Do Renewable Energy and Digitalization Help Achieve Food Security in South Asia by Strengthening the Agricultural Sector ?

Abstract

With the increasing global population and climate change, attaining sustainable food security has become a severe challenge confronting the global economy. Achieving food security amidst growing population and increasing vulnerabilities to climate change has become a serious cause of concern globally. In this regard, the United Nations has introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda 2030 with seventeen SDGs to address the global problem, especially “SDGs 2.1 and 2.4,” aims at ensuring food security through the implementation of resilient agricultural practices for adapting to climate change vulnerabilities. To this note, this study incorporates effects of renewable energy consumption and ICT along with the impact of agricultural production in attaining food security in the South Asian nations spanning from 2000 to 2019. The study has used the “Driscoll-Kraay and MMQR” estimators, considering the probable issues of “cross-sectional dependency, heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation” in the model. The findings of the study reveal that agricultural production exerts a positive impact on food security, whereas renewable energy and ICT are found an insignificant effect on the food security of South Asian nations. Therefore, from a policy perspective, this study suggests that the government should implement stringent policies to promote the use of renewable energy and ICT, making the agricultural sector more climate resilient to ensure food security in South Asian nations and climate-resilient agricultural practices.