What can be done on food security?

Specific programs to improve food security for those in need include:

• helping people improve their farms and productivity;
• constructing food stores and improving roads so that food can be moved to where it is needed or where it can be sold;
• promoting national and international trade to encourage economic growth and poverty reduction;
• improving the status of women and girls so they have more control over the areas in which they have traditionally been involved and can access new areas;
• ensuring that people, and especially children, receive food in emergency situations;
• promoting rural development, including sustainable agricultural, fishery and forestry production and management of natural resources;
• preparing for disasters and emergencies to meet transitory and emergency food requirements in ways that encourage recovery and rehabilitation
• “people centred” strategies such as setting up community based grain banks, helping rural households diversify their sources of income, and social protection schemes;
• improved water management practices such as building infrastructure for more efficient irrigation systems and small-scale water capture, storage and use;
• adopting farming practices aimed at conserving soil moisture, organic matter and nutrients –such as crop rotation and using mulch stubble and straw;
• using short-cycle seed varieties that allow for harvesting before the peak of the cyclone season.