In 2007/8 world food prices spiked and global economic crisis set in, leaving hundreds of millions of people unable to access adequate food. The international reaction was swift. In a bid for leadership, the 123 member countries of the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security (CFS) adopted a series of reforms with the aim of becoming the foremost international, inclusive and intergovernmental platform for food security. Central to the reform was the inclusion of participants (including civil society and the private sector) across all activities of the Committee. Drawing on data collected from policy documents, interviews and participant observation, this book examines the re-organization and functioning of a UN Committee that is coming to be known as a best practice in global governance. Framed by key challenges that plague global governance, the impact and implication of increased civil society engagement are examined by tracing policy negotiations within the CFS, in particular, policy roundtables on smallholder sensitive investment and food price volatility and negotiations on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, and the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition. The author shows that through their participation in the Committee, civil society actors are influencing policy outcomes. Yet analysis also reveals that the CFS is being undermined by other actors seeking to gain and maintain influence at the global level. By way of this analysis, this book provides empirically-informed insights into increased participation in global governance processes.

This book describes initiatives and concrete examples on sustainable food production worldwide. In the current world scenario, where nations all over the world are struggling to accomplish the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and to ensure sustainable patterns for all, this book provides a contribution towards a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of the cross-cutting issues related to Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. This interdisciplinary book supports the efforts to engage a commitment from all fields of science, to work together to provide knowledge that could help to address SDG2 (No hunger) and lead to the promotion of quality of life, by means of a more sustainable food production, and improved food security. This book is expected to fill the gap of publications in this field. It gives a special emphasis to a state-of-the-art descriptions of approaches, methods, initiatives and projects from universities, stakeholders, organizations and civil society across the world, regarding cross-cutting issues in sustainable food production. It includes examples of policies and practices case studies, examples of projects, institutional policies, innovative methods and tools and research outputs, which highlight the interdependence between sustainable agriculture and food security issues. It is expected that the “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security” will make the many benefits of sustainable food production clearer and, inter alia, lead to an increase in the emphasis provided to this central theme.

Sustainable Agriculture for Food Security: A Global Perspective takes an analytical approach to issues related to current agricultural practices. It looks at global geographical data and key statistical reports to aid readers in comparing, understanding, and making agricultural decisions. The book is divided into chapters with each dealing with a specific problem and its solutions, keeping in mind the context of geographical variations. The book first provides a historical overview of the socioeconomic importance of agriculture around the world along with a discussion on threats and opportunities in the agricultural sector. It goes on to explore the importance of water sources for agriculture, including rain-fed agriculture practices, water harvesting techniques, sustainable irrigation practices, and irrigation water management. Guidance on the usage of agrochemicals and solutions to their detrimental effects from non-standardized consumption is also addressed. The volume also includes a discussion on organic farming methods, certification standards, and key restrictions in crop production. Part 2 goes on to examine postharvest management practices used in different geographical areas along with analysis on the role of technology and obstacles in implementation. The commercialization of agriculture through food processing, branding, and retailing is reviewed along with suggestions on available marketing platforms and promotional aspects. It goes on to outline the situational analysis of food adulteration as well as norms and regulations of food security at the international level. Lastly, the concept of biofortification is explained along with methods and strategies of biofortified food production. The impact of biofortification over socioeconomic development of a specific country is also analyzed. Written for a wide audience, this volume is a thoughtful overview and analysis of the increasingly necessary topic of sustainable agriculture for food security and will be of interest to faculty and research scholars, working professionals, social activists, policymakers, farmers, and institutions and organizations involved in agricultural education, research, and development.

At the global level, international actors have repeatedly expressed their desire to end hunger and food insecurity. However, food insecurity has persisted. More analysis is hence needed on the link between continuously high levels of global food insecurity and the ever increasing flow of development aid. Global Food Security and Development Aid investigates the impact that development aid has had on food security in developing countries and includes international case studies on Peru, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam. It examines the effect of development aid in general and the impact of aid divided into different categories based on donor, mechanism and sector to which it is provided. In each examined relationship between aid and food security, particular attention is paid to the potentially intervening role played by the quality of national and/or local governance. The book makes policy recommendations, most importantly that donors should take greater care in considering which types of aid are suitable to which specific countries, localities, and development goals, and account for expected developments in the complex relationship between aid, food security, and governance. This book will be of considerable interest to students, researchers and policy-makers in the areas of development aid and food security.

This book analyzes potential yields of six major food crops - rice, wheat, maize, potato, soybean and rapeseed worldwide using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to study both China’s and global food security under climate change. Firstly, it reviews previous studies on potential yields of rice, wheat, maize, potato, soybean and rapeseed worldwide to provide a detailed information of studying on China’s and global food security based on the product’s supply and demand of these crops. Secondly, average and top (national) yields of rice, wheat, maize, potato, soybean and rapeseed since 1961 on global scale are employed to analyze their temporal and spatial variation trends and potential limits. Thirdly, the effects of global warming in climate change on both average and top yields of rice, wheat, maize, potato, soybean and rapeseed since 1961 at global level are analyzed using regression model, and their differences between average and top yields among these crops are identified and compared. Fourthly, the yields and per capita quantity of rice, wheat, maize, potato, soybean and rapeseed in major producer-countries and the world are analyzed to assess the situation and trend of international trade for the products of these crops, respectively. Fifthly, potential yields of rice, wheat, maize, potato, soybean and rapeseed worldwide by 2030 are projected using both trend-regressed models and ARIMA models to estimate the per capita quantity of these crops based on the projection of world population and assess the status of Chinese and global food security in that future. Finally, it provides policy implications and advice on food security for China and the world directing food production by 2030 under climate change.

This book brings together research on cooperative management from the agriculture and food sector. By examining issues from food-policy, trade and environmental perspectives and presenting both methodological and empirical work, it allows readers to develop a deeper understanding of collective management processes and cooperative initiatives, and provides a theoretical background for promoting research in the various sectors in which market communities operate. On a more global level the offers insights into how to building powerful tools for decision making, particularly at a time when agriculture and the economy alike are affected by a volatile political, social and economical environment and are forced to undergo major structural changes.

Despite great global effort, events of the early 21st century clearly demonstrate that food remains a pressing challenge which has significant implications for security. This book provides a detailed and comprehensive introduction to the major issues impacting global food security today.

Increasing world population, unpredictable climate and various kind of biotic and abiotic stresses necessitate the sustainable increase in crop production through developing improved cultivars possessing enhanced genetic resilience against all odds. An exploration of these challenges and near possible solution to improve yield is addressed in this book. It comprehensively and coherently reviews the application of various aspect of rapidly growing omics technology including genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics for crop development. It provides detailed examination of how omics can help crop science and introduces the benefits of using these technologies to enhance crop production, resistance and other values. It also provides platform to ponder upon the integrative approach of omics to deal with complex biological problems. The book highlights crop improvement such as yield enhancement, biotic and abiotic resistance, genetic modification, bioremediation, food security etc. It explores how the different omics technology independently and collectively would be used to improve the quantitative and qualitative traits of crop plants. The book is useful for graduate and post-graduate students of life science including researchers who are keen to know about the application of omics technologies in the different area of plant science. This book is also an asset to the modern plant breeders, and agriculture biotechnologist.

Food security will exist when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (as stated in the Rome Declaration in 1996). Given the dimension of the current global food crisis, food security means adopting effective and specific actions at individual, household, national, regional and global levels. Food security invites us to reflect upon ethical principles like human equity, justice between current and future generations, respect for human dignity and sustainable food production. We strive to maintain our basic ethical convictions and engage in societal debates about other important values. While we do this, we may have to change our ways of life and learn to create new priorities in the face of global responsibility. Science and technology are key tools to reach the Millenium Goals, providing both society and decision makers alike with relevant information and new options within an ethical framework. The contributions found in this publication bring together the perspectives of a diverse group of authors. Coming from the academic world, the public sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), they provide the latest views on ‘Global food security: ethical and legal challenges’.

Section I. Food security and economic development - how science is applied to solve problems of poverty, drought and famine. 1. Key to third world prosperity / Swaminathan, M.S. 2. Changing nature of the food security challenge : implications for agricultural research and policy / Swaminathan, M.S. 3. Bridging the nutritional divide - building community centred nutrition security systems / Swaminathan, M.S. 4. Africa's rainbow revolution / Swaminathan, M.S. 5. Hunger in Africa : the link between unhealthy people and unhealthy soils / Sanchez Pedro, A. and Swarninathan, M.S. 6. Cutting world hunger in half / Sanchez Pedro, A. and Swaminathan, M.S. 7. Can science and technology feed the world in 2025? / Swarninathan, M.S. 8. Effects of climate change on food production / Parry, Martin L. and Swaminathan, M.S. 9. Sustainable food security in Africa : lessons from India's green revolution / Swaminathan, M.S. 10. Sustainable food and water security / Swaminathan, M.S. -- Section II. Science and food security - how science is used to generate efficient and optimal agricultural outputs. 11. Science and sustainable food security / Swaminathan, M.S. 12. Indian agriculture at the crossroads / Swaminathan, M.S. 13. Magnitude of hybrid vigor retained in double haploid lines of some heterotic rice hybrids / Bui Ba Bong and Swaminathan, M.S. 14. Development of monosomic series in an Indian wheat and isolation of a nullisomic lines / Swaminathan, M.S. [und weitere]. 15. Consanguineous marriages and the genetic load due to lethal genes in Kerala / Kumar, S., Pai, R.A. and Swaminathan, M.S. 16. The experimental manipulation of genes / Swaminathan, M.S. 17. Nature of polyploidy in some 48-chromosome species of the section Tuberarium Genus Solanum / Swaminathan, M.S. 18. Overcoming cross-incompatibility among some Mexican diploid species of solanum / Swaminathan, M.S. 19. Polyploidy and radiosensitivity / Swaminathan, M.S. and Natarajan, A.T. 20. Disomic and tetrosomic inheritance in a Solanum hybrid / Swaminathan, M.S. 21. The green revolution in Indian agriculture from an environmentally sound technology point of view / Swaminathan, M.S. 22. Science and shaping our agricultural future / Swaminathan, M.S. -- Section III. Food security and ecological balance - how the gains of green revolution are impacted by climate change, how science will be helpful in ensuring sustainable food security, green revolution to ever-green revolution - a roadmap. 23. An evergreen revolution / Swaminathan, M.S. 24. Agriculture and food systems / Swaminathan, M.S. 25. Managing extreme natural disasters in coastal areas / Kesavan, P.C. and Swaminathan M.S. 26. Ecological security - a prerequisite for food and livelihood security / Swaminathan, M.S. 27. Genetic conservation : microbes to Man. Presidential addres / Swaminathan, M.S. 28. Monsoon management in an era of climate change