Climate change, agribusiness and global food security consolidation

Food is among the three basic needs of man, and it is very essential for human survival. This has been scientifically proven, for every person to understand and accept, through academic studies on food’s biochemical processes. Studies have shown that food is the source of man’s energy, and that this very energy produced in a living human’s system, is what gives him strength through the amount of energy consumed for the purpose of doing all manners of works in man’s life (supporting the fact in the definition of energy that “energy is the ability to do work”). Food could therefore be regarded, (with substantial certainty), as the most essential factor for man to exist on the face of the earth, hence the need for agribusiness and food security. Food security in essence is known to be the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable and nutritious food. It is defined at the 1996 World Food Summit thus, “when all people, at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

There are also a few dimensions that are necessary to be followed in understanding food security, alongside having a detailed scholarly grasp of its full meaning. To realise the objectives of food security, certain dimensions need to be fulfilled simultaneously; bearing in mind that food security is all about its physical reach, which is generally determined thus; the level of food production, storage levels and net supply balance. Another dimension is its affordability for households based on incomes and costs of food being purchased at the market (this bothers on economic and physical access for adequate food supplies). Another dimension in particular, is about food’s nutritional value (nutrients in the food) and its biological utilisation when consumed; which significantly involves the diversity of the diet, food preparation with its dishing out rate at homes. All of these indicate whether sufficient energy and nutrient intake for good care are gotten from the particular feeding practices. A stable nutritional status needs to be kept over a specified reasonable period. Its consistency involves adequate food intake; which might be unfavourably impacted by adverse weather conditions, political instability, or some other economic factors like rising food prices and unemployment.

The climate change mitigation and adaptation measures point in the direction of finding lasting solutions to damages done against the efforts of all established agribusinesses (with the losses incurred at such periods) in different parts of the globe. The sort-after consolidation on such discrete agribusinesses, from the remnants of their recovered farm produces at the end of any natural disaster that occurred, involves engaging a unified group of full time farmers that speak with one voice, for compensatory grants and other kinds of financial support from the wealthy nations; which could be regarded as an innovative way of adapting the hurting agribusiness (majorly found in Africa), to remain afloat and maintain a sustainable operation, while the impact lasts. In a place like the African continent, the smaller units of full time professional farmers or small holder farmers operating in various local communities should be encouraged by the governments by bringing them together under the same operational umbrella (the likes of cooperative society) and corporately back them up in various groups, with very efficient, climate-compliant agricultural mechanised farming equipment and machinery (for a minimal service fee, or even free of charge by the Ministry of Agriculture) that would significantly increase yields at harvest times, to manifest efficiency whenever it is compared with their insignificantly respective inputs for the farming season under review.

If the above suggested template is applicable and implemented in the present Nigeria’s economic situation by the ruling government, there is every likelihood that the economy would be impacted positively from the efforts and contributions of the agric sub-sector. Not that alone, but prices and the cost of food commodities could be significantly improved (reduced downwards) due to an obvious excess availability of harvested food items in every market. This will practically be a mark of food security.

However, this template may not be feasible if the security situation in the country is not improved. The lives of these local farmers must be protected and secured first, before they can be free to operate in their farms. The national economic efficiency or the gross domestic product (GDP)/productivity, can always be positively impacted  by the agric sub-sector of the economy, once an innovatively remodelled farming strategy that favours the vulnerable, poor farmers in their respective local operational farm lands, is effectively administered and implemented.

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