It is well known that governments can play an effective and indirect role in achieving food security through policies to support farmers, land reclamation, water resources development, and directing agricultural imports and exports. This approach was discussed in a previous article.
These centralized solutions may be effective, but they require large budgets that may not be managed as in the Egyptian case, or you may not find a central government to implement them as in the Yemeni, Somali, Syrian, Palestinian, and even Sudanese cases.
Here, the need arises for decentralized solutions or popular efforts that depend primarily on directing the micro-resources of individuals, as well as activating the role of charitable organizations.
It is best able to mobilize and direct communities further from the center.
The role of citizens is indispensable in achieving food security, as food is a resource that is taken from them and returned to them, and the use of intermediaries in the food chain has high costs that the article cannot list.
This is because the food chain begins in the hands of citizens and on their farms and ends in the mouths of their children.
In addition, the contribution of charitable work to achieving food security is still limited compared to its prominent role in health care, religious education and social development.
This is what we will discuss in the following lines:
Optimal use of cultivated areas
Bridging the Arab food gap requires adopting practices to exploit every inch of the limited agricultural areas.
A practice to call for is the cultivation of shade vegetables on fruit and corn farms.
The most common shade vegetables in the Arab environment are molokhia, spinach, watercress, radishes, green onions and lettuce, not to mention cabbage.
Thus, hundreds of thousands of acres of fruit and palm trees can be cultivated with these short-lived, high-nutritional crops.
Let us remember that many fruit trees (such as grapes, guavas, and apricots) lose their leaves in the winter, allowing their farms to be used for winter crops.
In the same context, it is possible to take advantage of the wasted areas in roads, the edges of canals and riverbeds, by planting them with fruits, such as palm trees, mangoes, apricots and berries.
It is common in the Arab Gulf countries to plant palm trees on the edges of roads and in the gardens of government agencies, while Egyptians accept ornamental trees, the most famous of which is the ficus tree.
Rice fields, rivers, canals and lakes can also be exploited for raising fish, ducks and geese. This agricultural activity is widespread in Asian countries.
I propose to offer large areas of the shores of the seas, lakes and rivers to the people to benefit from them and to build farms for fish, ducks or geese.
It is noteworthy that the Fisheries Development Authority in Egypt used to place the fry of small fish in the Nile.
One of the activities worthy of attention is raising goats and sheep on weeds on the farm, and this activity reduces dependence on traditional grain and fodder.
Specifically, goats are an effective biological means for controlling weeds in fruit and date farms, and they can be fed on agricultural waste.
It is noteworthy that the Egyptian farmer in the past used to adopt a policy of self-sufficiency.
He grows what he needs of onions, beans, turnips, radishes, cabbage and cauliflower.
One of his economic genius was that he planted it on the edges of the irrigation channels and the borders of the field in order to benefit from these wasted areas in the management of the farm.
The farmer himself used to plant the fenugreek crop with wheat to increase soil fertility and raise the productivity of the acre, in what is termed the policy of loading agricultural crops.
In the same way, turnips and radishes can be planted in the alfalfa crop to prevent burning.
In addition, rural women in the past were self-sufficient in pickles, and some of them were made from orange and lemon peels and cabbage waste.
Find new sources of food
Our Arab environment has primary sources of human and animal nutrition, and we must exploit them to face the current food crisis.
As for human food, there are the locusts that the people of the Arabian Peninsula and the Sudanese accept, and it is a good source of protein that is permissible to eat.
From time to time, deadly hordes of desert locusts invade our country, sometimes reaching 30 million locusts per swarm.
Fortunately, it can be dried and carried over to future seasons.
In the same context, Sheikh Ibn Al-Uthaymeen issued a fatwa permissible to eat crocodiles.
Food herbs are also available in abundance in Arab farms and environments, such as watercress, chard, hummus, and siris.
In addition, goats, chickens, ducks, ostriches and geese can be employed in the biological control of weeds and harmful insects on farms.
Manual resistance takes great effort and resources from farmers.
In addition, chemical resistance harms human health and limits the ability of commodities to compete globally.
It is worth noting that the geese that are used in biological resistance to weeds are called Geese Weeders.
This biological method of controlling weeds and rodents is common in countries such as Thailand and the United States.
In other words, farms of rice, corn, and fruits can be converted into open farms for raising ducks, geese, and chickens, which ultimately increases soil fertility and doubles crop yields.
Food recycling
It is known that agricultural activities and the food chain produce accumulated piles of agricultural waste that can be recycled in the food chain.
For example, the straw of rice crops, sugar cane, corn, and cotton can be used as food for cattle, goats, and herds of camels, and can be used in the manufacture of organic fertilizer, thus increasing the productivity of an acre.
It is common for farmers to burn these residues after harvesting, thus polluting the environment and wasting these valuable resources.
Similarly, sheep can be grazed on fields of yams, yams, beans, groundnuts, cotton and wheat after harvest to dispose of agricultural residues.
In the same context, some Arab countries - such as Syria and Saudi Arabia - have developed natural pastures by bringing in desert grass seeds that tolerate drought and salinity from America, Australia and Iraq.
Thus, the reliance on grains and traditional fodder to feed the herds of livestock is reduced, to be provided to humans.
The role of the housewife
Efforts to bridge the food crisis are not limited to farms only, but the housewife can play a vital role as well.
For example, they can reduce food losses by cooking whole vegetables without peeling or trimming them.
This diet is suitable for cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini and eggplant crops.
In the past, Egyptian women mastered making pickles from orange peels, cabbage leaves, and some fruits that fall from their trees before ripening.
It has also become popular to make healthy and tasty bread from wheat bran.
It is common for housewives to soak wheat, beans, cowpeas and beans in water before cooking, which increases their volume and value.
There are other methods that rely on mixing basic vegetables with other herbs to increase their size, improve their taste, or maximize their nutritional value.
For example, rural women used to mix mallow with chard, sorrel, or purslane when cooking.
These herbaceous plants are abundant in agricultural fields and compete with major crops for major soil elements.
There are other practices that focus on storing food for long periods. Specifically, vegetables and fruits can be preserved by salting, sugaring, and drying.
Thus, the effects of price fluctuations are mitigated, as well as the transfer of surplus food commodities from the season of abundance to the seasons of scarcity and destitution.
Food security population methods
Accordingly, the scarcity of water resources in our Arab environment and the limited pastoral areas push us to adopt new models for grazing and livestock development, recycling agricultural waste, exploiting every inch of the cultivated area, and searching for non-traditional sources of food. However, the problem lies in educating members of society, This is the role of cooperative societies, the media, schools and mosques.
For example, the Bonyan Development Foundation in the Yemeni governorate of Sana'a launched an initiative to distribute support for the project of planting one million grape seedlings to community members.
The aforementioned community of practices requires awarding outstanding housewives and farmers and presenting their experiences to the public in various media.
For example, the Saudi National Center for Palms and Dates offers an award for developing date productivity.
Likewise, Misr Hitech International Seed Company distributed 1,160 prizes of tractors and pest control machines to distinguished farmers.
And let's not forget the role of mosques in raising awareness of the importance of planting trees as an ongoing charity.
Among the stories worth mentioning is that the people of the Sedwan Center in Al-Samar in Saudi Arabia distributed two thousand mulberry trees as ongoing charity on behalf of their sheikh, Ali bin Abdullah bin Misfer.
There is a "Green Somalia" campaign to plant 10 million trees in Somalia.