TITLE:
Farming System and Food Security in Western Sudan: Are the Things Improving?
AUTHORS:
Samar M. Abdalla, Eltighani Elamin
KEYWORDS:
Farming System, Food Insecurity, Food Crops, Cash Crops, School Feeding Program, Food for Work
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.2,
February
3,
2015
ABSTRACT:
This paper seeks to describe the farming system and food security as well
as the activities against food insecurity in western
Sudan. The secondary data on farming system and food security were collected
from ministry of agriculture, ministry of health, WFP and FAO, as well as other
relevant sources. Descriptive statistics
analysis was used to analyze the data. The finding shows that the cultivated areas under cash crops are increased
over the time compared with food crops. This is mainly resulted from some
policy transformation and structure changes that seek to expand the area under
cash crops. Alternatively, food security is influenced by low productivity and unclear marketing price policies for agricultural products as well as
inequality and lack of income. Moreover, two programs were implemented to
alleviate the food insecurity problems, namely, school feeding program (SFP)
and food for work (FFW). However, the lack of food diversification and poor
transportation are the negative factors affecting the stability of SFP.
Consequently, adopting the improved technologies through strong and powerful
research institutions and extension services will enhance the farming system
and food security as well. Additionally, the SFP and FFW should provide
diversified foods that are nutritional based rather than caloric based for the
vulnerable people.