Chapter 4

• Food security

  Availability, accessibility and affordability of food to all people at all times
• The poor households are more vulnerable to food insecurity whenever there is a problem of production or distribution of food crops
• Food security depends on

  Public Distribution System (PDS) and government vigilance and action at times, when this security is threatened
• Dimensions of food security

  • Availability of food
  • Accessibility of food
  • Affordability of food
• Food security is ensured in a country only if (1) enough food is available for all the persons (2) all persons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable quality and (3) there is no barrier on access to food
• Due to a natural calamity, say drought


  Total production of foodgrains decreases, creating a shortage of food in the affected areas, leading to high prices that some people cannot afford
• Famine


  Widespread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or decaying food and loss of body resistance due to weakening from starvation
• The most devastating famine that occurred in India was the FAMINE OF BENGAL in 1943, which killed thirty lakh people in the province of Bengal
• Even today, there are places like Kalahandi and Kashipur in Orissa where famine-like conditions have been existing for many years and where some starvation deaths have also been reported
• Groups most affected by food insecurity

  • Landless people with little or no land to depend upon
  • Traditional artisans
  • Providers of traditional services
  • Petty self-employed workers
  • Destitutes including beggars
  • Urban families whose working members are employed in ill-paid occupations and casual labour market
• Seasonal hunger


  Hunger related to cycles of food growing and harvesting, prevalent in rural areas due to the seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in urban areas due to the casual labour
• Chronic hunger


  Consequence of diets persistently inadequate in terms of quantity and/or quality, suffered by poor people due to their very low income and inability to buy food even for survival
• The percentage of seasonal as well as chronic hunger has declined in India
• India is aiming at Self-sufficiency in Foodgrains since Independence
• Food security


  Eliminating current hunger and reducing the risks of future hunger
• Hunger


  • Chronic hunger - consequence of diets persistently inadequate in quantity and/or quality
  • Seasonal hunger - related to cycles of food growing and harvesting
• Green Revolution

  New strategy in agriculture that resulted in increased production of wheat and rice
• After independence, Indian policymakers adopted measures to achieve self-sufficiency in foodgrains
• Indira Gandhi officially recorded the impressive strides of the Green Revolution
• Production of foodgrains has been disproportionate, with the highest rate of growth in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab
• Production of foodgrains has dropped in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Assam, Tamil Nadu
• West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh recorded significant increases in rice yield in 2012-13
• Buffer stock


  Stock of foodgrains (wheat and rice) procured by the government through Food Corporation of India
• Minimum Support Price

  Price paid by the government to farmers for their crops
• Public Distribution System (PDS)


  System of distributing foodgrains and other essential commodities to the poorer sections of society through ration shops
• There are three kinds of ration cards: Antyodaya cards, BPL cards, and APL cards
• The introduction of Rationing in India dates back to the 1940s against the backdrop of the Bengal famine
• Several Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAPs) have an explicit food component
• National Food Security Act, 2013


  Act that provides for food and nutritional security at affordable prices and enables people to live a life with dignity
• Under the NFSA, 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population have been categorised as eligible households for food security
• The PDS has proved to be the most effective instrument of government policy in stabilising prices and making food available to consumers at affordable prices
• The PDS has faced severe criticism on several grounds, with instances of hunger prevalent despite overflowing granaries
• Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)


  Scheme launched in December 2000 to provide 25 kg of foodgrains at highly subsidised rates to the poorest among the BPL families, later expanded to 2 crore families
• In 2014, the stock of wheat and rice with FCI was 65.3 million tonnes which was much more than the minimum buffer norms
• High level of buffer stocks of foodgrains is very undesirable and can be wasteful due to high carrying costs, wastage and deterioration in grain quality
• Freezing of MSP for a few years should be considered seriously
• Increased foodgrains procurement at enhanced MSP is the result of pressure from leading foodgrain producing states
• Procurement concentrated in a few prosperous regions and mainly of two crops - wheat and rice - has induced farmers to divert land from coarse grains to rice and wheat
• Intensive utilisation of water in rice cultivation has led to environmental degradation and fall in water level
• Rising Minimum Support Prices (MSP) have raised the maintenance cost of procuring foodgrains by the government