On 10 February the UK’s major public funders of food-related research published their coordinated research plan to help the world avoid a food security crisis.

The UK Research Councils, Government departments and other public bodies are co-ordinating their research activities related to food and agriculture through the Global Food Security (GFS) programme, the blog of which you are reading.

The GFS programme aims to provide the world’s growing population with a sustainable and secure supply of safe, nutritious and affordable high quality food from less land and with lower inputs. A short video that encapsulates the problem can be seen on the front page of this website. 

The programme has now published its strategic plan (PDF 1MB). This outlines how the programme partners intend to work together across four cross-disciplinary research themes for food security: economic resilience, resource efficiency, sustainable food production and supply, and sustainable, healthy and safe diets.

Running through each of the four themes is a commitment to take into account the sustainability of ecosystems that relate to food production, both for the future of food security, and to consider how to reduce the negative environmental impacts of all aspects of the food system. Key priorities are reducing waste and greenhouse-gas emissions from the food chain.

The strategic plan puts flesh on the bones of the GFS programme launched last year. It builds on the existing activities and strategies of all the partners, adding value through coordination and provides a focus for collaboration. The strength of the programme is the breadth of its scope and the commitment of the partners to work together on multidisciplinary, whole food systems approaches to meet the food security challenge sustainably. Through the strategy we are also committing to increase the effectiveness of translation of research findings in practical applications and policy advice.

A flavour of the future

The GFS strategy publication follows the recent release of the Foresight report, The Future of Food and Farming. This highlighted the complex and multifaceted causes of food insecurity and the need for holistic approaches in meeting the challenges of feeding a growing world population and reducing hunger and malnutrition in developing countries over the next 20 to 40 years.

I am also delighted to announce the appointment of Lord Cameron of Dillington as the first Chair of the GFS Strategy Advisory Board. Lord Cameron has an established interest in agriculture and food.  He is a farmer in Somerset, a Lawes trustee at Rothamsted Research and chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture, Food and Development.

The programme will shortly be strengthened though the addition of the Welsh Assembly Government as a new partner. It brings significant expertise, resources and research challenges to the programme, many unique to the food and farming landscape in Wales, and the GFS programme is in discussion with other funding bodies to further widen the areas it includes.

About Professor Janet Allen

Professor Janet Allen is Director of Research (since October 2008) at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and is provisional Chair of the Programme Coordination Group for the Global Food Security programme.

Professor Allen trained initially in biochemistry and medicine. In addition to her highly successful career in senior appointments in medicine and academic research, she has held research directorships in the global pharmaceutical sector (with Parke Davis/Pfizer) and with an innovative biotech SME (Inpharmatica). She has also established a spin-out company (Ligand Xpress Ltd).

Professor Allen’s own research was primarily in cell and molecular biology. In 2000 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2002 was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow and at Imperial College School of Medicine, London.

Articles

• The Guardian: Failure to act on crop shortages fuelling political instability, experts warn (external link)
• NPR: Rising Food Prices Can Topple Governments, Too (external link)
• Climate Progress: Food insecurity (external link)
• The New York Times: Droughts, Floods and Food (external link)

Can sub Saharan Africa be the next bread basket for the world and help to address global food security issues?

The answer is yes; the challenge is how.

Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the developing world have a key role to play in deciding, shaping and leading food security policy for the coming decades. Why? Because of several key indicators that should not be either underestimated or overlooked: population, economic growth, water and land use in sub-Saharan Africa – what I like to call key impact indicators on food availability.

Sub-Saharan Africa has an opportunity to do things differently and earlier on its development and modernization life, something that few other world regions have today outside of Latin America.

Africa should be one of the leading regions in shaping global food security policies and feeding the future instead of others shaping it for Africa. Developing practical, integrative and more small-scale solutions for agricultural inputs and outputs, farming, and for managing both land and water resources will help Africa provide for future generations on the continent and elsewhere. This was recently summarised in the State of the World 2011 report by the US-based Worldwatch Institute, subsequently covered by the Guardian, as well as the Green Revolutions for Sub-Saharan Africa briefing by the UK think tank Chatham House.

The new tillers

A closer look at the key impact indicators of population, along with the practical and integrative solutions below, will demonstrate why Africa should raise its profile and be a leading voice on how global food security policy unfolds (the impact indicators of water and land will be addressed in a separate blog post).

For example, who are the next generations of farmers and where are they going to come from?

Current continent-wide population growth rates average 2.45 and is estimated to remain on that level until 2050 when it will be home to 1.9 billion people, up from today’s billion. Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is young – more than half of the people living on the continent are under the age of 25 and if the trajectory remains the same, Africa will be host to 29 per cent of the people in the world of that age group by 2050.

What does this mean for the foundations of food security? It means that Africa must encourage its youth to see its food security issues as vital to its development in the first instance, and be a exporting continent of key staples in the second instance.

Most African countries remain major importers of key staples such as rice, maize and wheat, and are not self-sufficient in cassava, cowpeas and other indigenous commodities. Technical innovation and integration of sucessfull practices need to enter the picture more so that self-sufficiency issues are addressed and crop exports increase.

Alternative crop uses must also be sought. For example, Nigeria is host to a cassava-to-glucose agribusiness supplied by several farming cooperatives. This non-traditional use of cassava supplies glucose not only in Nigeria, but to other countries in the West African region.

Solutions can be simple

With its large population, the sheer size of the continent and the relatively weak infrastructure in many places, the affects of poor development in food security policy going forward will likely hit Africa harder than any other region. But solutions need to be thoughtful and forward leaning. So what to do?

First, focus on training this vast cadre of youth to see farming in a new and positive way. This includes using different approaches such as more organized small-scale farmers (cooperatives or groups of cooperatives) that produce quality and improved yields in environmentally-sustainable ways, such as better waste management, and using biogas, solar and wind energy.

Second, work with these new farmers and current farmers (particularly women) to develop and deploy more innovative technology from improved crop rotation to the use of hybrid seeds, water harvesting and climate change sensitive irrigation techniques (such as drip, solar driven, etc.). In addition expand efforts in aquaculture.

Third, seek ways to connect food security to other quality of life issues such as health and education. Some of the best small scale projects in sub-Saharan Africa are examples in the Republic of Congo, Benin, Tanzania, Nigeria, and several other places where cooperative farmers’ health issues are addressed along with food safety and storage problems, or when small gardens are developed for schools, ensuring a healthy school time meal for students, teachers, and mothers who bring their children to school. For example, Benin’s Songhai Integrative Project uses appropriate technology, bio-gas and environmentally-sound approaches to both cooperative farming and small scale agro-industries.

The outcome: reduced hunger, along with poverty reduction as increased, quality yields are sold at market (or exported regionally) for income that can be used to address other quality of life and development issues such as housing, health services and paying for school fees.

With proper planning, the right democratic leadership, transparent resource management; progressive, innovative food security policies; and integrative agriculture inputs and outputs, Africa’s young population can contribution enormously to addressing both continent-wide and global food security issues over the coming decades because many of the world’s future farmers are right now on the continent.

About Dr. Robin Renée Sanders, U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria

Dr Robin Renée Sanders, a career member of the senior Foreign Service, arrived in Nigeria in December, 2007. Most recently, she served as International Advisor and Deputy Commandant at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, DC. Prior to this position, she served as the US Ambassador to the Republic of Congo (2002-2005) and as Director for Public Diplomacy for Africa for the State Department (2000-2002). She served twice as the Director for Africa at the National Security Council at the White House; and was the Special Assistant for Latin America, Africa, and International Crime for the Undersecretary for Political Affairs at the State Department (1996-1997). Ambassador Sanders holds a DSc in Information Science and Communication from Robert Morris University, MA in International Relations and Africa Studies, and an MSc in Communications and Journalism from Ohio University. She also holds a BA in Communications from Hampton University.

Dr Sanders is the recipient of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Civilian Honor Award; three State Department Superior Honor Awards; four State Department Meritorious Honor Awards; the ‘President Merit of Honor Award’ from the Republic of Congo, and several citations in Who’s Who of America. She is a national board member of Operation Hope – a non-profit organization focused on empowerment of at-risk communities.

The second decade of the last century was an important decade for food research with the setting up of six research institutes focusing on specific sectors such as dairying (National Institute for Research in Dairying) plant breeding (Welsh Plant Breeding Institute) and human nutrition (Rowett Research Institute). 

The second decade of this century is witnessing a resurgence of interest in food research, but this time with a difference. Today, the research objectives are not so much about maximising production of food, but producing nutritious food while minimising negative impacts on the environment, including limiting greenhouse-gas emissions. 

Addressing these challenges requires a broad range of skills, both in conducting the research, but also in prioritising the problems and defining funding strategies. 

Personally, I have long been keen on collaboration and working across disciplines and thus I genuinely welcome the new Global Food Security partnership of funders which was launched on 11 March. I consider such joint working to be an essential part of meeting our responsibility, as scientists, to provide the evidence to enable society to make informed choices on what to eat. 

We already have labelling to tell us whether a particular purchase is healthy or not; the information on the labels being informed by years of research on nutrition and physiology (funded, for example, by the Food Standards Agency). Consumers now also want to know what impact the production of a specific product has had on the environment. 

We have to catch up quickly. By working together, scientists and science funders can build upon past experience to achieve a desired outcome more rapidly. 

Another example lies in the area of plant and animal health. Climate change is predicted to increase the risks of severe negative economic impacts being caused by some diseases. Both the assessments of risks, and diagnosis at the molecular level, have many similarities between the plant and animal sectors yet often that knowledge has not been exchanged. 

Alternatively, working in partnership inspires the rewriting of objectives which often provides new insights into the intransigent problems of the past, again learning from best practice in other disciplines. 

Another aspect of this partnership is the fostering of collaboration between funders who focus on ‘upstream’ (or more basic) research, such as the Research Councils, and those charged with the responsibility for ensuring that research outputs have impact (e.g. government departments such as Defra). Development, together of strategic objectives, ensures that the outputs from upstream research do not just ‘sit on a shelf’ as a peer-reviewed paper, but are effectively used to deliver impact and benefit societies. 

Enhancing our ability as a group of public sector funders to deliver both excellence in science, and a useful and measurable impact on society, is both challenging and exciting. I have high hopes that the Global Food Security partnership will inspire the science community to help us achieve our goals.

About Professor Maggie Gill

Maggie Gill is (since 2006) the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser for Rural Affairs and the Environment for 80% of her time and works for DFID-Research, as part of the Food Team for the remaining 20%, on secondment from the University of Aberdeen (DFID is the UK Government’s Department for International Development.). 

Maggie’s career has included both research and research management starting with livestock production and moving on to the interface between agriculture and the environment and natural resource management issues. Her research has included collaboration with scientists in Australasia, North America and a number of developing countries. 

She worked for the Grassland Research Institute (which evolved into IGER) for 13 years before moving into international development in 1989. After 11 years of research, research management and ultimately as Chief Executive of Natural Resources International Ltd. (1996-2000), a company which was ‘spun out’ of the privatisation of the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), an Executive Agency of the Overseas Development Administration, Maggie returned to Scotland as Chief Executive and Director of Research at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen (2000-2006).

Contact details

Professor Maggie Gill, Director Rural & Environment Research and Analysis, The Scottish Government

Whether you live in an affluent western country and get your food in the weekly shop from the supermarket or are a subsistence farmer in the developing world, the challenge of food security will change your life in the coming years. 

This website aims to bring together articles, video and blog posts for anyone interested in understanding more about food security issues and research.

www.foodsecurity.ac.uk is produced by BBSRC – the UK’s largest public funder of agricultural and food related research. But BBSRC working alone will not prevent the world facing a food security crisis. This website today is just a starting point. We want to see everyone with a stake in this issue contributing their ideas and stories.

The central part of www.foodsecurity.ac.uk – this blog – reflects this need for partnership. The blog will not be written by one author, but instead we will welcome many authors and many views on the issue. Over the coming weeks you will be able to read blog posts from Phillip Lowe, a social scientist from Newcastle University, Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers’ Union and Ian Crute, Chief Scientist at the AHDB.

And we would like to hear what you think about their views. The blog has an easy-to-use comments section that requires no registration. I hope that this will become a place for provocative debate on food security issues and research.

www.foodsecurity.ac.uk deals with the challenges of providing safe, affordable and nutritious food in ‘The Issue’ section. This details the background to food security, a history of modern agriculture, facts and figures about the problem and projections on what may happen in the future.

Meeting the challenge is only going to be achieved through deploying world-class research. The section ‘Research in Action’ outlines the impact that research has already had on food production, the current world-class science already underway in universities and institutes across the UK and the research challenges that scientists are going to have to overcome.

These research challenges are significant, the aims ambitious, but they are achievable given coordinated, multidisciplinary effort by research and research funders. Research centres and Partners details how BBSRC and other organisations are already doing this.

 Thank you for visiting www.foodsecurity.ac.uk. I hope you will find the content here useful and engaging. Please use the comments section of this blog if you have any comments to make about the site.

About Professor Janet Allen

Professor Janet Allen is Director of Research at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) since October 2008 and is leading for BBSRC in the area of food security.

Professor Allen trained initially in biochemistry and medicine. In addition to her highly successful career in senior appointments in medicine and academic research, she has held research directorships in the global pharmaceutical sector (with Parke Davis/Pfizer) and with an innovative biotech SME, (Inpharmatica). She has also established a spin-out company: Ligand Xpress Ltd.

Professor Allen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000. Her research interests are primarily in cell and molecular biology; and in 2002 she was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow and at Imperial College, London School of Medicine.

Contact details:

Professor Janet Allen
Director of Research
BBSRC
Polaris House
North Star Avenue
Swindon
SN2 1UH

Tel: 01793 413267
Email: janet.allen@bbsrc.ac.uk