Regional Assessment of the Food Security Situation in West Africa with GIS

E. Merem, Y. Twumasi, J. Wesley, M. Alsarari, S. Fageir, M. Crisler, C. Romorno, D. Olagbegi, A. Hines, G. S. Ochai, E. Nwagboso, S. Leggett, D. Foster, V. Purry, J. Washington
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引用次数: 6

Abstract

The continent of Africa has tremendous potential in agriculture with more than half of the world’s fertile unused land therein. In the case of West Africa known for its abundance of natural and human resources, farming not only represents approximately over a third of the region’s wealth and more than half of the work force, but the sector is a major catalyst to attaining food security and rapid economic growth. Yet in the past decades, the gloomy performance in food production remains compounded by the dependence on food imports combined with the threats of famine and declining productivity. Even though food security attainment ranks as a major challenge, food production has increased in the recent past but with little success due to unmet goals in the set targets and the socio-economic and physical constraints in the larger agricultural structure. At the same time, there exists limited use of mix scale tools of GIS and descriptive statistics in gauging food security and agricultural activities in West Africa. Without it, managers face the grueling task of making the right decisions in critical areas requiring intervention to ensure food security. For that, this paper will fill that void by analyzing the food security situation in West Africa. Emphasis is on the issues, trends, production activities, factors and efforts. With the results showing changes in farm variables made up of various food types, agricultural land and other essential elements in food production coupled with gradual declines in some nations, GIS mapping points to a gradual spreading of food security indicators with firm concentration across different countries. Just as changes in production associated with food security originate from socio-economic and physical elements, the paper offered various solutions ranging from the need for education and monitoring to the design of regional food information system, efficient policy, storage facilities, precision farming and more use of GIS.
基于GIS的西非粮食安全形势区域评估
非洲大陆在农业方面具有巨大潜力,世界上一半以上的肥沃未利用土地都在非洲。在以自然资源和人力资源丰富而闻名的西非,农业不仅占该地区约三分之一以上的财富和一半以上的劳动力,而且是实现粮食安全和经济快速增长的主要催化剂。然而,在过去的几十年里,粮食生产的惨淡表现由于对粮食进口的依赖以及饥荒和生产力下降的威胁而更加恶化。尽管实现粮食安全是一项重大挑战,但近年来粮食生产有所增加,但由于未实现既定目标以及更大农业结构中的社会经济和物质限制,粮食生产收效甚微。与此同时,在衡量西非的粮食安全和农业活动方面,地理信息系统和描述性统计的混合规模工具的使用有限。没有它,管理人员面临着在需要干预以确保粮食安全的关键领域做出正确决策的艰巨任务。为此,本文将通过分析西非的粮食安全形势来填补这一空白。重点是问题、趋势、生产活动、因素和努力。由于结果显示了由各种粮食类型、农业用地和粮食生产中的其他基本要素组成的农业变量的变化,加上一些国家的逐渐下降,GIS制图指出,粮食安全指标在不同国家逐渐扩散,并具有坚定的集中度。正如与粮食安全相关的生产变化源于社会经济和物质因素一样,本文提供了各种解决方案,从教育和监测的需要到区域粮食信息系统的设计、有效的政策、储存设施、精准农业和更多地使用地理信息系统。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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