Back to Search
Start Over
Wither the self-sufficiency illusion? Food security in Arab Gulf States and the impact of COVID-19
- Source :
- Food Security, 757–760
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Past approaches to food security in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were informed by concerns about food availability. They aimed at domestic self-sufficiency and self-sufficiency by proxy (via farmland investments abroad). These strategies have failed. Water scarcity at home increasingly compromises agricultural production. Farmland investments abroad have not matched ambitious related announcements due to a complex mixture of commercial, socio-economic and political factors. They do not contribute meaningful quantities to the Gulf countries’ food imports. The failure of such strategies has prompted a shift of focus instead towards value chain management as a means to secure food availability. Rather than trying to fight food import dependence, the Gulf countries now accept and manage it. However, malnutrition that leads to high levels of obesity and diabetes constitutes a risk factor in the face of COVID-19. Food accessibility for vulnerable population segments such as migrant labour is another issue that requires yet further policy measures, such as safety nets – whose expansion would be politically controversial if not impossible, however.
- Subjects :
- Ernährungspolitik
030309 nutrition & dietetics
Selbstversorgung
epidemic
spezielle Ressortpolitik
Value chains
Nordafrika
Political science
Social policy
0303 health sciences
Food security
Investition
Agrarproduktion
illness
05 social sciences
Sicherheit
agricultural production
value chain
Krankheit
050202 agricultural economics & policy
Mittlerer Osten
Lebensmittelkontrolle
Landinvestition
Golfstaaten
Pandemie
COVID-19
Persischer Golf
supply
Politikwissenschaft
Persian Gulf
Epidemie
security
Development
Water scarcity
03 medical and health sciences
Politics
Import
0502 economics and business
Development economics
medicine
Versorgung
Wertschöpfungskette
Agricultural productivity
Value chain
nutrition policy
influence
Middle East and North Africa
business.industry
food
Kontrolle
investment
North Africa
medicine.disease
Special areas of Departmental Policy
Opinion Piece
Malnutrition
Agriculture
Safety nets
ddc:320
economic self-sufficiency
Land investments
Einfluss
business
control
Agronomy and Crop Science
Lebensmittel
Food Science
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18764517
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Food security
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....a21bf11f26be1ace1f7d0541f16dc69a