University of Kerbala
Dr. Sind Shamel Omer
Dr. Hamid Gehad Abd Oun
To address this subject in a scientific matter, many questions about sustainability first need to be answered and understood. Generally, what do we mean by sustainability development, what are the pillars of sustainability, and whether sustainability has a relation with human and environmental health?
So, let us start with the definition of sustainable development. According to the definition set by Gro Harlem Brundtland (1987), a director of the World Health Organization (WHO), it means “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In other words, we need to conserve natural environmental resources to meet the demands of the present generation without its depletion to maintain future generations. Therefore, according to this definition, sustainable development has three main collaborative pillars: social responsibility, environmental aspects and economic effort, which simply refer to people, the planet and profits. Our main focus will be on achieving environmental sustainability, with a specific emphasis on securing food resources and managing water effectively.
In food security, food and agriculture represent the areas of focus that are dealt with. Accordingly, each person occupying space on this planet has the right to have enough food daily. Unfortunately, reports said that: there is one out of nine people (about 805 million) around the world suffers from hunger. The wrong way to manage food production and availability had a negative impact on our land. There are various factors that can contribute to the rise of food insecurity in numerous nations. Food production and availability, such as the bad management of farming systems like types of fertilization (organic or commercial), crop rotation, and use of pesticides altogether affect the soil health and quality. The use of agricultural land in such an irresponsible way leads to soil erosion and loss of the microbial diversity that supports the growth and production of crops. For example, in the paddy field, the use of urea as a commercial fertilizer rather than organic fertilizers will have a negative effect on the above-ground and underground soil. Above-ground means the imbalance in the microbial diversity that leads to an increase in the type of microorganisms competing with others for nutrition to release by-products that enhance the emission of CO2, one of the gases that cause global warming on the surface. The other reason that leads to an increase in starvation is access to cash crops for the smallholders that need better marketing. Also, the instability of food prices is considered an important factor that affects the ratio of hungry people.
The question is, what are the strategies that mitigate food insecurity?
In fact, many strategies could reduce food insecurity and are easy to practise by farmers and consumers such as:
⦁ Improve the agricultural land by practising efficient techniques by the farmers. This can be achieved by using eco-friendly biofertilizers such as organic fertilizer combined with commercial amendments, using biocontrol agents to diminish the harmful insects and weeds, minimising overgrazing and over-cultivation and choosing an efficient way of irrigation without wasting water. All these factors will enhance soil health and quality and increase the production of crops.
⦁ Develop the routes of food marketing, starting from harvesting, to packaging and transporting until reach to the smallholders and then to consumers. This can be achieved by using efficient strategies that collect the crops efficiently, provide a place for food product storage with optimal conditions that do not affect the quality of crops by monitoring the food state during all the previous processes strictly, and use a fast way to transport the crops until handed to the consumers.
⦁ As consumers, we also have the responsibility to sustain the food in a good manner to avoid food waste from landfills. This can be done by creating a meal plan and storing food properly, and in case of access food, it can be used as a feedlot for livestock and poultry or as a backyard composting by using small composting containers at our home.
⦁ Educating people in their own countries about the challenges of food production is important. An informative program should be developed that explains the risks that may not be clear to most people.
Food availability depends on the amount of water supply. For that, water sustainability is the most important issue that needs to be managed. Iraq is a country suffering from water scarcity due to the low levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the high temperature at the current time increases the rate of evaporation. Many sectors depend on water supply such as agriculture, and industry in addition to daily human consumption.
With all these demands, how can we save water from waste?
Actually, to overcome this problem, we need to be aware and responsible in consuming each drop of water and this could be achieved by:
⦁ Reducing cultivated areas to minimise the consumption of irrigated water.
⦁ Increase the number of stations for sewage treatment to use in agriculture land irrigation.
⦁ In terms of human consumption, there are many ways to conserve water, such as: minimising the time of showers, repairing the dripping taps, and not wasting water for garden irrigation or car washing.
References
⦁ Verma, A. K. (2019). Sustainable development and environmental ethics. International Journal on Environmental Sciences, 10(1), 1-5.
⦁ Kristjanson, P., Neufeldt, H., Gassner, A., Mango, J., Kyazze, F. B., Desta, S., … & Coe, R. (2012). Are food-insecure smallholder households making changes in their farming practices? Evidence from East Africa. Food Security, 4, 381-397.
⦁ Ibrahim, H. I., Ibrahim, H. Y., Adeola, S. S., & Ojoko, E. A. (2022). Post-harvest loss and food security: a case study of major food crops in Katsina State, Nigeria. FUDMA Journal of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology, 8(1), 393-403.
⦁ Chartzoulakis, K., & Bertaki, M. (2015). Sustainable water management in agriculture under climate change. Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia, 4, 88-98.
⦁ Koul, B., Yakoob, M., & Shah, M. P. (2022). Agricultural waste management strategies for environmental sustainability. Environmental Research, 206, 112285.
