Repositioning fertilizer manufacturing subsidies for improving food security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in China

China removed fertilizer manufacturing subsidies from 2015 to 2018 to bolster market-oriented reforms and foster environmentally sustainable practices.However,the impact of this policy reform on food security and the environment remains inadequately evaluated.Moreover,although green and low-carbon technologies offer environmental advantages,their widespread adoption is hindered by prohibitively high costs.This study analyzes the impact of removing fertilizer manufacturing subsidies and explores the potential feasibility of redirecting fertilizer manufacturing subsidies to invest in the diffusion of these technologies.Utilizing the China Agricultural University Agri-food Systems model,we analyzed the potential for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes regarding food security and environmental sustainability.The findings indicate that removing fertilizer manufacturing subsidies has reduced greenhouse gas(GHG)emissions from agricultural activities by 3.88 million metric tons,with minimal impact on food production.Redirecting fertilizer manufacturing subsidies to invest in green and low-carbon technologies,including slow and controlled-release fertilizer,organic-inorganic compound fertilizers,and machine deep placement of fertilizer,emerges as a strategy to concurrently curtail GHG emissions,ensure food security,and secure robust economic returns.Finally,we propose a comprehensive set of government interventions,including subsidies,field guidance,and improved extension systems,to promote the widespread adoption of these technologies.

Soybean maize strip intercropping:A solution for maintaining food security in China

The practice of intercropping leguminous and gramineous crops is used for promoting sustainable agriculture,optimizing resource utilization,enhancing biodiversity,and reducing reliance on petroleum products.However,promoting conventional intercropping strategies in modern agriculture can prove challenging.The innovative technology of soybean maize strip intercropping(SMSI)has been proposed as a solution.This system has produced remarkable results in improving domestic soybean and maize production for both food security and sustainable agriculture.In this article,we provide an overview of SMSI and explain how it differs from traditional intercropping.We also discuss the core principles that foster higher yields and the prospects for its future development.

Food security amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Central Asia:Evidence from rural Tajikistan

Food security has been long understudied in the context of Central Asia.We present an analysis examining household-level food demand for Tajikistan and assessing the magnitude of its food security changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.Based on an extensive household survey data set from Tajikistan,we estimate the expenditure,income,and price elasticities for nine food categories using the QUAIDS model.Then,we develop a microsimulation model using the estimated elasticities to assess the dual impact of declining remittance income and rising food prices stemming from the pandemic shock.There are significant differences in demand elasticities across food groups,with high elasticities observed for nutritious foods,such as meat,fruit,eggs,and milk,in rural households.Moreover,our findings show that changes in remittance income and food prices significantly negatively affected food security for rural households during the COVID-19 pandemic.These findings have important implications for policymakers concerned about rural livelihoods and food security in remittance-receiving economies during the post-pandemic period.

Dietary Diversity and Food Security Status among Cameroonian Adults Living in Semi-Urban Areas: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Food security is one of the greatest challenges that most African countries face. It is a concept that considers not only food quantity but also food quality. The objective of this study was to describe dietary diversity and food security status at the individual level in Cameroonian populations. Methods: A total of 1180 men and women aged 20 and over and living in the West, North West, and Littoral regions of Cameroon were recruited. Data on dietary habits were collected through the frequency of consumption of various food groups. Dietary diversity was assessed using a 24-hour dietary recall. Food security status was determined by combining two indicators (food consumption score and individual food diversity score). Results: The mean dietary diversity score of the population was 3.53 ± 1.44, p Conclusion: The diet diversity of adults living in the West, North West, and Littoral regions of Cameroon is medium. Although half of the study population was food secure, there is a need to implement food security policies further to reduce food insecurity among the Cameroonian population.

The Role of Plantain in Promoting Food Security: A Review

Plantain is a food security crop of significant nutritional value in the global south. Yet there are significant post-harvest losses, especially at the senescent stage. This review seeks to give a general overview of the crop, its nutritional significance and the technologies that can be adopted to enhance its utilisation at its senescent stage. In West Africa, plantains are eaten at all ripening stages, yet processing is limited to the unripe and semi-ripe. Adoptable technologies such as foam-mat drying will enhance its utilisation in indigenous meals and other food applications. This review provides useful insight to optimize the use of plantain to prevent food waste.

A Comparative Study on Factors Influencing Food Security in China and India

This paper analyzes and compares the key factors influencing food security in two populous countries(China and India),and cate-gorizes them into three types:agricultural production,economic development and income level,and income distribution.Using the prevalence of undernourishment as an indicator of food security,the paper empirically tests the degree of impact of various factors on food security in both countries using Tobit regression and Newey regression methods.The study finds that improving the level of economic development can significantly enhance food security in both countriesꎻreducing the Gini coefficient has a significant impact on India,but not on Chinaꎻincreasing the agricultural production per capita has a much greater effect on China than on India.Therefore,both countries should take measures that are both similar and different according to their national conditions to improve their food security level.

Food Security Problems and Solutions in China Based on the Strategy of Sustainable Agricultural Development

China attaches great importance to food security.With the strong promotion of the government,Chinas grain output has achieved a great feat from"shortage"to"surplus in bumper years"and then to"rising steadily",achieving a record"increase for the tenth consecutive year".From the current balance of food supply and demand in China,the food security situation can be guaranteed on the whole.However,if we analyze the food security in China from the perspective of agricultural sustainable development strategy,there are some difficulties,such as the reduction of cultivated land area,the decline of cultivated land quality,the fragility of agricultural ecological environment,and the transformation of residentsconsumption structure.This paper analyzes the difficulties faced by the development of food security in China under the strategy of sustainable agricultural development,and puts forward that to implement the strategy of sustainable agricultural development,it is necessary to realize the coordinated development of food security,science and technology,ecological environment,resources and society.

Food Security in Developing Countries: Factors and Mitigation

Since 1976, eradicating hunger has become one of the priority objectives of the United Nations, which is included in the Charter of Human Rights;the right to get adequate food. The qualification of food security in time and space must analyze not only the three components it covers but also the relationships that these three components maintain. Climate change contributes to food insecurity, but it is not the only factor. To address food insecurity in various forms, greater food security must be combined with improved sustainable agricultural practices with minimal strain on the environment. This review of literature insists on the principles of food security, which in particular allows a better understanding of food insecurity in developing countries and favors a greater contribution of agriculture and food systems in general to nutritional progress.

Relevance of Advanced Plant Disease Detection Techniques in Disease and Pest Management for Ensuring Food Security and Their Implication: A Review

Plant diseases and pests present significant challenges to global food security, leading to substantial losses in agricultural productivity and threatening environmental sustainability. As the world’s population grows, ensuring food availability becomes increasingly urgent. This review explores the significance of advanced plant disease detection techniques in disease and pest management for enhancing food security. Traditional plant disease detection methods often rely on visual inspection and are time-consuming and subjective. This leads to delayed interventions and ineffective control measures. However, recent advancements in remote sensing, imaging technologies, and molecular diagnostics offer powerful tools for early and precise disease detection. Big data analytics and machine learning play pivotal roles in analyzing vast and complex datasets, thus accurately identifying plant diseases and predicting disease occurrence and severity. We explore how prompt interventions employing advanced techniques enable more efficient disease control and concurrently minimize the environmental impact of conventional disease and pest management practices. Furthermore, we analyze and make future recommendations to improve the precision and sensitivity of current advanced detection techniques. We propose incorporating eco-evolutionary theories into research to enhance the understanding of pathogen spread in future climates and mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks. We highlight the need for a science-policy interface that works closely with scientists, policymakers, and relevant intergovernmental organizations to ensure coordination and collaboration among them, ultimately developing effective disease monitoring and management strategies needed for securing sustainable food production and environmental well-being.

Challenges of Implementing Participatory Irrigation Management for Food Security in Semi-arid Areas of Tanzania

Participatory irrigation management （PIM） is theoretically assumed to reduce poverty significantly, but its practical experience and challenges are yet researched and documented in Tanzania. The study aimed at assessing challenges observed during implementation of PIM approach for food security in semi-arid areas of Tanzania. Data were collected through questionnaire, participatory rapid appraisal （PRA） tools, key informants interview, Focus Group Discussion （FGD）, observation and literature review. Data collected from questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS. Data fi＇om other methods were analyzed using content analysis. The study revealed that PIM approach has contribution in improving food security at household level due to involvement of communities in water management activities and decision making, which enhanced availability of irrigation water and increased crop production. However, there were challenges observed during implementation of the approach, including the minimum participation of beneficiaries in decision making during planning and designing stages, which means that inadequate devolution of power among scheme owners, inadequate and lack of transparency on income expenditure in water utilization associations （WUAs）, water conflict among WUAs members, conflict between farmers and livestock keepers and conflict between WUAs and village government leaders regarding training opportunities and status. The rules and regulation of WUAs were not legally recognized by the national courts and few farmers who planted trees around water sources. However, it was realized that some of the mentioned challenges were rectified by farmers themselves and facilitated by government officials. The study recommends that the identified challenges need to be rectified for farmers to realize more on the importance of PIM approach as it was realized in other Asian countries.

Research on Economic Impact of Super Rice on Rice Growers and Contribution to Food Security

Super rice is an essendal part of China＇s rice production. Through survey on actual situation of 1568 households of rice growers in Heilongjiang, Hunan and Zhejiang provinces, this paper focused on influence of super rice development on increase of China＇s grain yield, influence on increase of rice growers＇ economic in- come, difference in production cost and profit between the North and the South, as well as profit percentage of super rice in production, processing, and sales. It obtained following results： rice price determines rice growers＇ income; expansion of super rice extension area plays a great role in increase of China＇s grain yield; by 2015 and 2020, keeping the yield of other crops not changed, merely the extension of super rice can increase grain for 5 million tons and 11 million tons separately; super rice significantly increases rice growers＇ economic income; for production cost of super rice, the South is higher than the North, and the profit ratio of cost is up to 35.54% on average; with respect of profit in production, processing, and sales, the ratio is 1：2：1.5; with the yield of other crops unchanged, every increase of 1% in area percentage of super rice to rice will additionally produce 1 million tons of grain for China, which is equivalent to saving the yield of 133 300 hm2 farmland and can additional feed 3.5 million people. In view of importance of super rice production, at the same time of strengthening research on super rice variety, it is required to accelerate expanding production area of super rice in suitable areas. Since the development of super rice can support China＇s ration demand of increasing population, China should make effort to realize ＂one yuan for one mu＂ financial subsidy for super rice of main grain production provinces and counties. Besides, China should establish special financial plan for extension of super rice.

Reform of China's Food Security Policies:Central Government Decentralizing Autonomous Management Right

Guaranteeing the food security is a fundamental state policy of China. Food security needs overall planning of central government,economic benefit allocation of local government,and increase of grain farmers' income. Through analysis on current situations and causes of China's food security,and comparative study on purposes and functions of foreign and domestic grain reserves,it came up with recommendations that central government should decentralize rights of grain production,reserve,sales,and management to grain producing areas and major sales provinces. It is not appropriate for central enterprises to take charge of national food security reserves. And it is required to make a new round of reform in autonomous management right of major grain producing areas and the capacity of the state purchasing social grain reserves.

The prospects for China＇＇s food security and imports： Will China starve the world via imports？

China＇s food supply and demand have significant implications for both China＇s own national food security and that of the world. This study reviews China＇s food security prospects and their implications, focusing on international trade in the coming decade. The results show that China＇s policies for ensuring food security will be enhanced and China will move to sustainable agriculture. Most studies anticipate that China will increase its food and feed imports in the coming decade. China＇s overall food self-sufficiency is likely to fall from 94.5% in 2015 to around 91% by 2025. The greatest increases in imports are likely to be soybean, maize, sugar, and dairy products. However, within the production capacity of the major exporting countries and of many food-importing developing countries, China＇s additional imports of 3 to 5% of its total food consumption in the coming decade are unlikely to threaten global food security. Indeed, the projected imports of feed and several foods could provide opportunities for many exporting countries to expand their production and save global resources.

Soil Database Management Software Development for Optimizing Land Resource Information Utilization to Support National Food Security

Since land resource database development in 1987/1988, a large amount of digital data in spatial, tabular and metadata format has been collected and generated. There are some application softwares of soil database to manage such a large amount of data, i.e.: Side & Horizon (SHDE4), Soil Sample Analysis (SSA), and Land Unit in dbf file, while Site and Horizon is in DataEase formats. The database contains soil physics and chemical property data of each soil horizon from surface to effective soil depth, climate, land surface condi- tions, and other parameters required for soil classification. Currently, database management software for land resources is still based on DOS and is stand alone. The system is not efficient and effectively used as Agri- cultural Land Resource Information System. At present, as a key component of this system requires review and development of new database software is compatible with the development of information technology. This paper explains about development of interactive agricultural land resources information system for op- timizing land resources data utilization. Hopefully, the software can give contributions in national Agricul- tural Land Resources System Information development for supporting food security.

Change of Cultivated Land and Its Implications on Food Security in China

The population growth and demand for high living standard not only increase food demand but also cause more loss of the limited cultivated land resources. Cultivated land loss caused by disasters and the implementation of the ＂Conversion of Cropland to Forest or Grassland＂ project make this situation even worse in China. Thus, there is a problem to be solved imminently that to what extent the cultivated land can guarantee food security of China. Based on time-series data on food production and cultivated land area from 1989 to 2003 and other research results, this paper constructs quality index of cultivated land according to different land quality. Regression models are adopted to predicate changes of main factors from 2004 to 2030, which have great effect on cultivated land area or grain productivity, and verify accuracy with coc^cient of determination （R2）. Nine results were got according to three scenarios of decreasing rate of population growth rate and three cases of urban and rural built-up area per capita. There results show that China＇s food supply can only be maintained at a low to middle level of 370-410kg per capita, that is, China has enough land productivity to meet primary demand of food independently. However, it cannot reach the safe target of 500kg per capita if there is no breakthrough in breeding or no remarkable improvement of irrigation works, when the grain self-sufficiency maintains no less than 80%. To breed productive crops and to improve land productivity by mefiorating low quality cultivated land are appropriate measures to shrink the gap between food demand and supply. The results may offer helpful information for the formulation of policies on population growth, land use, protection of cultivated land.

Framework of SAGI Agriculture Remote Sensing and Its Perspectives in Supporting National Food Security

Remote sensing, in particular satellite imagery, has been widely used to map cropland, analyze cropping systems, monitor crop changes, and estimate yield and production. However, although satellite imagery is useful within large scale agriculture applications （such as on a national or provincial scale）, it may not supply sufifcient information with adequate resolution, accurate geo-referencing, and specialized biological parameters for use in relation to the rapid developments being made in modern agriculture. Information that is more sophisticated and accurate is required to support reliable decision-making, thereby guaranteeing agricultural sustainability and national food security. To achieve this, strong integration of information is needed from multi-sources, multi-sensors, and multi-scales. In this paper, we propose a new framework of satellite, aerial, and ground-integrated （SAGI） agricultural remote sensing for use in comprehensive agricultural monitoring, modeling, and management. The prototypes of SAGI agriculture remote sensing are ifrst described, followed by a discussion of the key techniques used in joint data processing, image sequence registration and data assimilation. Finally, the possible applications of the SAGI system in supporting national food security are discussed.

Development of Hybrid Rice to Ensure Food Security

Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world＇s population and for more than 60% of China population. Increasing rice yield is therefore crucial for solving food shortage problem, ensuring food secruity, and reducing poverty. Given the vast population and limited per capita cultivated land in China, meeting food demands by increasing the yield per unit area with the aid of advanced sciences and technologies would be the only option. Several alternative measures for increasing crop yield, such as building water conservancy facilities, increasing fertilizer application, improving soil texture, forming interrelated cultivation techniques, more effective controlling of pests and diseases, and using of elite varieties, have been undertaken. Among these alternative measures, adopting elite varieties, particularly popularizing super hybrid rice, proves to be the most economical and effective option.

Regional differences of vulnerability of food security in China

In view of food affordability and the threshold for food security, this paper has established an integrated index for assessing the vulnerability of food security in China, which is composed mainly of the balance between food supply and demand, the reserve for food security and the economic capacity for offset food demand. Six types of food security regions are identified based on the data from county-level statistics. At regional scale, China＇s food security is not optimistic. Under normal conditions without the emergence of extreme disasters and decline of grain-sown areas, China＇s most vulnerable areas （Type Ⅵ） account for 30.3% of the total number of counties （cities）, which are unable to meet the ends by food productivity or market based measures at subsistence levels. In China, there are only 14.5% of the counties （cities） that could guarantee well-off food security through grain production （Type Ⅰ） or economic measures to meet the demand by themselves （Type Ⅲ）. According to the different vulnerable levels of food security and its dominant forming factors, vulnerable regions of food security in China could be classified into three categories： （1） Vulnerable regions of food security dominated by natural factors （including Type IV and Type Via）, which account for 39.4% of the total number of counties （cities）, mainly located in fragile ecologic zones, i.e., farming-grazing transitional zones in the marginal areas of summer monsoon, the poor hilly areas in southern China and so on; （2） Vulnerable regions of food security dominated by low ratio of grain-sown areas （including Type VIb and Type Ⅴ）, which account for 16.7% of the total number of counties （cities）, mostly located in the developed areas in the eastern coast of China; （3） Potential vulnerable regions of food security with underdeveloped local economies （Type Ⅱ）, of which 57% are the main grain-surplus regions in China, mainly located in the areas of plains and basins with favorable climate.

A New Indicator for Global Food Security Assessment: Harvested Area Rather Than Cropland Area

Cropland area has long been used as a key indicator of food security.However,grain yield is not solely controlled by the area of the cropland.Therefore,we proposed a new indicator to assess food security.Results show that from 1992 to 2004,the global cropland area increased by 840200 km^(2)(99.4%),but the grain yield increased only by 310 million t(29.1%);and from 2004 to 2015,the cropland area decreased by 39000 km^(2)(4.64%),but the grain yield increased by 370 million t(70.84%).This result showed that grain yield was not linearly correlated with cropland area,and delimiting the threshold of cropland protection may not guarantee food security.Combined with further correlation analysis,we found that the increase in the global grain yield was more closely related to the harvested area(R^(2)=0.94),which indicated that the harvested area is a more scientific and accurate indicator than cropland area in terms of guaranteeing food security.Therefore,if governments want to ensure the food security,they should choose a new and more accurate indicator:harvested area rather than cropland area.

Air pollution, food production and food security: A review from the perspective of food system

Air pollution negatively impacts food security. This paper reviews the current literature on the relationship between air pollution and food security from the perspective of food system. It highlights that agricultural emissions which substantially contribute to air pollution could happen at every stage along the food supply chain. Meanwhile, air pollution can not only affect plant growth and animal health but also shift market equilibrium of both agro-inputs and outputs in the food supply chain and thereby affect food security indirectly. Furthermore, this study evaluates the effects of agricultural policy and energy policy on food security and air pollution, respectively, and provides an overview of potential policy instruments to reduce air pollution while ensuring food security. Finally, we identify the remaining research and policy issues for further studies, mainly focusing on the study of household＇s bounded rational behaviors and the issue of rural aging population.