Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Where Will The Next Food Crisis Strike
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 1 billion 
people go to bed each night with an empty stomach.
by Staff Writers  Rome, Italy (SPX) Mar 03, 2010
http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Where_Will_The_Next_Food_Crisis_Strike_999.html

The European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), the Food and Agriculture 
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the American Famine Early 
Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) are working to innovate and reinforce 
their food security monitoring systems and to develop more efficient early 
warning tools.

These efforts come as a response to the 2007-2008 global food crisis that 
increased significantly the number of countries under threat of famine. 
Satellite observation is the key instrument that will allow to double in 2010 
the number of countries monitored in real time for detecting first 
indications of adverse agricultural outcomes.

The new Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system facilitates and 
accelerates the reaction time to food security crises by allowing a common 
and internationally recognised classification of their severity.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 1 billion 
people go to bed each night with an empty stomach. In addition, the latest 
global food crisis resulted in more countries being added to the list of food 
insecure populations. This is probably the most urgent and dramatic problem 
that mankind faces today.

Food security is not only a crucial issue for developing countries and their 
more vulnerable inhabitants; it is also key to building a more stable, equal, 
wealthier and safer world.

Special programmes are run and significant funds are mobilised every year by 
the international community in an effort to combat the increasing number of 
food insecure populations.

Identifying the times and places where aid is required is crucial to deliver 
targeted and effective responses. Here is where the scientific community 
comes into play by developing methodologies and tools to provide timely 
information and objective assessments of the food requirements, thus 
supporting the decision-making process with solid evidence.

The power of satellite imagery

Several organisations dealing with food security both in Europe and in the 
United States traditionally rely on satellite observations to support their 
assessment activities. As a consequence of the alarming spike in global food 
prices in 2008, many more countries are potentially threatened by food 
insecurity and need to be constantly monitored in order to detect early signs 
of adverse agricultural conditions.

Satellite-based forecasting systems will therefore take on increased 
importance in the next years, allowing organisations to monitor a larger 
number of countries than it is currently possible to do with in-country 
offices.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) will extend this year the real time 
monitoring system it has developed to forecast food crises. It will cover not 
only the Horn of Africa, but all the most food insecure countries in 
Sub-Saharan Africa. As the earth observation and agroclimatic data regularly 
received by the JRC are global, other countries outside Africa can also be 
monitored in case of food security crises.

This JRC operational system for regional crop monitoring and forecasting is 
based on satellite data and innovative agro-climatic models. More than 40 
regional bulletins provide each year quantitative and qualitative yield 
forecasts for food insecure countries around the world, with a particular 
emphasis in Africa.

In 2009, JRC provided for instance an early warning of the drought affecting 
Kenya, and correctly predicted a 15% below average maize yield one month 
before harvest.

In the United States, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) 
will extend this year its food security monitoring system from the current 20 
to 50 additional countries around the world.

The US Geological Survey (USGS), the National and Oceanic Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA) are establishing expedited procedures for processing of satellite data 
and model runs to support FEWSNET in this task.

Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC): bringing scientific 
results closer to the decision making process

When it comes to taking decisions on committing aid resources, policy makers 
need to have clear and reliable information integrating all dimensions of 
food security (climate data, economic analysis, nutritional and health data) 
and a common language on the basis of which all stakeholders can agree on the 
analysis of the food security situation and possible response options.

The new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), built on a large 
consensus and accepted internationally, makes it possible, avoiding at the 
same time contradictory results deriving from the use of different scales. 
Facilitating therefore the donors' response.

This common classification has been recently developed by seven organisations 
(JRC, FAO, FEWS NET, Care International, Oxfam GB, Save the children and 
World Food Programme) dealing with food security information management. It 
is a standardised scale that integrates the following parameters: food 
security, nutrition and livelihood information, leading to clear statements 
about the nature and severity of a crisis.

It covers the full spectrum of possible situations - from 'food-secure' to 
humanitarian crisis - and takes into account the multiple dimensions of food 
security, i.e. availability, access/livelihood and nutrition. It provides as 
well a comprehensive framework of concepts, indicators, scales or benchmarks 
and a common, internationally accepted language.

This facilitates the technical consensus on diagnostic among experts and 
allows sending clearer and coherent messages to decision-makers. Appropriate 
reporting and mapping tools provide synthetic views on the severity, 
extension and nature of the food security concerns and their likely evolution 
in the near future.

In December 2009, the European Commission decided to allocate euros 1 276 269 
(more than 1.7 million US dollars) over a period of 14 months to the Food and 
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Together with the JRC, FEWS NET and the other organisations involved in the 
development of the classification, the FAO will implement the second phase of 
the IPC initiative in at least 8 focus countries (6 of which located in Sub 
Saharan Africa) through improved technical development, field support and 
institutionalisation.