Chapter 4 Food Security in India

1. What is food security?

Food security means 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
the Public
Distribution System (PDS), Government vigilance and action at times when
this security
is threatened.
2. What are the dimensions of Food Security?
(a) Availability of food means food production within the country, food
imports and the
previous years stock stored in government granaries.
(b) Accessibility means food is within reach of every person. There is no
barrier on access to food.
(c) Affordability implies that an individual has enough money to buy
sufficient, safe and
nutritious food to meet one's dietary needs.
3. What happens to the supply of food when there is a disaster or a
calamity?
Due to a natural calamity, say drought, total production of food grains
decreases. It
creates a shortage of food in the affected areas. Due to shortage of food, the
prices go 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.
4. What is famine?
A Famine is characterized by wide spread 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.
5. A section of people in India are still without food. Explain. Or Why
is food security needed in India?
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. Starvation deaths are also reported in Baran
district of Rajasthan, Palamau district of Jharkhand and many other remote
areas during the recent years. Therefore, food security is needed in a
country to ensure food at all times.
6. Who are the people more prone to food insecurity in India?
i) 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.
ii) 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.
iii) 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.
7. What are the various factors that play important role in food
insecurity?
a) Economic backwardness: i) 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.
ii) 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.
b) Social Composition: 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.
c) Regional backwardness: The food insecure people are
disproportionately large in
some regions of the country, such as economically backward states with high
incidence of poverty, tribal and remote areas, regions more prone to natural
disasters
etc. In fact, the states of Uttar Pradesh (eastern and south-eastern parts),
Bihar,
Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, parts of Madhya Pradesh and
Maharasthra account for largest number of food insecure people in the
country.
d) Hunger: 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.
8. What are the dimensions of hunger? Or Differentiate between
chronic and seasonal hunger.
i) Chronic hunger is a 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.
ii) Seasonal hunger is 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 the casual labour. season. This type of hunger exists when
a person
is unable to get work for the entire year.
9. How has the Green Revolution made India self-sufficient in food
grains?
i) In Punjab and Haryana, where foodgrain production jumped from 7.23
million tonnes
in 1964–65 to reach an all-time high of 30.33 million tonnes in 1995–96.
ii) Since the advent of the Green revolution in the early-’70s, the country has
avoided
famine even during adverse weather conditions.
iii) India has become self-sufficient in foodgrains during the last thirty years
because of a variety of crops grown all over the country.
iv) In July 2002, the stock of wheat and rice with FCI was 63 million tones
which was
much more than the minimum buffer norms of 24.3 million tonnes.
10. What are the two components of food security system in India?
(a) Buffer stock: Buffer Stock is the stock of foodgrains, namely wheat and
rice procured by the government through Food Corporation of India
(FCI). The FCI purchases wheat and rice from the farmers in states where
there is surplus production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for
their crops.
(b) Public distribution system: 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 4.6 lakh ration shops all
over the
country. Ration shops also known as Fair Price Shops keep stock of food
grains,
sugar, kerosene oil for cooking. These items are sold to people at a price
lower than
the market price.
11. What is Minimum Support price?
The FCI purchases wheat and rice from the farmers in states where there is
surplus
production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops This
price is
called Minimum Support Price. The MSP is declared by the government every
year
before the sowing season to provide incentives to the farmers for raising the
production
of these crops.
12. Why is a buffer stock created by the government?
This is done to distribute food grains in the deficit areas and among the
poorer strata of
society at a price lower than the market price also known as Issue Price.
This also helps resolve the problem of shortage of food during adverse
weather conditions or during the periods of calamity.
13. Why was rationing introduced in India?
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.
14. Name the three important food intervention programmes
introduced by the
Government in India in mid-1970s.
Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains ; Integrated Child
Development
Services (ICDS) (introduced in 1975 on an experimental basis) and Food-for-
Work
(FFW) (introduced in 1977–78).
15. What is the current status of PDS in India? (What are the
different types of PDS?)
i) Public Distribution System (PDS) is the most important step taken by the
Government
of India towards ensuring food security. In the beginning the coverage of PDS
was
universal with no discrimination between the poor and non-poor.
ii) Over the years, the policy related to PDS has been revised to make it more
efficient
and targeted.
iii) 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.
iv) 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 non-
poor.
v) Further, in 2000, two special schemes were launched viz., Antyodaya
Anna Yojana
(AAY) and the Annapurna Scheme (APS) with special target groups
16. Name the two special schemes introduced in 2000, targeting
‘poorest of the poor’ and the needy poor senior citizens.
Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Annapurna Scheme (APS)
17. What are the achievements ( or importance ) of Public
Distribution system?
i) 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.
ii) It has been instrumental in averting widespread hunger and famine by
supplying food
from surplus regions of the country to the deficit ones.
iii) In addition, the prices have been under revision in favour of poor
households in
general.
iv) The system, including the minimum support price and procurement has
contributed to an increase in food grain production and provided income
security to farmers in
certain regions.
18. What are the criticisms faced by the PDS in India? Or What are
the factors that led to the decline of the PDS?
i) Instances of hunger are prevalent despite overflowing granaries. FCI go-
downs are
overflowing with grains, with some rotting away and some being eaten by
rats.
ii) 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.
iii) 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 food grains piles up with the FCI.
iv) Now, the issuing of three types of ration cards and TPDS ( Targeted Public
Distribution System) of three different prices, any family above the poverty
line gets
very little discount at the ration shop. The price for APL( Above Poverty Line_
family is almost as high as open market price, so there is little incentive for
them to
buy these items from the ration shop.
19. Prove by giving examples that the PDS is not as effective as
expected in many states in India.
i) The average consumption of PDS grain at the all-India level is only 1 kg per
person per month. The average consumption figure is as low as less than
300 gm per person per month in the states of Bihar, Orissa and Uttar
Pradesh.
ii) In contrast, the average consumption in most of the southern states like
Kerala,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh is in the range of 3–4 kgs per
person
per month. As a result the poor have to depend on markets rather than the
ration
shops for their food needs.
iii) In Madhya Pradesh only 5% of wheat and rice consumption of the poor
are met
through the ration shops. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar the percentage is still
lower.
20. Explain the role of cooperatives in the food security in India.
i) The cooperative societies set up shops to sell low priced goods to poor
people. For
example, out of all fair price shops running in Tamil Nadu, around 94 per
cent are
being run by the cooperatives.
ii) In Delhi, Mother Dairy is making strides in provision of milk and vegetables
to the
consumers at controlled rate decided by Government of Delhi.
iii) Amul is another success story of cooperatives in milk and milk products
from
Gujarat. It has brought about the White Revolution in the country. These are
a few
examples of many more cooperatives running in different parts of the
country
ensuring food security of different sections of society. Continue …
21. Explain the food security intervention programmes in
Maharashtra.
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.
22. What has our government done to provide food security to the
poor? Discuss
any two schemes launched by the government? Or How is food
security ensured
in India?
( Explain Buffer Stock, PDS, or Rationing)
23. Write any two consequences of procurement of food grains at
Minimum Support Price (MSP) ?
i) There is a general consensus that high level of buffer stocks of food grains
is very
undesirable and can be wasteful. The storage of massive food stocks has
been
responsible for high carrying costs, in addition to wastage and deterioration
in grain quality.
ii) 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.
iii) The intensive utilization 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.