Year: 2024 | Month: June | Volume: 11 | Issue: 6 | Pages: 752-761
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20240682
Restoration of Degraded Land Can Be a Key Pathway to Achieve Food Security in India
Dr Kalpana Kumari
Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Kalindi College University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
ABSTRACT
Food security is a flexible concept and it refers to the food availability and one's access to it. A household is treated as invulnerable when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food security assessment is divided into the self-sufficiency rate (S) and external dependency rate as this divides the largest set of risk factors. Although countries may desire a high self-sufficiency rate to avoid transport risks, this may be difficult to achieve especially for wealthy countries, generally due to higher regional production costs. The three aspects of food security are availability of food, access to food, and use of food. Food availability means having available sufficient quantities of food on a consistent basis. Access to food is having sufficient resources, to get foods for a nutritious diet. Food use is the proper use depending upon the knowledge of basic nutrition and care, with sufficient water and sanitation. A fourth facet is added by FAO to the stability of the first three aspects of food security over time.
Land degradation and desertification are serious problems in achieving food security. A large population in India still lies below the poverty line and is unable to have sufficient food because of unemployment and the degradation of land. People in developing countries are not concerned about their future meals. They ignore future food productivity, which leads to unsustainable natural resource management practices. The cost of food production is rising every year. Land deterioration occurred in the developing regions due to overgrazing, deforestation, land clearing, increased soil salinity, water logging, etc. Restoration of degraded land is a major concern in India. Rapid urbanization is also a major concern which causes decrease in the area of available land for cultivation in rural areas.
Keywords: Land degradation, Desertification, Food Security, Desertification, Agroforestry, Mycorrhizae, Microbes
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