Supporting the Policy Enabling Environment for Development
USAID SPEED
News
What is Food Security?
The term “food security” is being widely used in Mozambique. I have heard it in many recent seminars, conferences and discussions about agriculture and agribusiness. However “Segurança Alimentar” seems to have entered the national vocabulary as a jargon word, often used but little understood. It is very important that the concept of food security is clearly understood because otherwise decisions will be made based on several misconceptions which could ultimately affect agricultural development in the country.
The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) “food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences”. Food security is therefore based on[1]:
- Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis.
- Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.
- Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation.
Food security is related to health (nutrition) as well as issues around sustainable economic development, environment, and trade.
Food security is therefore NOT about individual families growing enough to eat for themselves. Families living in cities and having no access to land on which to grow crops can be food secure. Families living in rural areas which only grow one edible crop, such as maize, are NOT food secure, even if they grow enough maize to feed their family.
Food security is NOT about individual countries producing enough to feed their own populations – for example countries like Hong King and Singapore are food secure but hardly grow any food.
Food security IS about people having enough food available all the time, and there being enough variety of food available for them to eat a nutritionally balanced diet. This food can come from their fields but it can also come from shops. The food can come from within the country or it can be imported. Many countries produce an excess of one type of food which they then export and import other varieties of food that they cannot produce. Some countries produce little or no food, and import everything their people need to have a balanced diet. Many families produce no food and purchase the food they need, which is either grown locally or imported.
Therefore when we talk about Mozambique’s food security we are not talking about the ability of each family to grow enough maize or cassava for their own needs. We are not talking about the capacity of each province or district to produce enough of a handful of crops to feed the people in that province or district. We are talking about the ability of every person in the country to access (by growing or buying) enough of, and enough of a variety of, food to fulfil their basic nutritional needs. For the country to be food secure everyone in the country must have access to enough, nutritional, food at all times.
Therefore Mozambique’s food security does not only depend on increased production of existing crops. It depends on equitable, inclusive economic growth so that everyone can afford to buy the types of food they need but cannot produce. Economic growth implies access to markets so farmers can sell their surplus and buy other types of food. It also implies access to employment so that people have cash income to spend on food. Food security also depends on trade which allows the export of surplus and the import of items that cannot be produced locally. Any barrier to economic growth, employment or trade reduces the likelihood of achieving food security.