The War we Are Not Fighting, but More Dangerous than Nuclear Weapons'.

             
 Amal Hussain, a 7 Year-old Yemeni girl died this week. She simply suffered from dire consequences of malnutrition. There is a war that the world stopped or ignored fighting, but it is actually as killing as the one of guns and bombs_ Hunger.

           One may ask himself about the reasons hunger has been globalized to almost all the continents. The answer has to incorporate elements like poverty, war, political instability, climate change,... These and some other potential causes are differently making millions and millions of people suffer from a chronic food insecurity what makes well-being an almost unattainable target.

From Saturday November 3, 2018, the photo above went viral to different news sites from Times to Reuters talking of the extreme consequences touching the Yemeni people for the war tearing the country.

However, my attention is far to be raised on a particular country situation. I talk of hunger in general and that on a world scale. Many people are suffering from a starvation that is not to be solved in a twinkle of an eye.
Having the highest prevalence of undernourishment, Africa comes second after Asia for its overpopulation and highest number of undernourished people.(Food and Agricultural Organization et al., 2017)
Hunger is defined as a short-term physical discomfort being a result of chronic food shortage, or in severe cases, a life-threatening lack of food. (National Research Council, 2006).

• Poverty is certainly an ultimate cause and at the same time a consequence of hunger. Confusing? Yes, I know but we have to agree on something: Growing sufficient food that can cover a population's food need requires funds and a technical inspection from sawing( planting) until harvest. 

The other way around should raise a capital awareness that food transformation and industrialization in general can be a sure deal even though there is sometimes a constraint of the market ability taking into account the people who are the first market target.
As the World Bank pointed out (2016), 767 millions of people in the world live below the poverty line of $ 1.90 what makes the task difficult. We cannot again ignore different reasons that made poor people poorer in a couple of years if we try to be realistic.
 We can also agree on the fact that hunger deepens the heights of poverty wherever it sets its feet. Truth to be told, hunger and poverty are difficult to be separated or imagine either without the implication of another.

• War and conflict are not friendly to any developmental project in communities. It may sound awkward to talk about projects like agriculture and food industry where people are fleeing their homelands.

Agriculture flourishing is more difficult in countries where there was no clear agriculture policy so that it may be taken into account as one of the emergent things to be well kept even in difficult security situations. Where there is no peace, food cannot be the first worry of people even though its lack means also death for them.
 
 The following table may serve a good account on how countries at war are the first ones to encounter this threat.


  Source: FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018
 Without an expert eye on the above table, one may easily notice how countries in insecurity are hardly able to respond to the foremost need for their citizens to live quietly satisfied in terms of nutrition. 

•  Political instability makes the affair more difficult. When there are no clear policies and a well-structured plan for a long term basis vision, food security cannot be a dream to achieve. This is almost the same when policies working for the country do not comply with the idea that hunger is a war to be fought before any other. 

Many developing countries have ignored the area of agriculture to the extend that some even allot less than 2% of the national expenses whereas that field collects 98% or so of the whole population. This is critical and ironical as the general income cannot go higher since much will be spent on buying food from in or even outside the country because no clear attention is put on that sector.
This is a critical situation that can be found in different countries especially in Africa, Asia, and Southern America. One should understand clearly that food security requires a special dedication of national and even regional food policies supported by practical ways of making it a reality and different solutions to put forward whenever the pre-designed plans don't work out.

• Natural disasters, finally throw food security in a " low possibility target to mark". Nature is nature and when it says yes, no one can ever say no. It doesn't ask political power or even highly polished technology for an advice. It can destroy Washington or Paris in a mini-second without any intervention. Remember how many lives floods, earthquakes, violent wind,... are taking without taking into consideration of where and what the country is. It is logical to say that this "nature law" doesn't make any slip to the way it may control agricultural productivity. I am not denying a hand of technology and science in maximizing the production even in extremely bad weather conditions, however, in what limit?

 In 2016, El Niño was responsible for conditions of severe food insecurity for 20 million people (FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018). On the other hand, hurricane and cyclone seasons have been the ultimate sources of dangerous storms, causing damage to livelihoods, agricultural production and local market prices, in countries in the Caribbean and Asia (FAO, 2017). In agricultural-driven areas, especially in parts of Africa (Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, and countries in West Africa), drought has driven economic, food production and political stability crises (FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018). In 2015 and 2016, Burundi has witnessed floods that caused a relocation of hundreds of families and losses of tons of agricultural products around the capital city, Bujumbura and in Rumonge Province.
 For countries facing prolonged conditions or yearly disasters, under nutrition worsens, as there is little time for recovery (FAO, 2017).


Source: FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018


              In short, food security cannot be achieved without different hands and willingness to do what is rarely done in developing countries where this problem of malnutrition is observed the most.
I would like to call for everyone's attention: young, old, civil servant, private dealer, entrepreneur... to think deeper about the sustainability of what they are building without food security. Remember guns can fight  against others, but no nuclear weapon can fight hunger. Countries and business people should make agriculture one of the emergent sectors and fund it as they do it for others. This sector needs to be digitized more than any other and I am sure that it can change so many things in the modern world of a historic rate of population growth.

Written by Cédrick Irakoze,
Cedrira94@gmail.com
+25771189712

November 5, 2018.





 For more information, following resources can provide further results:

Food and Agriculture Organization. (2008). An introduction to the basic concepts of food security. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/al936e/al936e00.pdf. Accessed June 2017.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2017). The future of food and agriculture: Trends and challenges. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6583e.pdf. Accessed May 2018.


Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, World Food Programme, & WHO. (2017). The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2017: Building resilience for peace and food security. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7695e.pdf. Accessed May 2018.

Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme, & European Union. (2018). Global report of food crises 2018. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/fsin/docs/global_report/2018/GRFC_2018_Full_report_EN.pdf. Accessed May 2018.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Comparative Quantification of Health Risks: Childhood and Maternal Undernutrition. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/publications/cra/en/. Accessed September 2016.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). “Micronutrient Deficiencies.” Retrieved from http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/micronutrients/en/. Accessed September 2016.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb/en/. Accessed September 2016.