Food Security through small-scale Sustainable Desert Agriculture and Agro-forestry

Food security, the availability of food, and access to it, has been a concern in arid and semi-arid regions throughout the history.  The incidence and intensity of food insecurity have increased significantly in recent decades due to climate vagaries because of climate change.

In order to improve food security in such regions, desert agriculture and desert agro-forestry has been used as a successful agricultural technique.  Desert agro-forestry has been promoted for growing of crops with the environmental support of trees in desert or arid areas. Canals have been dug up to bring river waters to remote desert areas for desert-agriculture use.   

However, food security still remains an issue in some poor households in the rural desert areas of Rajasthan. A weak welfare infrastructure, widespread insecurity, frequent droughts and limited livelihood opportunities keep many residents in conditions of poverty and vulnerability.

Since 2016, we have initiated a project with a focus on food security and nutrition for women and poor households. The approach includes awareness, food and nutrition awareness, training and resource support to start micro/small scale household food gardens promoting cultivation of vegetables, herbs, food and fruit trees within the households or in the backyards as a mechanism to respond to nutritious food shortages. This project is expected to promote self-sustained initiatives by the affected families at grass-root levels through good case projects.

This project has varied components such as community research, education and awareness on food and nutrition to create a change in people’s mindsets about nutrition through continuing inter-personal and behavioural change communications.

This project is integrated with other projects such as health, women empowerment, micro-finance, grey-water sanitation, sustainable agriculture and organic farming, etc.

As per the 1996 World Food Summit, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. And. food insecurity, on the other hand, is a situation of limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.

Food security incorporates a measure of resilience to future disruption or unavailability of critical food supply due to various risk factors including droughts, supply disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars.