Ensuring food security on small islands states in the context of climate change scenario

Abstract

Food security is a fundamental element for the overall well-being of mankind. Efforts have been made in the last years to ensure food security. Still the results in some parts of the world leave to desire. There are various factors that can cause food insecurity in a country. Economic crisis, bad governance, political instability, drought, soaring food prices and others. However the onset of climate change has brought a new yet more oblique scenario. The production of food in the world is highly dependent on agriculture, which in turn depends almost exclusively on climatic conditions. The onset of climate change has already brought with it more extreme climatic events. As a result hurricanes and tornadoes are becoming increasingly more common, longer dry seasons, possibly followed by heavy rainfalls in some regions, sea level-rise, a rise in the mean sea average temperature has also been observed. All these factors constitute a threat to food security especially in the most deprived and vulnerable regions in the world. Food security in relation to small islands states. Despite their geographical and cultural diversity small islands states in general share common threats and opportunities. The increasingly rapid population not supported with job opportunities, the remoteness from mainland, the frequency of natural disasters, the lack of economies of scale, the excessive reliance on imports are some of the limitations commonly faced in these small states. The research was conducted to shed more light on the issue of food security on small islands states in the context of a climate change scenario. For this purpose the research was divided in the primary research where by means of qualitative analysis respondents were asked if they consider climate change to impinge on food security on small islands states. Respondents were also asked to choose which adaptation method suited better to small islands states in general and they were also questioned on the fact that most small islands states are extremely reliant on food imports. A desk review of available literature was also made in order to gather different sources of information so as to assess what factors do really contribute to food insecurity on small islands states. The results obtained from both the desk review and the study indicate that climate change is already playing an important role in adversely affecting food security especially on the most vulnerable small islands states. The need of more adequate and more effective yet attainable adaptation methods meant to increase the resilience on climate change are deemed as a necessity to ensure more food security on small islands states.