What Can Affect the Availability of Food Research Paper - 57

What Can Affect the Availability of Food - Research Paper Example Availability of natural resources like water, land, and energy affects the current food system. Food producers are competing for scarce natural resources to produce food, which can satisfy the growing population. About 90% of the food supply is coming from the land which becoming scarcer as time goes. The land has been affected by factors like soil erosion and mining making it unproductive leading to little availability of food to the people. The increased infection of diseases and malnutrition has affected most people making them migrate to urban areas where they can get access to medical facilities. This people in urban areas will rely on food systems for the supply of food thereby exerting pressure to the current food system. Energy is another resource used for food production; energy is used to production of pesticides, irrigation, fertilizers and machines to replace human labour. Technical constraints are another factor affecting food systems. This is because the farmers cannot get accessed to skills and knowledge which are necessary to increase food production. This makes them incur more expenses when producing food, which will discourage them from participating in food production as the costs incurred, is more than the returns. Transport and market infrastructure are another factor that affects food systems. This is because when the infrastructure is poor, and it is hard to get market for the products, producers will have to incur an additional cost of storing the goods in the warehouse when looking for a market. In addition, poor road network will increase transport costs. This will discourage the production of enough food that satisfies the population, hence, affect the food systems.