ABSTRACT
Food security, which became a catch phrase in the mid-1990s, can be defined as the success of local livelihoods in guaranteeing access to sufficient food at the household level (Devereaux and Maxwell, 2001). The failure of early solutions to the problem of food insecurity in the 1970s and 1980s was largely attributed to their technological bias, stressing production rather than equitable distribution, access, affordability and utilization. Since then, it has become clear that food security revolves around complex issues that encompass a wide range of interrelated environmental (and climatological), economic, social and political factors. Addressing food security, therefore, requires an integrated approach (as highlighted in Chapter 1 of this volume) that can enable many regions to find adequate and effective solutions to food access and availability issues.
