The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has identified Unsustainable use of land, water, and energy as challenges threatening food security of the poorest and most vulnerable around the world.
In its 2012 Global Hunger Index, "The Challenge of Hunger: Ensuring Sustainable Food Security under Land, Water and Energy Stresses," hunger on a global scale remained serious with 20 countries having levels of hunger that are "alarming" or "extremely alarming".
A statement issued on Thursday by Welthungerhilfe President Bärbel Dieckmann and copied the GNA, the IFPRI said two of the three countries with extremely alarming levels – Burundi and Eritrea are in Sub-Saharan African; the third country is Haiti, South Asia is the other region that continued to suffer from the highest levels of hunger.
The IFPRI explained that hunger was inextricably linked to growing pressure on land, water, and energy resources while growing scarcity and degradation of farmland, rapidly rising incomes, and changing consumption patterns had all contributed to an increasing number of international land investments or land deals.
It noted that many of those deals had targeted Sub-Saharan Africa, where land rent was lower, regulatory systems weaker, and levels of hunger higher. "Large-scale foreign investments in land should be closely monitored.
Local organizations are needed to secure transparency and the participation of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods are impacted by land deals,"
The IFPRI said water scarcity was exacerbated by climate change, especially in the severely water-stressed areas of the world, which were home to more than 2 billion people.
Flooding, drought, and environmental degradation all threaten agriculture in many parts of the world.
Similarly, rising global energy prices were a serious threat to food security, increasing demand for agricultural land and water for crop production which, in turn, raises food prices, the statement noted.
Higher energy prices also increase agricultural input costs, such as the cost of fertilizer and groundwater pumping and machinery, putting further pressure on prices.
Mr. Tom Arnold, Concern Worldwide’s Chief Executive Officer, said agricultural production must increase substantially to meet the demands of a growing and increasingly wealthy population. .
"Yet to avoid more stress on land, water, and energy resources, and to ensure that all have access to adequate food, that production must be sustainable and must prioritize the poor."
He said food security was threatened by governments' focus on short-term economic gains; uncoordinated land, water, and energy policies; and lack of political willingness and action to design policies that increase efficiency and reduce waste of natural resources while protecting the poor.
The Index made clear recommendations to improve food security under growing land, water, and energy stresses and called for secure land and water rights; support the newly adopted Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests.
It also suggested phasing out inefficient subsidies for water, energy, and fertilizers, in particular biofuel mandates in Europe and the United States, and encourage market solutions that promote efficient use of natural resources.
The index further recommended the scale up of technical solutions, particularly those that conserve natural resources, and foster more efficient and effective use of land, energy, and water from farm to plate.
Pragmatic measures must also be adopted to tame the primary drivers of natural resource scarcity, by, for example, addressing demographic change through giving women access to education and reproductive health services; raising incomes and lowering inequalities; and mitigating and adapting to climate change through agriculture.
The index explained that long-term availability of natural resources was crucial for food security and human well-being.
The IFPRI Deputy Division Director Claudia Ringler said if local, national, and international natural resource policies focus on sustainable, long-term gains, if policies were coordinated and tradeoffs among land, water, and energy policies were minimized, global food security would be strengthened while preventing resource depletion.
"Such a shift to sustainable food security would benefit billions of people today and many more in future decades."