Food security in India | Agriculture Optional Notes for UPSC PDF Download

Food Security 

Ensuring the availability, accessibility, and affordability of food for all people at all times is crucial. The concept can be broken down into the following components:

• Availability of Food: This pertains to the production of food within the country, food imports, and the previous year's stored reserves in government granaries.
• Accessibility: Ensuring that food is accessible to every individual, making it within reach of all.
• Affordability: This implies that individuals possess the financial means to purchase an adequate quantity of safe and nutritious food to fulfill their dietary needs.

Addressing Hunger

• Hunger serves as a clear indicator of food insecurity, and it's more than just an outcome of poverty; it can perpetuate poverty.
• Hunger encompasses two significant dimensions:
• Chronic Hunger is the result of diets that persistently lack the required quantity and/or quality of food.
• Seasonal Hunger is linked to the cycles of food cultivation and harvesting, prevalent in rural areas due to the seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in urban areas due to casual laborers.

The Necessity for Food Security

1. To safeguard the welfare of the most economically disadvantaged sections of society.
2. To respond to emergency or catastrophic situations such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, famines, and more.

Vulnerable Populations Facing Food Insecurity

Groups most severely affected by food insecurity include landless individuals with limited or no land resources, traditional artisans, providers of traditional services, petty self-employed workers, and the destitute, including beggars. In urban areas, families facing food insecurity often comprise members engaged in poorly compensated occupations and the casual labor market. Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and certain sections of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), particularly those with minimal land holdings or low land productivity, are prone to food insecurity. Those affected by natural disasters often must migrate to other areas in search of work. A significant portion of the food-insecure population includes pregnant and nursing mothers and children under the age of 5 years.

India's Approach to Food Security

Since the advent of the Green Revolution in the early 1970s, India has successfully averted famine even in the face of adverse weather conditions. Over the past three decades, the country has achieved self-sufficiency in food grains through the cultivation of diverse crops across the nation. The availability of food grains, even in challenging conditions, has been further secured through a well-designed food security system implemented by the government. This system consists of two fundamental components:

Buffer Stock

• Comprising food grains such as wheat and rice, this stock is procured by the government through the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
• Farmers receive a predetermined price for their crops, known as the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is announced annually before the sowing season to encourage higher crop production.
• The procured food grains are stored in granaries, and the buffer stock is maintained to distribute food grains in areas with deficits and among economically disadvantaged populations at a price lower than the market rate, referred to as the Issue Price.

Public Distribution System (PDS)

• Food acquired by the FCI is distributed through government-regulated ration shops among economically disadvantaged sections of society, known as the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• These ration shops, also called Fair Price Shops, are now prevalent in various localities, villages, towns, and cities across the country, enabling families with ration cards to purchase specified quantities of essential items (e.g., 35 kg of grains, 5 liters of kerosene, 5 kg of sugar, etc.) every month from nearby ration shops.

Current Status of the Public Distribution System

Over time, the PDS has undergone several changes, including the introduction of two special schemes in 2000: the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Annapurna Scheme (APS), targeting the "poorest of the poor" and "indigent senior citizens," respectively.

Challenges in the Functioning of the PDS System

Challenges include overflowing FCI warehouses, high carrying costs, grain wastage, and quality deterioration due to excessive stock levels. Procurement is concentrated in a few prosperous regions, mainly for two crops, wheat and rice, resulting in a shift from coarse grains (the staple food of the poor) to rice and wheat in surplus states. Environmental concerns, such as degradation and declining water levels due to intensive water use in rice cultivation, are also prevalent. PDS dealers occasionally engage in malpractices, such as diverting grains to the open market for better margins, selling poor-quality grains at ration shops, and maintaining irregular shop hours. With the introduction of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), families above the poverty line receive minimal discounts at ration shops due to varying prices, with the price for above poverty line (APL) families nearly as high as open market prices, reducing their incentive to buy from ration shops.

The Role of Cooperatives in Food Security

Cooperatives play a significant role in food security in India, particularly in the southern and western regions. Examples include cooperatives operating a substantial percentage of fair price shops in Tamil Nadu, Mother Dairy providing milk and vegetables in Delhi at government-controlled rates, and the success of Amul in milk and milk products from Gujarat. In Maharashtra, the Academy of Development Science (ADS) has facilitated a network of NGOs to establish grain banks in different regions and organizes training and capacity-building programs on food security for NGOs.

Key Observations

• The term "White Revolution" denotes the substantial increase in milk production in India, thanks to cooperative efforts.
• The National Food Security Act, 2013, aims to provide food and nutritional security at affordable prices, enabling people to live with dignity. It covers 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population as eligible households for food security.
• Rationing was introduced in India in the 1940s, particularly in response to the Bengal famine.
• Subsidy refers to a payment made by the government to producers to supplement the market price of a commodity. Subsidies serve to keep consumer prices low while providing domestic producers with a higher income.