World's only nation that grows 100 percent of its own food; not US, India, Japan, India, Canada, China, Pakistan, Turkey, the country is...
Food self-sufficiency: Food security is one of the primary necessities of any modern nation, as food self-sufficiency would essentially prevent a major disaster in the country in wake of a war or if global trade is halted. But is there any country on the planet that has achieved complete self-sufficiency in food?
No, the answer is not any major world power like United States, Japan, Russia, China, India, Canada, Pakistan, or Turkey? The only country which is completely self-sufficient in all seven food groups is Guyana, a tiny South American country with a population of just 800,000 (8 lakh). World's only food self-sufficient country?
A small nation located in South America, Guyana is the only country which has achieved complete self-sufficiency in a in all seven food groups- grains, pulses, fruits, vegetables, milk, meat and fish. Guyana's secret lies in its highly-planned agriculture, and balancing of resources, which are so efficiently distributed that the country has the ability to feed its own people, even if every border is closed and the Guyana is cut off from global trade.
According to a joint research conducted by the University of Göttingen (Germany) and the University of Edinburgh (UK), Guyana is only country in the world with complete self-sufficiency in food. What about other countries?
The study, published in the Nature FoodIt journal, examined food-production capacity of 186 countries worldwide and found that Guyana was only one that achieved self-sufficiency in all seven food groups, while China and Vietnam are almost self-sufficient in six food group.
As per the study, only 1 in 7 countries (around 14 percent), have achieved self-sufficiency in five or more groups, while over 1/3 of countries are self-sufficient in only two or fewer food groups.
In contrast, several countries do not even have self-sufficiency in a single food group. The countries include, Iraq, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Macau, Qatar, Yemen, among other. Economic unions lag behind in food self-reliance
While many might believe that a group of nations could perform better together, the study reveals otherwise. As per the data collected by the study, major economic unions are not faring any better, with Gulf Cooperation Council being self-sufficient only in meat, while West Africa and Caribbean Union have become self-reliant in a few groups.
No economic grouping has achieved self-sufficiency in vegetables, according to the study. Food self-sufficiency in India and United States
Despite being a giant agriculture-based economy, India has yet to achieve self-sufficiency in every food group, and is heavily dependent upon food imports, especially cooking oil, pulses, and fruit to meet its food requirements. This is primarily due to India's growing population and climate.
Similarly, while the US uses advanced technology to augment its agriculture, yet self-sufficient in every food group due to lack of diet diversity, and depends upon imports for many essential commodities like seafood or tropical fruits.
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