Conceptual frameworks linking agriculture and food security
Citation
Nicholson, C.F., Kopainsky, B., Stephens, E.C., Parsons, D., Jones, A.D., Garrett, J. & Phillips, E.L. (2020). Conceptual frameworks linking agriculture and food security. Nature Food, Vol. 1 (September), pages 541-551. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-00142-3
Plain language summary
We reviewed 36 conceptual frameworks linking agriculture and food security and analyzed their characteristics. We then applied systems modeling conventions to a frequently cited framework to demonstrate how systems modeling tools can improve the usefulness of such frameworks. The adapted framework more clearly highlights important causal and feedback relationships, stocks vs flow variables, and can improve hypothesis development in the course of studying agricultural systems and food security outcomes.
Abstract
Many conceptual frameworks have been developed to facilitate understanding and analysis of the linkages between agriculture and food security. Despite having usefully guided analysis and investment, these frameworks exhibit wide diversity in perspectives, assumptions and application. This Review Article examines this diversity, providing an approach to assess frameworks
and suggesting improvements in the way they are specified and applied. Using criteria-based systems modelling conventions, we evaluate 36 frameworks. We find that many frameworks are developed for the purpose of illustration rather than analysis and do not clearly indicate causal relationships, tending to ignore the dynamic (stability) dimensions of agriculture and food security and lacking clear intervention points for improving food security through agriculture. By applying system modelling
conventions to a widely used framework, we illustrate how such conventions can enhance the usefulness of a framework for overall illustration purposes, delineate hypotheses on agriculture–food security links and examine potential impacts of interventions.