Earlier this month, we examined the concept of food aid - exploring its role in developing countries and describing Canada's history of involvement. This issue of the Express concludes our two part series on food issues with a look at the broader concerns of food security. Past developments have not been in the right direction. Reversals have not been uncommon, and the overall economic crisis and related structural adjustments have created an unfavourable environment for agricultural policies.
Many commentators are more skeptical.
The situation is worst numerically in Asia. The green revolution and public distribution systems in the 1960s and 1970s allowed India, Pakistan and Indonesia to achieve cereal self-sufficiency but failed to take along all the rural poor. The food security situation has been deteriorating for a considerable period of time in Sub-Saharan Africa. These factors may be coupled with external influences such as deteriorating terms of trade. More than half the rural population lives in poverty and there have been few attempts to develop appropriate agricultural production technologies, marketing outlets and the like.