Member profile
Mr. Aqleem Abbas
Organization:
Plant Pathology & Agriculture( https://www.facebook.com/plant.path.agric )
Country:
Pakistan
Field(s) of expertise:
I am working on:
I am currently doing research on major potato diseases of Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan. Gilgit Baltistan is a semiautonomous mountainous region of pakistan. It is situated near the border of China. Potato is major source of income for the poor farmers of Gilgit Baltistan. For the last ten years potato has been severely destroyed by diseases such as PLRV, PVY, early blight and late blight. These disease have to be manage as soon as possible. Other wise the farming community will be suffered because of low yield of potato. I would appeal to the international community to provide kits for my research so that I will able to detect these disease and manage them properly.
Mr. Aqleem Abbas
Food can be any nutritious substance obtained from animal and plants. However, some foods don't need to be nutritious and that do not provide nutrients, however, protecting and lubricating the mucus of intestine so the nutrients of the nutritious foods will be safely absorbed and rest secrete safely. Therefore I divide food into two major types 1. Nutritious food 2. Non-nutritious food. Nutritious food is that which provide nutrients whereas not nutritious is that which don't provide any nutrient, however, protect the body from the diseases and disorders. In the case of crops, Food security starts when farmers get the yield of an edible crop. Simply food security should start from the yield(seeds) and seeds are the reactants for the product(foods). Therefore we should protect good seeds as much as possible. In other words, concept food security should start from the seeds of crops and young ones of animals, birds and fish. These useful creatures can only be secure by creating awareness among the public. To achieve high yield, The Govt should supply disease and pest resistant varieties to the farmers. As chemicals are toxic to the environment and health. Govt should focus on research to develop biocontrol agents and teach the formulation of these biocontrol agents to the farmers. In the developed nations the researchers really doing a great job in securing food and even their Govt is seriously taking food security as a major challenge. That is why most of the developed nations are self-sufficient and don't need to import food from other countries. However, in the developing nations, the situation is not stable. There is always a power struggle between the rich and the poor. Coups and other political issues make the people vulnerable to diseases due to unavailability and improvision of nutritious foods. The farmers are major producers of food however in a situation where farmers is a servant and landlords are governing on him, so how can he take interest in the health of crops. Marketing problems and other issues are also in these developing nations. Mismanagement and corrupt political system of the countries are also a major challenge to these countries. As a result, no remarkable work is done to secure foods. Consequently, the whole world has to suffer. In such situations, who will provide good seeds to farmers and who will provide him subsidies. Finally, when farmers collect yield, the contractor comes and buy at cheap prices. Food security is indeed a major challenge in these developing nations. So what is the best cycle to secure food? The best cycle to secure foods is the Govt should provide seeds, fertilizers, and bioagents to the farmers, then the farmers after harvesting and getting yield should sell to the Govt. The Govt will then store for the next year or distribute to the public in a way that food is accessible to all citizens equally. The final step is to discard the leftover of the foods or recycle if it is still ok. This is few steps to secure food. The other suggestion, if the developing countries due to their weak political system and oscillating type of Govt system cannot contribute to food security. The UN should provide subsidies to the farmers and other inputs so they enhance yield. The pests and diseases due to climatic changes have so far become more severe. When I go through the literature in 2018, I was surprised to see the diseases and pests have considerably increased and caused huge losses to crops. Not only pest and diseases, look how fire engulf millions of acre land in California USA a few weeks ago. How much food did we lose? There is no published report but it is the reality we have lost considerable yield. The draft you have uploaded is still immature and most of the definition are not clear. Considering pest and disease are the major threat we should not deny other environmental factors which are almost not our control. So good management of pest and diseases and appropriate agronomic practices maximum food can be achieved. As aforementioned due to political instability and corruption, most of the developing countries are not contributing to food security. Therefore the people of these countries are suffering a lot. To achieve Zero hunger in these developing countries is just an idea and impossible unless these countries bring changes in their system. Even zero hunger is a wrong terminology, it is impossible to reach zero hunger even in the developing nation. The scale should start from 01 to 100 rather than 0. The dead do not become hungry so 0 hunger is the most appropriate term for them. Furthermore, if a country is developed, it does not mean it is exporting agriculture products. However, the real developing country is that which is self-sufficient in the staple food and also export staple food to other nation. Construction of high bridges, roads, building, and other infrastructure does not indicate that the country is also developed in terms of agriculture. For the sustainable production of food, the first thing is Seed should be HC or CH(healthy certified/certified healthy). If the seeds are healthy and free of contaminants or diseases or pest or pest parts, there are 90 percent chances high yield can be achieved if not disrupted by environmental uncontrollable variables. Healthy seeds should be provided by the Govts free to their farmers and we can safely say, till no seeds have not highly affected by climate change. A global problem climate change cannot influence so much a farm of hundred acres. If we secure the food within the farms then rest to make it accessible to all people is very easy. Some people say resource scarcity major issue in the developing nations. In real the developing nations are full of resources and can produce more food as compared to the developed nation if properly guided and provided assistance to the farmers of these nations. The farmers of these countries should be provided with the latest scientific knowledge to grow crops. Pest, diseases, soil and water management in these countries is also a big problem. These issues need to be resolved to get enough food to feed the increasing populations. In conclusion, food security should start at the farm level.