FOOD SECURITY NUTRITION AND HEALTH
By Professor D. A. Adelekan
Director, Institute of Public Health
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
1.0
Definitions
1.1
Food Security – access by all people at all times to food adequate in quantity and quality
to ensure an active and healthy life.
1.2
Household Food Security – access by all members of the household to food adequate in
quantity and quality to ensure an active and healthy life throughout the year.
1.3
Household food Insecurity – inadequate food due to food shortages or inadequate
consumer behavior or intra household food distribution.
Household Food Insecurity is of 2 types:
-
Chronic Household Food insecurity – household always short of food
Transitory Household Food insecurity – temporary shortage of food due to adverse
events
1.4
Nutrition – is the sum total of the effect of food on the body – could be good (well
nourished) or bad (malnourished).
1.5
Health – a state of complete mental, physical and social well being and not just the
absence of disease or infirmity.
2.0
Household Food Security
The concept of household food security is to ensure that households are able to obtain
adequate food, either through home production or through purchases. In any situation where
this cannot be achieved there is therefore food insecurity at the household level.
Household food security is one of the 3 necessary conditions for good nutrition; the other two
being adequate health facilities and adequate care. Although food security is essential for good
nutrition, it does not guarantee a good nutritional status because there are other factors
besides food that affect nutrition e.g, infections, poor appetite, lack of care etc.
A family or household can obtain food from two main sources: through food production or food
purchase, both of which require adequate family resources or income. A nation may be food
secure and still harbour households with food insecurity. Producing enough food does not
guarantee that people who need it are able to get it. If people do not have enough money to
buy food or to buy the land, seeds and tools to grow food or if natural or man made disasters
such as drought or war prevent them from getting food, then people are at risk for under
nutrition even when there is adequate food supply. What is important in ensuring household
food security is access to food both physical and economic.
3.0
FACTORS AFFECTING FOOD PRODUCTION
3.1
MIGRATION: The number of farmers world wide has been decreasing since the 1950s
as farmers migrate to cities to find other work. Some of the factors that compel farmers to
move to cities are the need for a better income, the inability of small farms to compete
effectively with larger farms and the take over of farms for the development of industries and
road.
3.2
INADEGUATE KNOWLEDGE: The loss of knowledge passed down through generations
to farming families about the most productive agricultural practices for a region affects the
varieties, quality and quantity of food produced; poor agricultural practices such as overgrazing
without proper drainage also constitute to larger reduction in food production.
3.3
INADEQUATE/NON-AVAILABILITY OF NEEDED RESOURCES:
Food production also requires arable land (land that can grow crops) some form of energy such
as petroleum to run tractors and other farm equipment and the human and animal labour
needed to till the land. These vital resources are distributed unevenly around the world and
may have been depleted or damaged by modern agricultural techniques.
3.4
INADEQUATE SUPPLY OF WATER
Water is one of the essential natural resources for growth of all crops but it is in short supply
worldwide. More than 20 countries lack sufficient water to grow enough food for their people;
over half of these people live in Arid or Dry region of Africa and Middle East where periodic
drought or extreme water scarcity lasting months or years contributes to severe shortage of
food.
3.5
FARMING TECHNIQUES
Farming techniques particularly irrigation also contribute to Salinization (the accumulation of
salt in soils) which invariably cause stunted growth in plants thereby decreasing harvest and
eventually making soil unsuitable.
“According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nation (UN) Salinization
has degraded an estimated 7-10 percent of the worlds 250 million hectare (618 million acres) of
irrigated lands.”
4.0
FACTORS AFFECTING FOOD SECURITY
4.1
PHYSICAL ACCESS: - Food availability depends on physical access; that is, adequate
markets, sound highways, reliable vehicles to transport food and storage facilities. A lack of any
of these items can cause food crisis.
4.2
WAR AND POLITICAL STRIFE:- These also disrupt access to food resulting in famines and
temporary food shortages
4.3
RELIANCE ON SMALL NUMBER OF CROP VARIETIES: grain or cereal production plays a
significant role in the world food security. Grain such as rice, wheat and corn provide about
50% of the calories people consume daily. However, grain supply may be threatened if the
whole world relies so much on grain because there could be upsurge in demand more than
what can be supplied. The practice of diversifying crop varieties has been abandoned and this
is creating a lot of problems in the area of food security.
4.4
POPULATION GROWTH:- The world’s population is now put at 6.4 billion people and
this is projected to reach 8 billion by the year 2025.
Food production must keep pace with increasing number of people living on earth. Although controlling
population growth rate is important for achieving food security, a low population growth rate does not
guarantee food security, nor does a high growth rate create food insecurity. Population growth
negatively affects food security especially when other food related variables are impaired.
5.0
Effect of Food Insecurity on Household Nutrition
Nutritional status is an essential component of one’s state of health. Not only does nutritional
status affect health, but status of health influences nutritional status. Infections and fever
result in loss of appetite or create difficulty in swallowing and digesting food. Intestinal
parasites such as hook worm compete with the body for nourishment and thus prevent needed
nutrient absorption into bloodstream. Such condition contributes to malnutrition.
Furthermore the sick, convalescent and the elderly within a household have special food need
due to their poor state of health. Because of the steady demands for rapid growth in early
period of life, infants and young children who are in poor state of health are doubly vulnerable.
Pregnant women and lactating mother who must carry out heavy work loads require extremely
high food needs due to both body condition and energy requirement.
Food consumption at the household level is often influenced by many factors, and choices of
kinds and amount of foods eaten vary from community to community. However, those factors
most likely to affect food intakes can be broadly grouped into 3.
-
Amount and varieties of food produced and available.
-
Income levels of members of the household
-
Nutrition knowledge of the people at the household level.
The number of meals eaten, the quality and quantity of food included in the meals in a
particular household have overall effect on the health of the family. The effect can either be
positive or negative. Any household that is food insecure will experience some nutritional
deficiencies, which may affect the general health status of members of the household.
6.0
Effects of food insecurity on health
Food insecurity affects health in a number of ways. Research is beginning to show that access
to food can affect the development of and prevention of medical conditions and diseases. The
adverse effects of food insecurity on health manifest at different stages in the life cycle.
6.1
Prenatal life/ Infancy:- The effects of food insecurity are particularly profound in young
children. It is a known fact that the rate of growth in infancy is more rapid than at any other
time in life. Early life is the most critical for growth and development of a healthy child.
However, infants and very young children are more vulnerable to malnutrition especially when
they could not have access to good food at this stage of their development. For example when
food intake at this stage does not provide enough energy from carbohydrate and fat, protein is
then used to supply energy rather than being used to build tissues. In a situation like this, the
infant suffers from lack of several essential nutrients, not from lack of protein alone. This may
have long-term defects in physical growth, impaired mental development which may cause
reduced learning ability of the child.
6.2
Childhood:
Growth during childhood takes place at a slower pace than for infants,
however, physical activities at this stage of life is increasing. In order to meet growth and
activity demands of a child, he/she should eat good food with all essential nutrients. At this
stage when a child does not eat nutritious food such a child is at a higher risk of developing
protein-energy malnutrition, anaemia, brittle bones, rickets etc.
Food insecurity leads to
micronutrient deficiencies with serious implications for health. Iodine deficiency leads to
impaired mental function, while vitamin A deficiency is a major contributor to childhood
blindness and infant mortality. Nutritional anaemia resulting in increased susceptibility to
infections is also common in food insecure households.
6.3
Adolescence:- This is the time of life when there is the greatest demand for nutrients to
meet body needs. If a child fails to be well nourished at this stage it will have negative effect on
his/her body development in the area of reproductive health, bones and muscle development.
6.4
Adulthood:- In a situation where a household is food insecure and unable to provide
the needed food nutrients at this stage of their lives, such adult will be prone to diverse
nutritional and ageing diseases which might cut short the lives of such individuals. Diet related
chronic non communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease,
cancer etc, are on the increase worldwide including in Nigeria. The increasing prevalence of
these diseases is due to the changes in the diet and life style of people. The negative effect of
this kind of situation in the family/household is always devastating and can lead to increase in
both morbidity and mortality rate among the people
7.0
EFFORTS TO GUARANTEE HOSUEHOLD FOOD SECURITY
When the amount of food available is not sufficient to feed the people of a household, the risk
of nutritional inadequacy is high and malnutrition increases. This condition leads to poor health
and low productivity at both local and national level.
The following are some of the strategies which could be employed to attain improved
household food security.
7.1
Adequate food supplies and distribution
This can be achieved by:Increasing domestic production; this is the main focus in the strategies of most developing
countries to feed their people adequately. This is done by improving the varieties of crops and
livestock, this means that various food crops should be introduced to farmer to broaden the
nutritional scope that would be derived from such crops. Furthermore, varieties of livestock,
which can be reared locally such as snail, grass cutters, termites, local fowl, backyard fishpond
could also serve as ready source of meat for the household.
7.2
Stable and Sustainable Food Supplies
For food supplies to remain stable and secure there must be sustainable growth in household
agricultural practice.
However, to achieve this there is need to invest more on some
infrastructural facilities as well as human resources. There must be considerable improvement
in agricultural technologies in order to increase crop yields. One way to improve stability and
sustainability of food supplies at household level is to broaden the food base by making greater
use of traditional food crops such as yams, cassavas, leafy vegetable, melon, seeds and wild
fruits. Greater use of traditional crops would improve food security because many of them are
tolerant of drought and give good yield when other crops fail, produce higher yields of dietary
energy per unit area than cereals (e.g. cassava and sweet potato) and are processed at home
into food or drink and these are sources of rural income (e.g. gari, beer and palm wine).
7.3
Access to Food:-
Policies to ensure access to sufficient food by all must aim at
increasing the purchasing power of the poor. This involves measures to improve household
income of both the rural and urban poor and to control or subsidize prices of basic foodstuffs.
In order to improve household food security emphasis must be laid on setting up a home
garden at the back of every home to cultivate varieties of crops such as vegetables,
legumes, sweet potato, tomatoes, groundnuts, yam, maize, carrot, fruits, cowpeas, cassava,
plantain, banana, cowpea etc.
7.4
Nutrition Education- This must be included as part of nutrition policy at the household
level. It should form an integral part of discussion within the home and the community at large.
Apart from this, it could also be integrated into the teaching of many other school subjects at
the primary and secondary level.
7.5
Enhancing Care Giving Capacity:- Steps must be taken to promote, encourage and
support exclusive breastfeeding of infants for the first six months of life and to promote the
continuation of breastfeeding well into the second year of life.
Promote the introduction of nutritionally adequate complementary food for infants at six
months of age and regular de-worming of pre-school and primary school children.