As we mentioned in the introduction on the subject of food security, which is one of the most important vital and national issues for anyCountry that seeks to have full sovereignty and that it directly affects the citizens, and these effects are reflected negatively and positively
By changing the food security index, so we need here to go back a little and start defining the concept of food security: The term food
Security refers to the availability of food for people without any shortage, then we can say that food security has actually been achieved
When we reach a stage in which the individual is not afraid of hunger or that he is not exposed to it, and is used as a criterion to prevent
The occurrence of food shortages in the future or its interruption due to several factors considered Dangerous, including political conflicts
And wars, climate change and other problems that hinder the availability of this matter.
In fact of the matter, it is possible to divide the concept of food security into two main levels or two phases, if you will, namely the absolute
And the relative, so the absolute is defined as the fact that a single country produces food within it at a level equal to or higher than the local
Demand and its rates, and it can often be considered that it achieves the concept of complete self-sufficiency. As for relative food security,
It refers to the extent of the state’s ability to produce and find what the people or individuals need in terms of goods and food, in part, in
The pursuit and development in order to reach perfection.
As for the focus of our discussion here, “Iraq” and the level of food security in the country, unfortunately and for a long time, food security,
Which is the cornerstone of Iraqi national security and the actual heart of the country’s true sovereignty, did not receive special care,
Or attention in proportion to the size of the issue by the successive Iraqi governments over the course of Long periods. It continued to depend
In most of its food sources on imports from abroad, and the food security system was not activated as necessary, perhaps due to the many conflicts
And wars raging in the country over the past four decades overtly and for two decades before it in a foggy and unclear manner,
And let us not forget that one of the most important causes of conflict is the loss and deterioration of food security. Therefore, the relationship
Between food security and community security “a conflict free society” is a reciprocal relationship, one of which affects the other adversely.
Of course, the food security system in Iraq has been greatly affected and started to deteriorate since 1991, as the multilateral economic blockade
On Iraq by a UN decision caused great damage in the period between 1990 and 2003. The food security situation has deteriorated. After 1996,
The oil-for-food program led to the easing of the embargo somewhat by allowing the use of oil exports under United Nations control in importing food,
But the food security situation remained worse than it was before 1990, because the idea of exchanging oil for food in itself constitutes
The opposite of the concept of food security.
Of course, the situation continued until the year 2003 and the end of the UN blockade imposed on the country, but !!
It was assumed and very obvious, according to what was circulated about Iraq after the overthrow of the regime,
And how the situation in the country would change from one state to another, better, that the governments that came
To rescue the Iraqis and pull them out of what they were in were supposed to work seriously to secure the livelihood
Of this citizen in a rich country like Iraq ,
And securing the Iraqi citizen from even thinking about the issue of food, and that a day may come when he will not
Be able to provide food for his children, and what happened was the exact opposite. Food security has deteriorated
Due to the politicians being busy with sharing wealth and political gains, the agricultural system began to decline
And is still collapsing until this moment, the collapse of the industrial system and other reasons, which in its entirety
Produced a country that today suffers from a real problem, which is the problem of complete food insecurity if the situation continues as it is.
One of the real examples that warns of food insecurity in the country is the population increase from 23.5 million people in the year 2000 to about
39 million people in 2019, which means an increase of 66 percent within 20 years, and the problem here is not the population increase in itself,
But the remaining of the food supplies the same. Without being able to keep pace with this increase, and here the danger of not paying attention to
The food security file, and also examples that can be put forward in this regard, “Iraq imports more than 60% of its food needs. Therefore, in the
Event of shocks in the global food supply chains or the collapse of the state budget and the creation of Almost total dependence in the food system
On the state, the country would literally suffer from hunger if that happened.
In conclusion, food security in Iraq is based on three main axes:
The nutritional gap.
-Ration card.
-Self-sufficiency.
We pause here so as not to linger on the dear reader, and in the third part we will complete a simplified and detailed explanation of the three axes.
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