What are your experiences in the use and application of the CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI) for improving food security and nutrition?
Nutrition is in between the path way from agriculture to nutrition to health. Better nutrition is possible through the better management of food security that comes from the proper channels of food system, and food system is belonged to the network of agriculture. Therefore, it should be realised that food security should be well managed for the improvement of nutrition situation of the community / country.
Food security requires an effective food system that may be possible from different sectors like crops, livestock, fisheries, and agro forestry under the agriculture farming. Whatever the production is made higher from these sectors supports for better food security and better food security results better nutrition.
In this regard, agriculture sector is fighting with various hindrances like climate change, price volatility, and government policy of the respective countries. On the other hand, it requires the supply of the inputs like seed, fertilizer, water management, and labour as a regular process for agriculture farming. Further, considering the provision of investment as one of the principles of CFS requires high rate of investment in agriculture farming corresponding to food system since high rate of investment gives high rate of return and vice versa. In this respect, investment actually contributes in two ways – first, it can address the hindrances or problems facing by the agriculture sector as mentioned above, secondly the inputs for the agriculture farming can be managed from it. But the process of investment has been discriminated from the very beginning. The rich countries are becoming richer because of high rate of investment with ultra developed mechanisation in agriculture sector. The poor countries are lacking of amount resulting to poorer due to low purchasing power due to price volatility of the basic foods in the market. Even the manual farming is difficult for them due to lacking of investment. It is not possible to get return without enough investment. Therefore, the poor countries are facing the problems of food insecurity resulting to poor nutrition situation in the form of under nutrition resulting to health hazard. On the other hand the rich countries are accumulating the foods growing from their own land or importing the highly nutritious foods from other countries. But they also are facing the problems of nutrition in the form of over nutrition resulting to overweight and obesity because of intake of high calorie foods.
Finally, investment must be done in agriculture with efficient food system for improving better food security resulting to better nutrition.
Mr. Dhananjaya Poudyal