Food Security

Question 1

What is national food security?

Answer 1

Having sufficient food to adequately feed all the individuals in a country.

Question 2

How is South Africa at a national level secure?

Answer 2

• produces its main staple foods
• exports surplus food and wine.
• import what it needs to meet food requirements

Question 3

What does household access to food depend on?

Answer 3

• regular supply of food

- being able to pay for food

Question 4

What affects food security?

Answer 4

• Human population growth
• droughts and floods
• Poor farming practices
• Monoculture
• Pest control
• Loss of topsoil

Question 5

How does Human pop affect food security?

Answer 5

Domestic consumption of food will be more than its production.

Question 6

How does droughts and floods affect food security?

Answer 6

Cause crop failure which reduces the amount of available food

Question 7

What happens in many wet areas?

Answer 7

They receive more rain, more frequently, lead to more floods that damage crops.

Question 8

What happens in dry areas?r

Answer 8

Receive even less rain, longer droughts, which lead to desertification of drylands

Question 9

What is monoculture?

Answer 9

Planting one crop species in the same area for extended periods

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of monoculture?

Answer 10

• Soil erosion
• Leaching of macro- and micro-nutrients
• pollution of rivers
• no genetic variety in plants,prone too:
  
  • disease
  • infections of pest

Question 11

Why are pesticides used for pest control?

Answer 11

protect crops and help to ensure food security

Question 12

What are pesticides?

Answer 12

toxic chemicals used to control crop damage by insects, bacteria…

Question 13

What happens when pesticides are over- used?

Answer 13

• Accumulate in food chains
• kill natural predators
• cause pesticide resistant species
• interfere with breeding of mammals and birds.

Question 14

Why does soil erosion occur, when top soil is washed away.?

Answer 14

• Change in the structure of the soil

- lack of vegetation to bind soil

Question 15

What is soil erosion?

Answer 15

The removal of soil by water or by wind

Question 16

What are fertilisers?

Answer 16

Any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to the soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants.

Question 17

Why are fertilisers important?

Answer 17

Ensure high crops to yield.

Question 18

Why are fertilisers becoming a problem?

Answer 18

farmers often:

• apply more than they should, impacts nutrients on soil and crops
• use cheapest fertiliser

Question 19

How can the problem with the use of fertilisers be solved?

Answer 19

applied in a more balanced way.

Question 20

What is genetic engineering?

Answer 20

Isolating genes that control a specific trait of an organism and insert genes into other organisms which will then have the required trait?

Question 21

Why are crops genetically engineered?

Answer 21

generate more useful and productive crop varieties containing new combinations of genes

Question 22

What are the advantages of genetic engineering?

Answer 22

• Give increased yields to help sustain food security

- create plants to withstand long droughts, more crops can be grown in different areas.

Question 23

What are the disadvantages of genetic engineering?

Answer 23

• Genetic diversity reduced due to growth in monocultures
• possible health risks
• costly
• interbreeding can occur.

Question 24

What is Household food security?

Answer 24

access by all individuals to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, to live a healthy and productive life.