المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

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    • ‘Beyond “temporal” resilience: results that withstand the test of time

      Communities, individuals and systems experience shocks/stressors at different levels and magnitude. Some of these shocks/stressors are sporadic and difficult to mitigate such as acts of God while others are progressive over time like the vagaries of climate change. These shocks/stressors may emanate from within the affected communities or systems and are considered easy to address as the causal factors are predetermined. However, there are factors outside the realm of the affected individuals, communities or systems that are often complex and unfamiliar. In the short term, the more complex a need and resultant intervention, the less resilient the beneficiary community. Put otherwise, it may take longer for the beneficiary community to become less vulnerable if their stressors are complex and the intervention even more complex. Regardless, the impact of an intervention on the beneficiaries will determine their resilience.

      Resilience is built over time. Long term interventions (programs) would be the best yard stick for measuring vulnerability levels. Nonetheless, there are other considerations in determining how resilient an individual, community or system is.

      1. The duration an intervention has stood relevant to its course. Resilience is fostered around sustained knowledge gathering and dissemination, empowerment and preparedness. Done over time, a community is able to overcome its shocks and bounce back faster and stronger.
      2. A resilient community should be innovative to the changing nature of the existing shocks be it climate change, global security, trade or disasters.
      3. A resilient community thrives amid shocks/stressors. It is one that is able to understand the nature of its shocks, predict occurrence, mitigate effects, and lead an almost normal life bearing in mind the presence of stressors.
      4. Resilience is best described by a community/system that is self-sustaining in the presence of shocks. Effectives systems are put in place to ensure minimum external help is required during pre and post occurrence of shocks.
      5. A resilient system is able to support weaker systems experiencing similar stressors through sharing success stories and support models.

      There is no minimum time frame in which a community, individual or system should remain resilient to be regarded as "resilient". Even the most stable and formidable entities buckle to shocks and stressors at some point. Constant reevaluation and strengthening of systems is the surest way of ensuring preparedness, mitigation of effects, fast recovery and bounce back. That is a lifelong endeavor.

    • There is need for research and advocacy on good agricultural practices geared towards sustainable agriculture. Pre-harvest conditions of food crops have direct impact on the nutritional and overall quality of harvested foods. Toxins accumulated in crops as a result of irrigation using water with high levels of salts like Chloride and Sodium manifest on leaves and fruits as burns and discolorations reducing expected yield and market value. Repeated irrigation results into leaching of minerals causing a pile up in the lower soils. With the increasing shortage of safe water for domestic use and agriculture globally coupled with the ever increasing urban population and poor sewage management especially in the developing countries, sewage water is being used for irrigation purposes Scott et al (2004). It is estimated by the IRC 2005 report “Wastewater irrigation: sewage waters a tenth of world’s crops“ that one tenth of world food is produced using sewage water. Heavy metals and bacteria absorbed by plants end up in plates with adverse health implications on the consumers.

      Farmers in the rural should be sensitized on the need for using mild chemicals by hazard as classified by the World Health Organization, with shorter pre harvest intervals and persistence for pest and disease control. An integrated approach in pest and disease management involving biological, mechanical and chemicals as the very last resort has proved to be workable and cost effective.

      Africa experiences huge postharvest losses caused by deterioration and rotting of fresh farm produces, which implies that the final product reaching the consumer is nutritionally flat. Temperature directly affects rate of respiration of the products and hence deterioration, rotting and reduced shelf life. In most developing countries it is difficult to talk about food nutrition before first addressing food shortage. A number of factors ranging from changing climatic variables, scarcity of resources and knowledge, insistence on traditional livelihoods to the expense of modern trends in agriculture among others factors have contributed to this phenomenon.

      Awareness campaigns on hygienic handling of foods at all levels of production is key in ensuring global food safety.

      Investment by stakeholders and governments in knowledge and infrastructure in cold chain management, waste water recycling, advocacy and adoption of resistant crop varieties to harsh climate, pests and diseases will guarantee food availability and enhanced nutrition at all times.

      References

      Scott, C. ; Faruqui, N.I. and Raschid, L. (eds) (2004). Wastewater use in irrigated agriculture: confronting the livelihood and environmental realities. Wallingford, UK: CAB International; Ottawa, Canada, IDRC; Colombo, Sri Lanka, IWMI. - 208 p. - ISBN 0851998232

      http://www.source.irc.nl/e_source_news/e_source/source_news_sections/fea...