FOOD SECURITY - Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-income Countries - page 27

CHAPTER 3

FOOD SECURITY

R.P. ROETTER 1 AND H. VAN KEULEN 2, 3
1 Soil Science Centre, Alterra, Wageningen UR
e-mail: [e-mail]
2 Plant Production Systems Group, Plant Sciences, Wageningen University
3

Plant Research International, Wageningen UR
P.O. Box 430, 6700 AK Wageningen, The Netherlands
e-mail: [e-mail]

INTRODUCTION

Definitions

The ultimate aim of activities and interventions aimed at guaranteeing food security
is to arrive at a healthy and well-nourished population that can take on, to the
maximum of its capacities, the development of its own community, area or country.
In these efforts, agriculture, in its role as food producer, plays a crucial role.
(Sufficient quality) food should be available now, and in the long(-er) run. However,
it is increasingly recognized that limited accessibility and unequal distribution of
food, often linked to economic underdevelopment and poverty, frequently are more
important causes of food insecurity and malnutrition than limited availability of
food. Since the 1980s various definitions of food security have emerged, both in
academic literature and in national and multi-lateral policy documents. Also field
programmes on food security have greatly contributed to a more comprehensive
view on the issue. This has led to a definition of food security, accepted in the late
1980s, and reconfirmed at the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996: Food security
represents “a state when all people at all times have physical and economic access to
safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life” (World Food Summit 1996). In a food-secure region the land