Kelvin m. Wanjiru

Impact of poverty on global food security and the potential technological solutions Food security is a situation in which all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which complies with the dietary needs and food preferences to realize an active and healthy life. Food security is usually framed in four major dimensions; Food availability Food Access Food Stability Food Utilisation and Consumption People residing in rural areas and slums are the most exposed to food insecurity crisis owing to food access and financial constraints. Among these casualties are some small holder farmers and mostly pastoralists who live in the arid and semi-arid areas. In most families, the farms are very small to be able to cover the homestead and a farming plot. Most of them don’t exceed a maximum of 0.5 hectares. Poverty has a direct link to food security in a negative manner to most countries across the globe, Kenya not an exclusion. Poverty exhibits the global challenge of food insecurity since there are more poor people than rich people in the economic structure analysis of the world’s population in general. In Kenya, this facts have been displayed and proved in a vast manner. The United Nations (UN) have invested fortunes to try and curb this problem. They have introduced educational programs where their employees go round educating politicians, business people, children and famers to create a basic understanding of the problem the world has at hand, that is food insecurity. Now, people have no other option than to bet on science, technology and innovation hoping that they will yield possible solutions to this catastrophe which is spreading like a wild inferno. Among many suggested solutions, agriculture sector development strategy remains the main get away for many countries Kenya included. What is Food Insecurity and what role does population growth play in it When the people cannot have an ultimate physical, social and economic access to adequate, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs, then we can say that there is food insecurity. In Kenya for instance, the previous years beginning from the year 2008, the country has been facing severe food insecurity problems. This are depicted by high proportion of the population that cannot access food in the right amount neither in the right quality. Households are also incurring food huge food due to high prices. Official estimates indicates that over ten million people are food insecure with majority of them depending their lives on relief food. This relief food is either provided by the government of Kenya or other non-governmental organizations such as United Nations. Maize being the staple food due to food preferences is in short supply and most household have limited choices of other types of food either due to their shallow pockets or their culture. The current food insecurity is attributed to several factors that include; Frequent droughts, high cost of food production that comes by as a result of high cost of farm input especially fertilizers and farm machinery, Displacement of large number of people in the high potential agricultural areas following post-election violence which occurred in early-, High global food prices and low purchasing power of large population of the total population due to the high level of poverty. Population growth have a direct impact on the current food crisis around the entire world, Kenya not an exclusion. This is because it has very direct impacts on the growth in food demand as there are many stomachs to fill in a single homestead. Demand for food is projected to be double by the year 2030.Some of the women residing in the rural areas are still not using the provided family planning initiatives provided by the government, so as to attain a more controlled population growth. Twenty per cent of food demand increase is attributed to reckless population growth. Neither population growth nor food production are evenly distributed in the country. For example, the Total Fertility Rate(TFR) in Kenya in 2008 was 5.5 compared to the world average of 2.7.Rural fertility rate is especially high compared to the urban, and is resulting to rapid population growth hence the high demand for food which is not able to match with the food production levels in the country. The relationship between food security and population growth is not limited to increase demand for food. Population growth can also have an impact of food supply and access. It has also been associated with land fragmentation all over the country which directly affects food production. What Special Factors interrupt the supply of food from the Source to the People In developing Countries? 1. Poor transport and communication network. The transport system in the country is not up to the standard to ensure a smooth flow of food from the farmers to the consumers, especially those living in the urban areas. There are only but a few all weather roads in Kenya which barely connects to the sources of food to the consumers. The few dry-weather roads can only function well during the dry season but during the rainy season, transportation becomes a total problem. The signal distribution round the country is not very efficient, considering that in some rural areas there is little or no signal. This is a bad sign because, traders cannot get to the farmers with ease. 2. High Taxation of farm products. The government is taxing the farm produce highly therefore forcing the rising of prices of these products in the market. This makes it a problem for people to buy the goods in the market and they end up getting bad helping no one. 3. Hoarding of farm produce. Some farmers holds their farm products until the season passes, waiting for market prices to rise and sell their products at a much higher price which the normal average person cannot afford. When the price rises, many common people in the country cannot afford to purchase the products and hence food insecurity. 4. Greed for money. Some; large scale farmers decide to export their products to international markets hoping to fetch a higher price than they would have in the local market. This denies their country the proper amount of produce it needs to sustain its population. What forms of Technology can be used to reduce and improve food security? Explain how the technological solutions would work. A number of technologies can play a role in addressing concerns related to the four dimensions of food security in Kenya. Current and new technologies to combat abiotic and biotic stresses, raise livestock and crop productivity, improve soil fertility and refrigeration, transport, and agro processing innovations, can address the dimensions of food accessibility. Science to produce high nutrient staple crops and index based insurance not forgetting early warning systems can address food instability. Examples of technological solutions. 1.lack of water availability can be solved by water storage technology(subsurface water technology),reservoirs, water tanks provided in many homes, ponds, aquifers ,canal irrigation ,micro-irrigation technologies, drip irrigation, bubbler micro sprinkler irrigation, water lifting hand-powered machines, fossil fuel powered pumps, solar powered irrigation systems, water desalination technologies, Water recycling, water pads, conservation agriculture and portable sensors for ground water detection. Kenya has a dry spell of approximately five months in a year and therefore ensuring there is enough water for crops during this season is essential for food security to be achieved. 2. Need of precise integration scheduling inputs of increased yield. This can be achieved by imaging and associated analytics drowns, internet of things and farm management software and applications. 3. Power and control intensive operations. Such as tractors, robotic technologies and animal drawn implements. 4. Post-harvest losses. To avoid this, the country has incorporated fruit preservation technologies, hexanal formulations, thermal battery powered milk chillers, Nano technologies, improved genetic varieties and grain drying, cool stores and low cost refrigerated vehicles. 5. Inability to predict when and how to firm. The solution is weather forecasting technologies, infrared sensors for detecting crop stress and hyperspectral imaging based on drowns and satellites. Conclusion To sum up, for a food secure country, the government needs to focus on the agriculture. The sector directly contributes to 24% of the GDP indirectly through linkages with manufacturing, distribution and other service related sectors. The sector is also the largest employer in the Kenyan economy accounting to 60% of total employment. Over 80% of the population especially living in rural areas derive their livelihood from agricultural related activities. Due to this reasons, the government should focus mainly on key points such as countries population, science and technology, promote innovation, poverty elimination and subsidise the cost of food production all over the country. The achievement of the National Food Security, is the key objective of the agricultural sector, and the government has to strive through thick and thin to achieve it despite the unfavourable conditions that are present in the country.