FOOD SECURITY

In India
● The poor households are
more vulnerable to food
insecurity whenever
there is a problem of
production or ● Food security means availability,
distribution of food accessibility and affordability of food
crops. to all people at all times.

● Food security depends

on the Public Food is as essential for living as air is for
breathing.
Distribution System (PDS)
and government But food security means something more than
vigilance and action at getting two square meals.
times, when this security
is threatened.
 Food security has following dimensions:
Thus, food security is ensured in
a country only if: Availability of food means food production within the
country, food imports and the previous years stock
stored in government granaries
(1) enough food is available for all
the persons
Accessibility means food is within reach of every
(2) all persons have the capacity person
to buy food of acceptable quality
and
Affordability implies that an individual has enough
money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to
(3) there is no barrier on access meet one's dietary needs.
to food.
 The 1995 World Food Summit
In the 1970s, food security was understood as declared, “Food security at the
the “availability at all times of adequate individual, household, regional,
supply of basic foodstuffs” (UN, 1975). national and global levels exists
when all people, at all times, have
Amartya Sen added a new dimension to food physical and economic access to
security and emphasised the “access” to food sufficient, safe and nutritious
through what he called ‘entitlements’ — a food to meet their dietary needs
combination of what one can produce, and food preferences for an
exchange in the market alongwith state or active and healthy life” (FAO, 1996,
other socially provided supplies. p.3).
Accordingly, there has been a substantial The declaration further
shift in the understanding of food security. recognises that “poverty
eradication is essential to
improve access to food”.
How is food security affected during a calamity?

● Due to a natural calamity, say drought, total

production of foodgrains decreases.

● It creates a shortage of food in the affected areas.

Due to shortage of food, the prices goes up.

● At the high prices, some people cannot afford to buy

food.

● If such calamity happens in a very wide spread area

or is stretched over a longer time period, it may
cause a situation of starvation.

A massive starvation might take a turn of famine

 FAMINE

A Famine is characterised by 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.
This famine
killed 30 lakh
people in the
province of
Bengal.
 The agricultural labourers, fishermen, transport
workers and other casual labourers were affected the
most by dramatically increasing price of rice. They
were the ones who died in this famine.

Nothing like Bengal famine has happened in India

again.
Natural calamities and pandemics may also lead to
food shortage.

For example Covid-19 pandemic had an adverse

impact upon the food security.

Restriction on movement of people and goods and

services impacted economic activity.

Therefore food security is needed in a country to

ensure food at all times, including calamities and
pandemics.
Who are food insecure?
Although a large section of people suffer from
food and nutrition insecurity in India, the
worst affected groups are:

- landless people with little or no land to

depend upon,

- traditional artisans,

- providers of traditional services,

- petty self employed workers and

- destitutes including beggars.

 In the urban areas:

The food insecure families are those

whose working members are generally
employed in ill-paid occupations and
casual labour market.

These workers are largely engaged in

seasonal activities and are paid very low
wages that just ensure bare survival.
 STORY OF RAMU

Ramu works as a casual labourer in agriculture in Raipur

village. His eldest son Somu who is 10 years old also works
as a pali to look after the cattle of the Sarpanch of the
village Satpal Singh.

Somu is employed for the whole year by the Sarpanch and is

paid a sum of Rs 1,000 for this work. Ramu has 3 more sons
and 2 daughters but they are too young to work on the field.

His wife Sunhari is also (part time) working as house cleaner

for the livestock, removing and managing cow dung. She
gets ½ litre milk and some cooked food along with
vegetables for her daily work. Besides she also works in the
field along with her husband in the busy season and
supplements his earnings.

Agriculture being a seasonal activity employs Ramu only

during times of sowing, transplanting and harvesting.
 STORY OF RAMU

He remains unemployed for about 4 months during the

period of plant consolidation and maturing in a year. He
looks for work in other activities.

Sometimes he gets employment in brick laying or in

construction activities in the village. By all his efforts, Ramu
is able to earn enough either in cash or kind for him to buy
essentials for two square meals for his family.

However, during the days when he is unable to get some

work, he and his family really face difficulties and sometimes
his small kids have to sleep without food. Milk and
vegetables are not a regular part of meals in the family.

Ramu is food insecure during 4 months when he remains

unemployed because of the seasonal nature of agriculture
work.
 STORY OF AHMAD

Ahmad is a rickshaw puller in Bangalore. He has shifted

from Jhumri Taliah along with his 3 brothers, 2 sisters and
old parents. He stays in a jhuggi.

The survival of all members of his family depends on his

daily earnings from pulling rickshaw.

However, he does not have a secured employment and his

earnings fluctuate every day.

During some days he gets enough earning for him to save

some amount after buying all his day-to-day necessities.

On other days, he barely earns enough to buy his daily

necessities.
 STORY OF AHMAD

However, fortunately, Ahmad has a yellow card, which is PDS

Card for below poverty line people. With this card, Ahmad
gets sufficient quantity of wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene
oil for his daily use.

He gets these essentials at half of the market price. He

purchases his monthly stock during a particular day when
the ration shop is opened for below poverty people.

In this way, Ahmad is able to eke out his survival with less
than sufficient earnings for his big family where he is the
only earning member.
The social composition along with the inability
to buy food also plays a role in food insecurity.

The SCs, STs and some sections of the OBCs

(lower castes among them) who have either
poor land-base or very low land productivity
are prone to food insecurity.

The people affected by natural disasters, who

have to migrate to other areas in search of
work, are also among the most food insecure
people.
 A high incidence of malnutrition prevails
among women. This is a matter of serious
concern as it puts even the unborn baby at the
risk of malnutrition.

A large proportion of pregnant and nursing

mothers and children under the age of 5 years
constitute an important segment of the food
The food insecure insecure population.
people are
disproportionately
large in some regions
of the country, such as
economically backward In fact, the states of Uttar Pradesh
states with high (eastern and south-eastern parts),
incidence of poverty, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West
tribal and remote Bengal, Chattisgarh, parts of Madhya
areas, regions more Pradesh and Maharashtra account
prone to natural for largest number of food insecure
disasters etc. people in the country.
 Hunger is another aspect indicating
food insecurity.

Hunger is not just an expression of

poverty, it brings about poverty.

The attainment of food security

therefore involves eliminating current
hunger and reducing the risks of future
hunger.
 Hunger has chronic & seasonal
dimensions
Chronic Hunger: consequence of diets persistently
inadequate in terms of quantity and/or quality.

Poor people suffer from chronic hunger because of

their very low income and in turn inability to buy
food even for survival.

Seasonal Hunger: related to cycles of food growing

and harvesting.

This is prevalent in rural areas because of the

seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in
urban areas because of casual labourers, e.g., there
is less work for casual construction labourers
during the rainy season.

This type of hunger exists when a person is unable

to get work for the entire year.
The percentage of seasonal, as well as, chronic hunger
has declined in India as shown in the above table.
 India is aiming at Self-sufficiency in food
grains since Independence.

Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India,

officially recorded the impressive strides of
Green Revolution in agriculture by releasing a
special stamp entitled ‘Wheat Revolution’ in July
1968.

The success of wheat was later replicated in

rice.

The increase in food grains was, however,

disproportionate.
● The highest rate of growth was achieved in
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which
was 44.01 and 30.21 million tonnes in 2015–16.

● The total foodgrain production was 252.22

Million tonnes in 2015–16 and it has changed
to 275.68 million tonnes in 2016–17.

● Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh

recorded a significant production in field of
wheat which was 26.87 and 17.69 million tonnes
in 2015–16, respectively.

● West Bengal and UP, on the other hand,

recorded significant production of rice 15.75
and 12.51 Million tonnes in 2015–16
respectively.
FOOD SECURITY IN INDIA
Since the advent of the Green Revolution in the
early-1970s, the country has avoided famine
even during adverse weather conditions.

India has become self-sufficient in food grains

during the last 30 years because of a variety of
crops grown all over the country.
 The availability of foodgrains (even in adverse weather
conditions or otherwise) at the country level has further
been ensured with a carefully designed food security system
by the government.

This system has two components:

(a) buffer stock, and

(b) public distribution system.

 1. Buffer Stock is
the stock of
Do you know why this buffer foodgrains, namely
stock is created by the wheat and rice,
2. The FCI purchases
government? procured by the
wheat and rice from
government
the farmers in states
This is done to distribute through the Food
where there is surplus
foodgrains in the deficit Corporation of
production.
areas and among the poorer India.
strata of the society at a
price lower than the market
price also known as Issue
Price. 3. The farmers are
paid a 4. This price is called
This also helps resolve the pre-announced Minimum Support
problem of shortage of food price for their Price (MSP).
during adverse weather crops.
conditions or during the
periods of calamity.
 MSP

The MSP is declared by the government every year

before the sowing season to provide incentives to
farmers for raising the production of these crops.

The purchased food grains are stored in granaries.

 The food procured by the FCI is distributed through
government regulated ration shops among the poorer
section of the society.

This is called the Public Distribution System (PDS)

Ration shops are now present in most localities,

villages, towns and cities.

There are about 5.5 lakh ration shops all over the
country.
Ration shops also, known as Fair Price Shops, keep stock
of foodgrains, sugar, and kerosene for cooking.

These items are sold to people at a price lower than the

market price.
 Any family with a ration card can buy a
stipulated amount of these items (e.g. 35 kg of
grains, 5 litres of kerosene, 5 kgs of sugar etc.)
every month from the nearby ration shop.

There are 3 kinds of ration cards:

(a) Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the

poor;

(b) BPL cards for those below poverty line; and

(c) APL cards for all others.

 Rationing

The introduction of Rationing in India

dates back to the 1940s against the
backdrop of the Bengal famine.

The rationing system was revived in the

wake of an acute food shortage during
the 1960s, prior to the Green Revolution
 In the wake of the high incidence of poverty levels, as
reported by the NSSO in the mid-1970s, three important
food intervention programmes were introduced:

Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains

(in existence earlier but strengthened thereafter)

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

(introduced in 1975 on an experimental basis)

Food-for-Work (FFW) (introduced in 1977–78).

CURRENT STATUS OF PUBLIC
THE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
Public Distribution System (PDS) is the most
important step taken by the Government of India
(GoI) towards ensuring food security.

In the beginning, the coverage of PDS was

universal with no discrimination between the
poor and the non-poor.

Over the years, the policy related to PDS has

been revised to make it more efficient and
targeted.
In 1992, Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS)
was introduced in 1,700 blocks in the country.

The target was to provide the benefits of PDS to

remote and backward areas.

From June 1997, in a renewed attempt, Targeted Public

Distribution System (TPDS) was introduced to adopt
the principle of targeting the ‘poor in all areas’.

It was for the first time that a differential price policy

was adopted for poor and nonpoor.
 Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)

● AAY was launched in December 2000. Under this

scheme one crore of the poorest among the BPL
families covered under the targeted public
distribution system were identified.

● Poor families were identified by the respective state

rural development departments through a Below
Poverty Line (BPL) survey.

● 25 kilograms of foodgrains were made available to

each eligible family at a highly subsidised rate of
Rs. 2 per kg for wheat and Rs. 3 per kg for rice.
 Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)

● This quantity has been enhanced from 25 to

35 kg with effect from April 2002.

● The scheme has been further expanded

twice by additional 50 lakh BPL families in
June 2003 and in August 2004.

● With this increase, 2 crore families have

been covered under the AAY.
 Further, in 2000, two special schemes were
launched viz., Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and
Annapurna Scheme (APS) with special target
groups of ‘poorest of the poor’ and ‘indigent
senior citizens’, respectively.

The functioning of these two schemes was linked

with the existing network of the PDS.
● The PDS has proved to be the most effective
instrument of government policy over the
years in stabilising prices and making food
available to consumers at affordable prices.

● It has been instrumental in averting

widespread hunger and famine by supplying
food from surplus regions of the country to
the deficit ones.

● In addition, the prices have been under

revision in favour of poor households in
general.

● The system, including the minimum support

price and procurement has contributed to an
increase in foodgrain production and
provided income security to farmers in
certain regions.
However, the Public Distribution System has
faced severe criticism on several grounds.

- Instances of hunger are prevalent despite

overflowing granaries.

- FCI godowns are overflowing with grains, with

some rotting away and some being eaten by
rats.
Graph 4.2 shows the difference in foodgrain stocks in Central
pool and its stocking norms.
 SUBSIDY

Is a payment that a government makes to a

producer to supplement the market price of a
commodity. Subsidies can keep consumer prices
low while maintaining a higher income for domestic
producers.
1. In 2014, the stock
of wheat and rice
with FCI was 65.3
million tonnes which 2. However, these
was much more than remained consistently
the minimum buffer higher than the buffer
norms. norms.

3. The situation 4. There is a general

improved with the consensus that high
distribution of level of buffer stocks
foodgrains under of foodgrains is very
different schemes undesirable and can
launched by the be wasteful.
government.
The storage of massive food stocks has been responsible
for high carrying costs, in addition to wastage and
deterioration in grain quality.

Freezing of MSP for a few years should be considered

seriously.
The increased food grains procurement at
enhanced MSP is the result of the pressure
exerted by leading foodgrain producing states,
such as Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
● Moreover, as the procurement is concentrated in a
few prosperous regions (Punjab, Haryana, Western
Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and to a lesser
extent in West Bengal) and mainly of two crops—
wheat and rice— increase in MSP has induced
farmers, particularly in surplus states, to divert
land from production of coarse grains, which is the
staple food of the poor, to the production of rice
and wheat.

● The intensive utilisation of water in the cultivation

of rice has also led to environmental degradation
and fall in the water level, threatening the
sustainability of the agricultural development in
these states.
● As per the NSSO report No. 558 in rural India, the
per person per month consumption of rice has
declined from 6.38 Kg. in 2004-05 to 5.98 Kg in
2011-12.

● In urban India, the per person per month

consumption of rice, too has declined from 4.71 Kg
in 2004-05 to 4.49 Kg in 2011-12.

● Per Capita consumption of PDS rice has doubled

in rural India and increased by 66% in urban India
since 2004-05.

● The per Capita consumption of PDS wheat has

doubled since 2004-05 in both rural and urban
India.
PDS dealers are sometimes found resorting to
malpractices like diverting the grains to open
market to get better margin, selling poor
quality grains at ration shops, irregular
opening of the shops, etc.

It is common to find that ration shops

regularly have unsold stocks of poor quality
grains left. This has proved to be a big
problem.
When ration shops are unable to sell, a massive stock
of foodgrains piles up with the FCI.

In recent years, there is another factor that has led to

the decline of the PDS.

Earlier every family, poor and non-poor had a ration

card with a fixed quota of items such as rice, wheat,
sugar etc.

These were sold at the same low price to every family.

● The three types of cards and the
range of prices that you see today
did not exist.

● A large number of families could

buy foodgrains from the ration
shops subject to a fixed quota.

● These included low income families

whose incomes were marginally
higher than the below poverty line
families.

● Now, with TPDS of three different

prices, any family above the poverty
line gets very little discount at the
ration shop.

● The price for APL family is almost as

high as open market price, so there
is little incentive for them to buy
these items from the ration shop.
 ROLE OF COOPERATIVES IN
FOOD SECURITY

The cooperative
societies set up
shops to sell low
priced goods to
poor people.
EXAMPLES

Tamil Nadu

Out of all fair price shops running in Tamil Nadu,

around 94% are being run by the cooperatives.

Delhi

Mother Dairy is making strides in provision of milk

and vegetables to the consumers at controlled rate
decided by Government of Delhi.

Gujarat

Amul is another success story of cooperatives in

milk and milk products from Gujarat. It has brought
about the White Revolution in the country.
Similarly, in Maharashtra, Academy
of Development Science (ADS) has
facilitated a network of NGOs for
setting up grain banks in different
regions.

ADS organises training and capacity

building programmes on food
security for NGOs.

Grain Banks are now slowly taking

shape in different parts of
Maharashtra.
ADS efforts to set up Grain Banks, to
facilitate replication through other NGOs
and to influence the Government’s policy
on food security are thus paying rich
dividends.

The ADS Grain Bank programme is

acknowledged as a successful and
innovative food security intervention.
In which state more than 94% ration shops are
run by cooperatives?

(a) Delhi

(b) Tamil Nadu

(c) Gujarat

(d) Punjab
F.C.I. stands for:

(a) Foreign Cooperation with India

(b) Food Corporation of India

(c) Fossils Corporation of India

(d) Food Coming to India

Seasonal hunger mostly found in:

(a) urban areas

(b) rural areas

(c) metro cities

(d) both (a) and (b)

Main purpose of buffer stock is:

(a) To save food grains from pest attack

(b) To stop price fluctuations

(c) To meet the crisis of low production

(d) Both (b) and (c)

The most devastating famine occurred in Bengal in:

(a) 1938

(b) 1940

(c) 1942

(d) 1943
What does Food security mean?

(a) availability of food

(b) accessibility of food

(c) affordability of food

(d) all the above