Practical Food Security

Mr. El-Kosairi argues that food security cannot be achieved simply by replacing wheat with other crops on the grounds that they can technically be used to make bread. It requires an economic and water-use assessment that takes into account land productivity, the costs of cultivation, processing, and transport, and the impact of expansion on other crops. He notes that millet yields may be less than one ton per feddan, while wheat yields can approach three tons per feddan under suitable conditions—underscoring the need to calculate returns per feddan and per cubic meter of water before adopting alternatives. He concludes that increasing self-sufficiency begins with improving wheat productivity, developing varieties and farming practices, and reducing losses, while basing crop-allocation decisions on realistic, sustainable studies.

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