Increasing the Resilience of the Food Systems

In Islamic States in Face of Future Food Crises

access to nutrition. Examples of mitigation include the Agriculture Cash Flow Support Loan

Scheme in 201-201 gave farmers access to low-cost, flexible working capital finance.

To build long-term stability, strategic steps are required that span human capital development,

research, and diversifying livelihoods, underpinned by cooperation on many levels (i.e. bilateral,

regional, and international cooperation). For example, the U.S. government land grant system—

which gave ownership of land to individual states in 1862—provided land to colleges that

offered agriculture education programs to encourage research projects in agriculture. In the FY

2018 Farm Bill, Congress reauthorized $700 million per year for research, with priority areas

spanning plants, animals, food safety, bioenergy, agriculture systems and technology, and

agriculture economics and rural communities.

The European Union (EU) highlights the critical importance of cooperation in establishing

resilient food systems. Notably, the EU provides funding for a number of projects that benefit

the agricultural sector in Ireland, including the Rural Development Program, the Horizon 2020

program, and the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and

Sustainability.

The OIC as a whole has substantial room for improvement in food system stability, with only the

GCC countries and Malaysia among the top 45 most food-secure countries in the world.

However, it is important tosegment the OIC into distinct groups based on food system maturity

and security. This results in four distinct groups: established agri-food production leaders; food

secure, import dependent members; lagging, high-potential exporters; and, last and most

vulnerable, the least-developed, food-insecuremembers. This segmentation is necessary for the

development of tailored approaches that can meet the needs of each OIC member.

National Academy Press. (1995). Colleges of Agriculture at the Land Grant Universities: A Profile. Retrieved from

The Economist Intelligence Unit. (2018, October). Global Food Security Index. Retrieved from