Food Security Early Warning Systems in Saudi Arabia

Escalated climateClimate risks and calamities due to global warmingGlobal warming and climate variabilityClimate variability made, long before then, the adoptionAdoption of an early warning systemEarly warning system (EWS) a basic human right, which enables individuals, communities, governmentsGovernment, and organizationsOrganization to take adaptive measuresAdaptive measures in due time to save souls, infrastructure, economic assets, and among others. Despite that EWS is axiomatic and long-standing, however, it is yet moseying, especially its application in food securityFood security which is the pith of human development. The role of EWS in mitigating the hasty rate of disastersDisasters related to food insecurityFood insecurity has fetched global attention nowadays, bearing in mind the strong ushering of the United NationsUnited Nations (UN) to increase the adoptionAdoption rate of EWS up to the last mile in the next few years. This chapter synopsis how EWS could contribute to food securityFood security; it also delimits the main components of EWS models, with a special reference to food securityFood security; gaps and opportunitiesOpportunities to increase the effectiveness of food securityFood security EWS models were also analyzed. Results showed that diversified EWS models exist, but with no a wide consensus on its basic components, and food securityFood security ones made no exception. In which, risk knowledgeRisk knowledge, monitoringMonitoring and forecastingForecasting, disseminationDissemination and communicationCommunication, and response remain the generally-agreed components. Lack of a clear objective, data scarcityScarcity, inadequate analysis, and uncertainty in forecastingForecasting. disseminationDissemination of information persisted poor participation of citizens, and lacking of integration remained yet the central challenges facing the effectiveness of the established food securityFood security EWS. Advanced technologiesAdvanced technologies (e.g. remote sensing, Geographical information system, artificial intelligence, cloud data storageStorage, and social media) have the potential to fill these overburden gaps. The regional successful experience in the application of FSEWS is summarized. Raised concerns on climate changeClimate change and sustainabilitySustainability imposed the compelling need to revisit the vogue food securityFood security definition “All people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”; the author suggests that any sustainable and working definition of food securityFood security EWS should empower four pillarsPillars: food supply, sustainabilitySustainability intensification, economic prosperityEconomic prosperity, and quality of lifeQuality of life, which is exemplified in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The institutionalization of a reliable food securityFood security EWS is an adaptive process, depending on sharing experience, lessons learned, participation, and partnerships at global, regional, national, and local levels.