Milieu Features of Food Insecurity and Potential Facets of Rural Aquaculture-Centered Asian Integrated Farming Systems

摘要

The food security is now far more complex issue than it was a generation ago, and a fastunfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to mind-bogglingly highs. Indeed, due to rapid population increase and diet-globalization as well as recent mounting grain-demands dilemmas - Calorie-for-Calorie and Food-to-Fuel, not a single country in the world, regardless rich or poor, so as to be totally food self-sufficient. Even the individual’s nutritional security now depends much on global food distributions and market prices; and in Asia, along with rapid population growth, rising natural calamities, low productivity, and diminishing per capita resources becoming severe threats to the rural poor dwellers. After some concise overviews on such facets with notable reference to Bangladesh, this article mainly targeted to focus on obligatory-need of integrations of the agricultural sub-sectors, basically for the improvements of rural livelihoods. Prior to that, some brief focuses would be on food and nutritional status in Asian countries with a succinct dietary-learning query on Japan. The farm-resources interdependencies, an old practice in Asia, characterized by various cycles and recycles, offers new hopes; and some innovative integrated farming systems are emerging as de rigueur to enhance the production of animal (poultry, eggs, milk, fish, etc.) and plant (vegetables, fruits, etc.) foods from the same unit of land. The recent surge of interests in aquaculture-centered farming integrations are due to growing concern to maximize productivity through optimum resources-utilization in a world undergoing rapid population growth, severe malnutrition, low productivity, and diminishing per capita resources. Indeed, small-scale such integrated farming practices could play diverse roles towards the improvement of rural livelihoods, if designed and promoted for the disguised family labors including women as homestead and/or near-by pond-dike production programs. The prime purposes here are to provide a precis on concepts, goals, and potential roles of Asian aquaculture-based small-scale integrated farming models, related impacts, and then some field level experiences. The article also recaps the status of Asian livestock and aquaculture as well as rationalized the requisites of a ‘blue revolution’ towards rapid promotion of aquaculture-based farming integrations.