Problem of food shortage

Evaluation of agricultural strategies against food crisis

One of the major problems in recent years which is really controversial among countries in the world
is the problem of facing food shortage especially in developing countries. This problem is due to
some main reasons: high food prices, scarcity of food. These reasons which are mentioned have
some serious effects on people health and life. For example different kinds of diseases or
malnutrition are really significant because of lack of food. Generally governors name this critical
situation food crisis. Different countries after some discussions decided to find a practical and real
solution to rescue their people. There are some common strategies such as money charity, food aid,
using new technologies in agriculture or usage of Genetically modified food which is a new
technology which can cause producing better and more food. In this essay we are discussing about
agricultural solutions related to the problem of food crisis and the evaluation of this method in some
developing countries. Agricultural improvement has some parts to discuss, for instance irrigation
methods and using fertilizers technology, but we are focusing on the effect of fertilizers. ( George
Charles Lowrison, 1989)


In general Fertilizers are compounds which are giving to plants to improve their growth and crops
quality. Some of them can be absorbed by the root of the plants and the others can be sprayed.
These components can be divided in two main groups organic and chemical (Inorganic) compounds.
For instance the manure of animals is the good examples of organic fertilizers and Nitrogen,
Phosphorus or Potassium compounds are inorganic chemicals. Some of them are soluble and some
of them are insoluble. Most fertilizers which are soluble in water can be solved in soil water and
absorb by the root of the plant. In this process fertilizer is not the only factor for growth, the plant
needs sunlight, water, soil and different gases from the earth to start a process that Biologist name it
growth and because of that the plant will grow. Growth is a general word but, scientist defines
growth as a multiplication and also increasing the plant cell size. (Lagried, Bockman andKaarstad,
1999)
During the last two decades some countries face some natural disasters such as drought, flood or
sudden climate change which are causing many problems in agriculture area. Because of climate
change some crops which needed specific situation to grow could not grow, therefore a huge
decrease in the amount of crops were seen. And also flood due to climate change caused destroying
many farms which were under cultivation. Due to this problems it can be seen a significant food
shortage. As a result some governments decided to find new strategies in terms of agriculture. The
agriculture improvement has its own categories in response of food crisis. Different arguments have
been presented in the recent years. Using fertilizers and methods of irrigation or preserving soil from
erosion are some main methods. Gary Toenniessen, director of food security at the Rockefeller
Foundation believes that using fertilizer can affect the amount of nutrients in soil, therefore the
amount of crops will increase significantly especially in dry regions.(Gray Toennessen,Accessed
date: Dec 2009) The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements released a report
and argued against chemical fertilizers on the grounds that they can have bad effect on ecological
cycles and creating a dependence on chemicals.. Agricultural experts and many policy makers had
an argument about using fertilizers and its effect on the amount of food. Based on their arguments
they believe that using fertilizers in African countries will decrease famine among them. According to
Bill Doyle, the CEO of Saskatchewan-based Potash Corp, using fertilizers for increasing yields
against food crisis could be really useful. He emphasized that using the combination of three main
fertilizers which are potassium, Nitrogen and Phosphorus can boost the crop yield by as much as
60%. Because of preventing people from famine the world can not feed hungry people without the
application of fertilizers in their farms. He believes the world must increase the speed of using these
substances to feed about eighty million people around the world. Although overuse of fertilizers has
some environmental damages. For instance some serious problems will occur in ground water and it
will pollute the rivers. The other effects which the fertilizer can have are in decreasing the soil water
therefore it causes scarcity of water to irrigate the farms. (Doyle, 2009). Dr Norman Borlaug who is
an agriculturalist and the winner of Nobel Pease prize has some ideas about using fertilizers in the
recent years. As far as doctor Norman Borlaug concerned hunger often go hand-in-hand. He thinks
one of the sufficient compounds which is really important against this crisis is fertilizer. It can have a
dramatic increase in the amount of crops. In each year the world population grows by eighty million,
therefore the number of consumers will increase. As a result these people need food and crops to
live individually. Currently the usage of grains is really low. In the last decade the usage of seeds
has grown among people and its not really easy to provide enough food for people.Dr Norman ((If
the farmers stopped growing food today, we would only have enough grains in the world's storage
bins to feed the world's population for 58 days)). (Dr Norman, 2008) The arguments of this expert
person shows feeding 6.6 billion people are really hard and it seems a good idea to use these
chemicals.
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In recent years fertilizers are responsible for between forty and sixty percent of food production.
These substances improve our soils in each harvest and it causes a kind of promotion in quality and
quantity of food. Because of using the elements in the soil the amount of necessary compounds in
the soil will decrease each year, therefore fertilizers are supplying the sufficient nutrients in soil to
increase the amount and quality of the crops. Based on research in United Nation Food and
Agricultural Organization (FAO) agricultural products will be sixty percent higher in the year 2030 in
comparison to the current year. The agricultural data over the past fifty years shows that the total
world grain production such as corn,oats,wheat and rice increase 0.905 billion metric tons in the year
1965 to 2.091 billion metric tons in 2007. This dramatic increase in world grain production is because
of 122 percent increase in crop yield.
One of the countries that have a project against its food crisis is Kenya. It is situated in east Africa
and situated near Indian ocean. This country is the forty seventh largest country in the world with the
population of about 38 million people. (Source: World Bank).Unfortunately this country face many
problems in the recent years, but one of the major problems is the food shortage. Many projects
have been started against this problem; however researching about agricultural strategies is really
significant. One of the projects which was started in January 2003 and still is on going is fertilizers
supply as a cure for famine. The agriculturalist in this country use a kind of chemical fertilizers
namely Mavuno.. A period of five year drought cause a serious famine for decades. members of
cooperating farmer groups in Trans-Nzioia district have increased their maize yields from 8 to 22
bags per acre. In Embu and Kirinyaga districts, farmers harvested more yields it reached from 5 to
20 bags per acre. Approximately 10 bags on average are required to achieve household food
security. This project has illustrated that demand for new improved fertilizers the provision of small
bags of fertilizers and seeds enabled even the poorest farmers to achieve incremental gains in food
and income over a few seasons. Many farmers purchasing 1kg bags quickly graduate to larger
amounts. As a result fertilizer supply in this country would be really useful against food crisis. One of
the developing countries in Africa continent is Ethiopia. This country is situated in northwest of Africa
with the population of 78 million. The staple food in Ethiopia are oil seeds and cereals. People are
suffering from famine and there is no proportion between the food demand and supply.
Consequently these people are suffering from malnutrition and many diseases. In the year 2002
environmental policy of Ethiopia made some rules to protect the environment and also increase the
amount of food in this region. They used chemical fertilizers in smallholder agriculture had a great
effect on the quality and quantity of food. After this experience they tried these chemicals in larger
farms and again they reached to the same results in their crops especially Cotton. Because of
starvation problem in Ethiopia a Tigray project started in 1996 to fight this disaster and rescue their
people. The project showed an increase in the amount of yields after some years. One of the crops
which had a good result after fertilizer treatment was pea. In general fertilizers have a major role in
better and more crops in this country.
As discussed in the previous paragraphs, it seems starvation is one of the critical situations in the
current world and this problem lead people to become ill and malnutrient. Consequently scientists,
agriculturalist, and governments decided to find a long term solution to increase their yields. Finally
after some experiences and arguments they reached to the common idea about using specific
compounds which are fertilizers to increase the food to feed their people and rescue them. Generally
fertilizers can greatly increase productivity in the current century. After some researches about this
project I believe in this idea that using these types of chemicals would be greatly effective on food
production and it could be a reasonable solution against famine disaster in developing countries.