ABSTRACT
Food security is one of the global community’s most challenging concerns, and one that critically implicates agricultural production across the world. According to the United Nations High Level Panel on Global Security (2012, 13), an increasing population (expected to reach 9 billion by 2040) will necessitate an increase in food production of 50 percent by 2030. If this is to be achieved significant attention to strategies and actions designed to improve food production will be required. Yet while this remains a critical global challenge, the number of under-nourished people is growing, and food insecurity is unevenly distributed. The most critically affected are those areas where poverty levels are high and those most disproportionately affected are women and children in rural areas (De Schutter 2011). Particularly vulnerable are countries across South Asia where food insecurity is exacerbated by a number of additional factors including climate changes, processes of modernization, globalization, rising levels of fundamentalism, high levels of poverty, and ongoing rural area restructuring (Alston 2015).
