCFS 2013
Palembang, South Sumatra -Indonesia, 24-25 October,2013
66 political or social stability. Similarly, the lack of food security resulting from a sudden jolt i.e. International
embargo, poor climate can lead to political instability. Food riots, when they occur, are often instigated by urban residents; poorer rural residents rarely have a political voice.
d. The Role of International Market Today, more than 95 countries in the world import more food than they produce. However, importing
countries must earn enough foreign exchange by selling non-food commodities, for instance to be able to buy this food. Many Southeast and East Asian countries have witnessed wild fluctuations in their currency
values, which have in turn affected their ability to purchase food on the international market. Another problem related to international markets is the issue of economic sanctions. Economic sanctions can
weaken importing countries
‘ faith in international markets as a food provider of last resort. This may, in turn, spur countries to pursue food self-sufficiency policies that are inefficient and counterproductive.
3. Discussion
