National security is always directed at ensuring the country's sovereignty, protection of national interests, as well as the provision of sustainable economic development. Food security is a specific dimension of national security. The development of the circumpolar territories in the northern areas of the Asian part of Russia shifts the emphasis of food supply and gives new impetus to the development of agricultural production. In this chapter, the authors argue that the self-sufficiency of northern territories in the Asian part of Russia may be achieved by 2030 by means of development of vegetable production.
TopBackground
Food security was first defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1974 in the midst of a sharp increase in grain price. In the late 1990s, the Rome Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security defined food security as a state of the economy in which the population of the country as a whole and each citizen individually has a guaranteed access to food, drinking water, and other food products in quality, assortment, and volumes, necessary and sufficient for the physical and social development of the individual, ensuring the health and extended reproduction of the population of the country (Valetova, 2007).
The Doctrine of Food Security of the Russian Federation (President of the Russian Federation, 2010) and the Strategy of the National Security of the Russian Federation until 2020 (President of the Russian Federation, 2009) use different approaches to the understanding of food security. Thus, food security is recognized as one of the components of national security, however, no precise concept is proposed. Uskova, Selimenkov, Anischenko, and Chekavinsky (2014) understand food security as a state of food resources, in which food needs are mainly met at the expense of domestic production in the amount sufficient for the normal functioning of the population.
In the circumpolar territories, the emergence of a food security problem is closely related to the development of rural areas. Among the major prerequisites of food and nutrition insecurity in the High North are:
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Harsh natural and agro-climatic conditions;
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Lack of transport infrastructure and small aircraft available for a stable supply of food products;
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Small population;
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Small-scale agricultural production;
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Dependence on the import of knowledge-based and capital-intensive equipment for the agricultural sector;
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Lack of qualified personnel in the agricultural sector capable to work in the conditions of the high north;
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In the case of the russian north, fragmentary and non-systemic development strategy of the agricultural complex;
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Depreciation of the airport and seaport infrastructure in the russian arctic;
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Poor social and economic infrastructure for the development of the population in the high north;
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Poor financing of research centers.