Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

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    • Dear all,

      Honey is a pretty amazing substance and there is a lot more to it than just a sweet tasting treat. Honey plays a crucial role in the life of a honey bee and can also be very beneficial to the human body.

      Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution with approximately 17.1 percent water. Fructose is the predominant sugar at 38.5 percent, followed by glucose at 31 percent. Disac- charides, trisac -charides and oligosaccharides are present in much smaller quantities. Besides carbohydrates, honey contains small amounts of protein, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Honey is known to be rich in both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, including catalase, ascorbic acid, flavonoids and alkaloids. Although appearing only in trace amounts honey also contains about 18 different amino acids. Honey is much more than just a simple sugar. Rich in minerals and nutrients, honey also has some antibiotic properties that may aid in the healing process. For thousands of years honey has been used by mankind in many capacities to help give the human body energy and health.

      Honey as the most widespread bee product is listed in medicine among the most valuable foodstuffs, especially because of its sugar content and other ingredients, such as enzymes, etheric oils and mineral salts. During convalescence after serious diseases and operations, doctors give their patients a 20-40% specially processed, sterilized honey dilution, which is showing great results.

      In the Batchenga community, Centre region of Cameroon, there are about 28 farmers practice bee farming which is promoted by “Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement” (CED) Cameroon. In this community, honey serves as a major source of income for the farmers and they confirm that bee farming provides them with about twice their initial yearly income as crop farmers.

      However, bee farming is hindered because of the use of pesticides which greatly reduce the population of bees. A research, published in Nature scientific report  on Thursday, combined large-scale pesticide usage and yield observations from oilseed rape with data on honeybee loses between 2000 and 2010.

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    • Hi guys, I think there is much we shouldn't leave out on this, because its one of the most important and striking part of the Sustainable Development which require a lot of attention.

      Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty: it is estimated that 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry people are women and girls; 20 percent are children under 5. Achieving gender equality remains crucial to reach the poverty and hunger goals of the Millennium Declaration (2009 WFP Gender Policy).

      Women and girls worldwide face many inequities and constraints, often embedded in norms and practices and encoded in legal provisions. Some laws, such as those governing access to land, include inequitable and exclusionary provisions, thus institutionalizing discrimination. Where such legislative measures are not in place, customary rules and practices often have restrictive consequences for women limiting their access to key resources such as land and credit, and affecting household food security and nutrition. Not only are women and girls affected directly, but members of their households and communities are also affected inter- and intra-generationally. To proceed, Women individually and collectively contribute to peace-building in many ways. Yet, their contributions are often overlooked because they take unconventional forms, occur outside formal peace processes, or are considered extensions of women’s existing gender roles. Conflict and its aftermath affect women’s lives and men’s lives in different ways. However, the women and men together play and inevitable role in food availability and consequently affordability through contributions at all levels like; the production level (agriculture), transportation and delivery level (commercialization of farm products) and at the preparation level to make raw food ready for immediate consumption.

      In a working visit, the Center for Communication and Sustainable Development for All (CECOSDA) visited a women agricultural group (Group Agric-Revolution) which executes projects in the domain of agriculture and serves as a strong pillar combating food security in Cameroon (pictures below).

      At the end, food security is a very important aspect in the realization of peace building in any Nation, be it developed, developing or underdeveloped. This can be seen in the 2008 world food crisis which greatly affected Cameroon; World food prices increased dramatically in 2007 and the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2008 creating a global crisis and causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. In Cameroon the rioting started on February 27 reportedly “paralyzed” the Cameroon capital of Yaounde, following four days of rioting in several western towns and in the wake of a taxi drivers’ strike from February 25-28 (Reuters, 2008).

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    • There is one thing I will like this forum to look into properly because I greatly believe that it is the most impacting aspect of food insecurity.

      • Smallholder, policies, climate change, food security and nutrition.
      • Smallholders and small family scale farmers play an important role in the availability and affordability of food.
      • They are the most affected in food crisis problems arising from climate change and other influences not related to climate change.
      • In the case of malnutrition, 80% of their children suffer more.
      • The efforts put in place by the state and other international organizations hardly have a direct positive impact on their livelihood and activities.

      Live example of food security threat due to climate change: In the Bangem, Kupe-Muanenguba Division of the South West Region of Cameroon, and in about 9 of 10 regions of Cameroon, Cocoyams belonging to the genus Colocasia (locally known as “Ibo coacoa”) suffered a serious blight in 2008. This disease emergence was favoured by rainy overcast weather with low night temperatures; disease spread primarily by splashing rain water.

      This specie of cocoyam which was main source of most of Cameroonian delicacies got extinct and has recently been discovered in a village at the foot of the Muanenguba twin lakes (Poala) in a very small quantity. All efforts to make it grow in other areas again have been abortive as a result of climate change.

      The local population are facing serious food crisis, change in the consumption pattern and most individuals who depended on this product are now left with the option of buying food and trying to cope with other means.

      Thus there is still more to be done in this aspect, probably by involving local based organizations that can identify and work with these communities. The approach this time should begin from the grassroots and I believe it will yield more fruits.

    • Dynamic interactions between and within the bio-geophysical and human environments lead to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, resulting in food systems that underpin food security. Food systems encompass food availability (production, distribution and exchange), food access (affordability, allocation and preference) and food utilization (nutritional and societal values and safety), so that food security is, therefore, diminished when food systems are stressed. Such stresses may be induced by a range of factors in addition to climate change and may be particularly severe when these factors act in combination.

      Kowack Alphonse is a large scale farmer in Johanesbul, an outskirt of the Yaounde city of Cameroon and tells a story of the changes he has experience in his profession during a working visit by the CECOSDA. For the past 18 years of his profession, he has been practicing the mixed farming system and he produces crops like maize, beans, groundnuts, cocoyam, cassava, plantains, and vegetables like spiny pigweed, a specie called Amaranth spinosus (locally known as “Fullong”). As a result of climatic variations, Kowack explains that he has experience a remarkable reduction in yield with an estimated decrease from about 25 bags/harvest (in the early 2000s) to less than 10 bags/harvest (from the last harvest of March 2015) bags of maize, and other products suffer the same problem; his farms have experienced a drastic increase in infections from food and waterborne bacteria, viruses, parasites and bio toxins. Also, direct effect of climatic changes on crops like changes in rainfall patterns leading to drought, warmer temperatures has led to changes in the length of growing season and the loss of certain plant species that can no longer yield well with the present climatic conditions in the Centre region of Cameroon like cucumber.

      Despite the decrease in productivity, the demand for food increases constantly. The consequence of this is an increase in the prices of food which influences the availability and affordability of food; a great threat to food security. Food prices are a key indicator of the effects of climate change on agriculture and, even more importantly, on food affordability and security. Food prices increase for all staple crops because climate change acts as an additional stressor on the already tightening price outlook. Under climate change, maize, rice, and wheat prices in 2050 are projected to be 4, 7, and 15 percent higher than under the historic climate scenario (a geometric progression).

      Climate change thus will increase the number of malnourished children in both 2030 and 2050. Without climate change, child malnutrition levels in Cameroon and the Central Africa in general are projected to decline from 28 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2030 and 19 percent in 2050. Under climate change, child malnutrition which increased by an additional 0.5 million children in 2010, would be higher by 1 million children in 2030, and would still be higher by 0.6 million children by 2050. Changes in agricultural trade flows as a result of climate change are driven by changes in the local biophysical and socio-economic environment, as well as a wide-ranging set of local, regional, national, and international trade policies.

       

    • >> РУССКАЯ ВЕРСИЯ НИЖЕ <<

      Food security is a major concern, especially for developing countries where a large percentage of the population lives in rural areas and the agricultural sector represents a substantial weight in the economy.

      During CECOSDA field work, we met Clarckson CHE, a student in the Bamenda Teachers Training College (ENS Bambili) who has been growing food crops like maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, plantains, Irish potatoes, and beans with her mother since 1980 as 6 years old boy. He sells the food stuff in the Nkwen local market to make a living, raise income for tuition fees in school and for household use. They depend entirely on their farming product as a source of income and food for home consumption.

      Clarckson explains that they have experienced a huge increase in their sales between 2001 to present 2015 and most of their food crops are sold to middlemen who transport them to other neighbouring countries like Congo, Gabon, DR Congo, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. This is because they sell at very high prices considering the fact that the food stuff are more expensive in these countries, as such the prices of food in the local market increases. Dried cassava starch (locally known as Garri) was sold at the  cost of 12 cups for 200 frs CFA in 2002, but it  is now sold at of 1 cup for 50 frs CFA making 4 cups for 200 frs and sometimes 3 cups for 200 frs CFA. Some of these businessmen and women do not just buy the farm products from farmers but they go as far as buying an entire farm which is almost ready for harvest at an agreed price with the farmer; at time leaving the farmers themselves to go hungry.

      Considering the fact that about 80 percent of farmers in Cameroon and the North West and Northern Regions in particular prefer trading their farm product to exporters for money, most families now go hungry which was not the case many years back. An average home can barely afford enough food to feed a family due to trade and export at higher prices.

      Thus owing to FAO definition of food security, and with specific to regions; it is clear that trade has increased and it is gradually increasing the level of food insecurity in Cameroon generally and these areas in particular.

      Продовольственная безопасность является серьезной проблемой, особенно для развивающихся стран, где большой процент населения проживает в сельской местности, а сельское хозяйство имеет существенный вес для экономики.

      Во время работы CECOSDA на местах, мы познакомились с Кларксоном, студентом Bamenda Teachers Training College, который с 1980 года, будучи еще шестилетним мальчиком, вместе с матерью занимался выращиванием пищевых культур, таких как кукуруза, маниока, сладкий картофель, бананы, картофель. Он зарабатывает на жизнь, а также на оплату за обучение и на домашние нужды, продажей продуктов на местном рынке Нквен (Nkwen). Эта семья полностью зависит от  собственной сельскохозяйственной продукции, которая является источником дохода, а также пищей для собственного потребления.

      Кларксон объясняет, что с 2001 по 2015 годы объем их продаж существенно увеличился, и что большинство выращиваемых ими культур продаются посредникам, которые занимаются их доставкой в другие соседние страны, такие как Конго, Габон, Демократическая республика Конго, Нигерия и Экваториальная Гвинея. Так происходит, потому что они продают по очень завышенной цене, учитывая тот факт, что продовольствие в этих странах является более дорогим, таким образом цены на местном рынке повышаются. Сушеный маниоковый крахмал (который местные жители называют “Garri”) продавался в 2002 году по цене 200 франков КФА за 12 чашек, а в настоящее время продается по цене 50 франков КФА за одну чашку, что означает 200 франков за 4 чашки, а, бывает, что и 200 франков КФА за 3 чашки. Некоторые из этих бизнесменов не ограничиваются лишь покупкой продукции у фермеров, а покупают целые фермы по согласованной с фермером цене, урожай на которых уже практически готов к сбору, тем самым, заставляя самих фермеров голодать.

      Учитывая тот факт, что около 80% фермеров в Камеруне и в северо-западном и северном регионах, в частности, предпочитают продавать свою фермерскую продукцию экспортерам ради большего заработка, большинство семей в наши дни голодают, чего раньше не бывало. Вследствие торговли и экспорта по завышенным ценам, среднестатистическое хозяйство едва может позволить себе достаточное количество продовольствия для того, чтобы прокормить семью.

      Таким образом, учитывая определение продовольственной безопасности ФАО, а также специфику регионов, становится ясно, что объемы торговли выросли, что постепенно увеличивает уровень отсутствия продовольственной безопасности в Камеруне,  в целом, и в указанных районах, в частности. 

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