DECREASE THE VALUE OF HOUSEHOLD FOOD PRODUCTION DEFICIT
The concept of food security is easy to understand but very hard to believe. In the 1970s, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) increased petroleum prices it affected every single thing in relation to food production. There were shortages of food world-wide. In 1975-76 end-of-crop year harvest of cereals was below 140million metric tons but this subsided greatly in the early 80s where the end-of-crop-year harvest was above 300million metric tons (FAO 1983). Despite the great improvement, many countries continued to suffer and some people literally died from starvation. Now, there was food but people continued to starve; this led food security expert away from focusing on availability of food to the accessibility of food. If there is food and people cannot afford it is as good as being absent. It is proven that about 50% of the poor people in Africa are farmers who own lands but in their poverty they never lack what to feed their families with as well as themselves. The value of their house-hold food production is appreciably lower because they produce most of the staples on subsistent levels and so have no reason to inflate the budget of their household food requirement.
Now, the grievous one is the rural landless and the urban poor. Since they cannot cultivate even basic vegetables, like tomatoes and cereals, corn they have to spend a lot of money to buy the quantity and also the right kind of food their families need to survive. They run a production deficit therefore will have to spend more money on food than necessary. But, because they are poor and cannot afford a balance meal due to hikes in the food prices, a common thing that is realized is malnutrition. So, it now important to decrease the value of the food production deficit, which means they must strife to get a small back yard farm; the more they can produce from that farm the less the value of their food requirement budget.
If you are reading this article, it is my encouragement to you, that if you have access to a land, you can as well cultivate it and produce most of the vegetables your house needs. The extra income earned can buy other varieties of food stuffs your family needs but do not have so as to have balance diet. Moreover, if the food you produce is lesser than what your household requires, then the money to buy the quality and the quantity of the food you require will increase. This means that, when prices of food increase you will need more money to buy the quantity you need as well as a balance diet enriched meal. You fall under the threat of food insecurity when the prices of food are more than what you have on your food requirement budget. So, even though food is available once you cannot access it financially you will be food insecure.
How do you avoid this? How do you own a farm when you do not have a land? What happens to you even when you have a piece of land behind your rented apartment and your land lord decides to eject you even when you want to pay for two years in advance? How can you own the farm you have created on that land when the government did not need at the time of cultivation but after cultivation the government decides to use it?
Let me challenge you with a question that will cause you to think and figure out how you can own a farm without a land you can call your own or another's? The question is, how can you create and own a mobile farm?
By: Fidel Y. Tetteh-Modernghana.com
Development / Accra / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com