Grain reserves are an important part of a food security strategy. Reserves are an obvious and practical tool that has been in use for thousands of years. They are proven to be effective. They are not on their own sufficient to ensure food security, and, like any tool, they can be counter-productive if they are not properly established and managed. But they are worth the effort.

Agricultural trade, too, is important, including trade in regional and global markets. Trade, too, has also been important for thousands of years, and it remains central to food security. Globally, the total volume of food that crosses international borders is relatively small, but it is none the less critically important, especially for particular countries and regions, among them some of the poorest regions in the world. When it comes to protecting food security, even relatively tiny volumes of food (whether in a reserve or in trade) can come to have disproportionately large importance.

Picture: Two baskets of grain. Photo: Fernando Farpón Alvarez. Original: WikimediaCommons. License: public domain.