Aspects of Food Security in Brazil - Coursework Example

Food Security in Brazil Table of Content Food Security in Brazil 11 Food Security in Brazil Acronyms/ Abbreviations 3 Executive summary 4 Introduction 5 Study objective 6 Food access 6 Food availability 7 Food utilization 7 Policies to combat food insecurity in Brazil 7 Bosla Familia 8 School Meal program 8 Agriculture improvement 8 Evaluation 9 Conclusion 9 Recommendations 10 Acronyms/ Abbreviations 2 Executive summary 3 Introduction 4 Background 5 Study objective 5 Findings 7 Causes of food insecurity 8 Food access 8 Food availability 8 Food utilization 9 Policies to combat food insecurity in Brazil 9 Bosla Familia 9 School Meal program 10 Agriculture improvement 10 Evaluation 10 Conclusion 11 Recommendations 11 Acronyms/ Abbreviations (WHO)…………..World Health Organization (FAO)……………Food and Agriculture Organization GDP……………...Gross Domestic Product Executive summary Food insecurity remains one of the major issues that Brazil has to deal with despite having capacity to produce adequate food for domestic use and surplus for export. Brazil export of food stuffs minus imports results to available per capita of close to 340 kg per capita annually in grain equivalent although, it outweighs nutritional per capita requirement more than three times. Consequently, it results to food insecurity because both food availability and nutritional per capita annually ought to be equal. Nevertheless, with the introduction of Zero Hunger strategy, Brazil food availability, access and utilization have been achieved. Bolsa famillia program was developed to reduce income inequality across the country by enabling low-income earners afford safe and dietary food. Additionally, the program aimed at improving food utilization especially among children by providing at least 15 percent dietary foods for children in schools across the country. Nearly 47 million children benefited from the initiative by year 2007 indicating a positive progress on improving food security. Ultimately, Zero Hunger strategy worked relentlessly on reducing cost of fertilizer which was increasing at a rate of 6.6 percent each year from 2001 to 2007 in order to encourage farming which consequently leads to food availability. Introduction Food security can basically be termed as a situation where all citizens can afford to physically, economically or socially acquire safe and nutritious food. Brazil has been on crisis on sustaining stable food security because of barriers like food access, availability and utilization. Although, she is in the position to produce sufficient food that can feed domestic market and have extra for export, nearly a quarter of the country’s populations is starving of severe hunger. However, that hunger is attributed to poor policing from the government as they do not ensure that every citizen can access quality food regardless of their income level. Through incorporation of Zero Hunger strategy, the government has been able to reach as many households as possible especially those starving of severe poverty by transferring funds to spend on food in order to improve food security (Fox News Latino, 2011). Additionally, government funding towards reducing extreme poverty helped balance income inequality across different income groups which is purportedly believed to stimulate food insecurity. Background Brazil is the largest country in South America in terms of geographical dimension and population. According to a report by FAO in 2011, Brazil is estimated to have a population of nearly 190 million people. However, considering their population, the GDP obtained annually is relatively low than expected because of high prevalence of poverty. Brazilian government obtained US $ 10,900 per capita in 2011 indicating an extreme inequality between the population and GDP implying that close to 16 million citizens were starving of extreme poverty (Göpel 2009). Notably, it is the fourth largest food exporter in the world because of sufficient capacity to produce enough food for local consumption and surplus for exportation. Besides her massive production, Brazil is still struggling on sustaining a reliable food security because of variance in income level. Food security means that everyone has physical, economic and social access to adequate nutritious and safe food to improve their dietary requirements and living conditions. Study objective General objective Raising awareness about issues related to food security in Brazil and consideration on how to deal with them. Specific objectives To examine factors those cause food insecurity in Brazil. Identification of ways to eliminate causes of food insecurity in Brazil. Examine current measures undertaken by the government and their usefulness in reducing food insecurity in Brazil and their improvement tips. Findings Food insecurity in Brazil is caused by lack of access, availability and utilization of food available in domestic market. However, when measures are undertaken to ensure that all people have physical, social and economic ability to access food, the issue is likely to drop at a significant margin. Fome Zero program is one in kind undertaken by the government to enable reduce food insecurity to nearly a quarter of Brazil population. Causes of food insecurity Food access The primary cause of food insecurity in Brazil is lacking access to food but not production because they have sufficient mechanism to enhance production of adequate food. The reason behind this is that, nearly 30 percent of Brazilian households face food insecurity because of high level of poverty. Notably, 12 million of these percent lives in extreme poverty which consequently exposes them to hunger (Soria, 2003). Inability to afford food has been the greatest threats on food security in Brazil because food may be available but prevailing level of poverty can hinder all people to have economic access on nutritious and safe food for consumption. Poverty can be eradicated through creation of jobs and government funding on households that are extremely on hunger in order to reduce income inequality. Food availability Nonetheless, food insecurity is exacerbated by lack of available food considering that close to 90 percent of food consumed in Brazil is produced in the southern, western and eastern regions of Brazil. However, 60 percent of food insecurity cases reported comes from Northern parts of Brazil because they lack capacity to produce sufficient food for domestic consumption (Barbosa, Narciso, and Biancalana 2009, p.74). Physical access to food by people from northern parts of the country can be denied considering that they can barely produce 10 percent of food consumed in Brazil. However, with proper government policies, food distribution can be enhanced in every part of the country at a lower cost by encouraging regional balance. Food utilization Food utilization is a key factor associated with food security where households are said to be food insecure if they are not in a position to access nutritious dietary (Me Del Grossi 2010). According to World Health Organization (WHO), children under 5 years and having low weight give insight to lack of nutritious food which can typically be termed as food insecurity (Kropiwnicka 2005, p.48). Eradication of nutritious food in Brazil was arrived at through government incentive set to provide at least 15 percent dietary foods to every child in school on daily basis. They did this with the aim of improving health status of the country as well as improving education background. Policies to combat food insecurity in Brazil Introduction of Zero Hunger strategy (Fome Zero) program that was for the first time launched during the tenure of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003 with the aim of fighting against hunger in Brazil (Reel, 2006). The Fome Zero strategy has developed three programs to eradicate food insecurity in the country namely, Bosla Familia, school meal program and agriculture improvement. Bosla Familia Bosla Familia is a program adopted by the government of Brazil to downsize poverty level in the country through financial support to families in extreme poverty level because poverty is purported to pose great threats on food security (Schnell and Saxby 2010, p.45). However, beneficiary families have to convince the government that they are in extreme poverty level for them to qualify from the program. Nonetheless, the amount of money received from the government is dependent on the number of children in a household and is usually transferred to the family mother using electronic cards (Chmielewska and Souza, 2011). In 2009, the program reached close to 12 million families which equates to a quarter of the country’s population thus becoming responsible on reducing poverty level at a rate of 19 percent (Oxfam, 2010). School Meal program Secondly, the School Meal program launched in 1995 has been of great impact on eradicating food problem in the country by availing food to schools especially in areas most hit by hunger (Bittencourt et al. 2013, p.473). The aim of the program is to cover at least 15 percent daily nutritional requirements among children, improve learning capabilities and enhance healthy food habits among children. Interestingly, the program target increased drastically since inception where it reached nearly 47 million children in 2009 (Rocha 2009, p.3). Agriculture improvement Finally, Fome Zero strategy developed a program aimed at supporting families improve agriculture so that the country can be able to produce adequate subsistence food (CONSEA, 2009). This is done through reducing cost of fertilizer inputs that for subsequent years had had significant increase. For example, cost of raw materials used to make fertilizer grew at a rate of 6.6 percent in each subsequent year from 2000 to 2007 and projected to rise at the same rate up to 2010. Evaluation However, through government intervention, cost of fertilizer inputs has downsized by cutting tariffs on fertilizer inputs bought from Argentina. Additionally, government investment on infrastructure aimed at producing own fertilizer has also enabled reduce cost of fertilizer thus motivating farmers (ActionAid, 2009). For example, poverty level fell from 24.3% to 8.4% from 2001 to 2012 while extreme poverty downsized from 14% to 3.5% following reduction on cost of fertilizer inputs in Brazil (Rocha et al. p.520). Additionally, income level of poor grew three times that of wealthier people following government incentive to transfer cash to hunger most vulnerable families to ensure they can access nutritious and sufficient food. Conclusion In conclusion, poverty, food availability and feeding on dietary food have great significant on food security in Brazil. The government has formulated relevant policies aiming to eradicate poverty, increase food availability and campaigning against feeding on healthy food in order to improve living standards. Quality of education made some stripes ahead following government provision of dietary food in schools with the aim of fostering education growth across the country. Ultimately, incorporation of Zero Fome strategy has brought significant improvement on food security in Brazil by reducing income inequality, improving on food utilization and expansion of agriculture through government subsidies on fertilizer components. Recommendations Brazilian government need to formulate policies to enhance stable production regardless of climatic and weather changes as this ensures availability of food throughout. During summer, irrigation programs need to be put in place to ensure that production does not fall and if it does, at a very lower margin. Additionally, the government ought to encourage citizens to feed on dietary food as this helps improve health status implying low mortality rate. Ultimately, Brazilian government has an obligation to balance between domestic consumption and exportation to ensure that domestic market has sufficient accessible and available food. References ActionAid, 2009, ‘Who’s Really Fighting Hunger?’ [pdf] Johannesburg: ActionAid. Available at: http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/whos_really_fighting_hunger_report.pdf Barbosa, A.D, Narciso, T and Biancalana, M., 2009, “Brazil in Africa: Another Emerging Power in the Continent?” Politikon, 36:1, 59-86. Available at http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/Brazil%20in%20Africa%20-%20another%20emerging%20power%20in%20the%20continent.pdf Bittencourt, D. L. et al., 2013, Factors Associated with Food Insecurity in Households of Public School Students of Salvador City, Bahia, Brazil, Journal Of Health, Population & Nutrition, 31, 4, pp. 471-479. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905641/pdf/jhpn0031-0471.pdf Chmielewska, D & Darana, S., 2011. The food security policy context in Brazil. [pdf] International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth. Available at: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCCountryStudy22.pdf CONSEA, 2009, ‘Building up the National Policy and System for Food and Nutrition,’ CONSEA. [pdf] https://www.fao.org.br/download/Seguranca_Alimentar_Ingles.pdf da Silva, J.G. et al., 2010. The Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) Program the Brazilian Experience. [pdf] Ministry of Agrarian Development: Brasília. Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i3023e/i3023e.pdf Fox News Latino, 2011. 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Available at: http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1002%2Fpad.550?r3_referer=wol&tracking_action=preview_click&show_checkout=1&purchase_referrer=onlinelibrary.wiley.com&purchase_site_license=LICENSE_DENIED Soria, N.F 2003, ‘Brazil receives US$1 million for Zero Hunger Project from FAO’, FAO, Available at: http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/13420-en.html [accessed 16 March 2015]. Read More