Food Security in India
Overview
Food security is a crucial concept that means everyone has access to enough food at all times. It's about more than just having food available in the country; it also involves people being able to get to it and afford it. The poorest households are the most at risk of food insecurity, especially when there are problems with food production or distribution. To protect its citizens, India relies on its Public Distribution System (PDS) and government action during crises.
What is food security?
Just like air is essential for breathing, food is essential for living. Food security, however, is more complex than just getting two meals a day. It has three main dimensions:
- Availability: This means there is enough food within the country. This supply comes from domestic food production, imports from other countries, and stocks from previous years stored in government granaries.
- Accessibility: This means that food is physically within reach of every person. It doesn't help if food is stored in a warehouse hundreds of miles away if people can't get to it.
- Affordability: This implies that people have enough money to buy the food they need. The food must be sufficient, safe, and nutritious to meet their dietary requirements.
Note
Food security is only truly achieved in a country when:
- Enough food is available for everyone.
- Everyone has the financial capacity to buy food of acceptable quality.
- There are no barriers preventing people from accessing food.
Why food security?
While the poorest people in society often face food insecurity, even those above the poverty line can become vulnerable during a national disaster or calamity. Events like earthquakes, droughts, floods, tsunamis, or widespread crop failure can disrupt the food supply and create insecurity for many.
How Calamities Affect Food Security
When a natural disaster like a drought occurs, the total production of foodgrains decreases. This leads to a shortage of food in the affected areas.
- Price Increase: Due to the shortage, food prices go up.
- Unaffordability: At these higher prices, some people can no longer afford to buy food.
- Starvation and Famine: If the calamity is widespread or lasts for a long time, it can lead to starvation. A situation of massive starvation can turn into a famine.
A famine is characterized by widespread deaths from starvation and epidemics. These epidemics are often caused by people being forced to use contaminated water or eat decaying food, and their bodies' resistance is weakened by hunger.
The most devastating famine in India was the Famine of Bengal in 1943, which killed thirty lakh (three million) people. The groups most affected were agricultural labourers, fishermen, transport workers, and other casual labourers, who were hit hardest by the dramatic increase in the price of rice.
Who are food-insecure?
In India, while many people suffer from food and nutrition insecurity, certain groups are more affected than others.
In Rural Areas:
- Landless people with little or no land.
- Traditional artisans and providers of traditional services.
- Petty self-employed workers.
- Destitutes, including beggars.
In Urban Areas:
- Families whose working members are in low-paying jobs.
- People working in the casual labour market, often in seasonal activities with very low wages.
Example
The Story of Ramu illustrates seasonal food insecurity in a rural area. Ramu is a casual agricultural labourer. He only finds work during sowing, transplanting, and harvesting seasons. For about four months a year, he is unemployed and struggles to find other work, like bricklaying. During these months, his family faces great difficulty, and sometimes his children have to sleep without food. He is food insecure because his work is seasonal.
Example
The Story of Ahmad shows food insecurity in an urban setting. Ahmad is a rickshaw puller in Bangalore with no secured employment, so his earnings fluctuate daily. On some days he earns enough, but on others, he barely makes enough to buy daily necessities. Fortunately, Ahmad has a yellow card (a PDS card for people below the poverty line), which allows him to buy wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene at half the market price. This card helps him survive even with his low and irregular income.
Social and Demographic Factors:
- Social Composition: The Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and some sections of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) with poor land-base or low productivity are more prone to food insecurity.
- Natural Disasters: People affected by natural disasters who have to migrate in search of work are also highly food-insecure.
- Women and Children: A high incidence of malnutrition is found among women, which also puts their unborn babies at risk. Pregnant and nursing mothers, along with children under five, are a significant segment of the food-insecure population.
Regional Factors:
Food-insecure people are disproportionately found in economically backward states with high poverty, tribal and remote areas, and regions prone to natural disasters. States like Uttar Pradesh (eastern and south-eastern parts), Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra account for the largest number of food-insecure people in the country.
Hunger
Hunger is another key indicator of food insecurity. It's not just a result of poverty; it also causes poverty. Eliminating hunger is essential for achieving food security. There are two dimensions of hunger:
- Chronic Hunger: This is a long-term condition resulting from diets that are consistently inadequate in quantity or quality. Poor people suffer from chronic hunger because their income is too low to buy enough food for survival.
- Seasonal Hunger: This is related to the cycles of food growing and harvesting. It is common in rural areas due to the seasonal nature of agriculture and in urban areas among casual labourers (e.g., construction workers who find less work during the rainy season). This hunger occurs when a person is unable to get work for the entire year.
India is aiming at Self-sufficiency in Foodgrains since Independence
After independence, Indian policymakers focused on achieving self-sufficiency in foodgrains. This led to a new agricultural strategy that resulted in the 'Green Revolution', especially in the production of wheat and rice.
In July 1968, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi officially celebrated the success of the Green Revolution by releasing a special stamp called 'Wheat Revolution'. The success in wheat production was later replicated in rice. The highest rates of growth were achieved in states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Food Security in India
Since the Green Revolution in the early 1970s, India has successfully avoided famines, even during harsh weather conditions. The country has become self-sufficient in foodgrains by growing a variety of crops. To ensure this self-sufficiency translates into security for its people, the government designed a food security system with two main components:
- Buffer Stock
- Public Distribution System (PDS)
What is Buffer stock?
A Buffer Stock is a reserve of foodgrains, mainly wheat and rice, procured by the government.
- Procurement: The Food Corporation of India (FCI) purchases these grains from farmers in states with surplus production.
- Minimum Support Price (MSP): Farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops, known as the Minimum Support Price (MSP). The government declares the MSP every year before the sowing season to encourage farmers to increase production.
- Storage: The purchased foodgrains are stored in granaries.
Note
The government creates a buffer stock to distribute foodgrains in areas with shortages and among the poorer sections of society at a price lower than the market price. This subsidised price is known as the Issue Price. This stock also helps solve food shortages during calamities.
What is the Public Distribution System?
The Public Distribution System (PDS) is the system through which the food procured by the FCI is distributed to the poorer sections of society.
- Ration Shops: This distribution happens through government-regulated ration shops, also known as Fair Price Shops. There are about 5.5 lakh ration shops across the country.
- Subsidised Items: These shops keep stocks of foodgrains, sugar, and kerosene, which are sold at prices lower than the market rate.
- Ration Cards: Any family with a ration card can buy a specific amount of these items each month. There are three kinds of ration cards:
- Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the poor.
- BPL cards for those Below Poverty Line.
- APL cards for all others.
Current Status of the Public Distribution System
The PDS is the most important step taken by the Government of India to ensure food security. Over the years, the system has evolved to become more targeted.
- Early PDS (Up to 1992): The PDS was universal, meaning it did not discriminate between the poor and non-poor.
- Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS) (1992): This was introduced to provide the benefits of PDS to remote and backward areas.
- Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) (1997): This system was a major shift, as it targeted the 'poor in all areas'. For the first time, a differential price policy was adopted for the poor and non-poor.
- Special Schemes (2000): Two new schemes were launched:
- Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY): This targeted the 'poorest of the poor'. Initially, it provided 25 kg of foodgrains per family at a highly subsidised rate (₹2/kg for wheat, ₹3/kg for rice), which was later increased to 35 kg.
- Annapurna Scheme (APS): This targeted 'indigent senior citizens'.
- The National Food Security Act, 2013: This Act legally entitled 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidised foodgrains.
Successes and Failures of the PDS
The PDS has been effective in stabilizing prices and making food available at affordable rates, which has helped avert widespread hunger and famine. The system of MSP and procurement has also increased foodgrain production and provided income security to farmers in some regions.
However, the system faces several challenges:
- Overflowing Granaries: FCI godowns are often overflowing with grains, some of which rot away or are eaten by rats. This is because the amount of grain in stock is often much higher than the minimum buffer norms.
- High Costs: The storage of massive food stocks leads to high carrying costs, wastage, and deterioration in grain quality.
- Issues with MSP: The pressure to increase MSP from foodgrain-producing states has raised procurement costs. This has also encouraged farmers in states like Punjab and Haryana to divert land from coarse grains (staple food for the poor) to rice and wheat, leading to environmental degradation and falling water levels.
- Malpractices at Ration Shops: PDS dealers are sometimes found diverting grains to the open market, selling poor-quality grains, or opening their shops irregularly.
- Problems with TPDS: Under the targeted system, families above the poverty line (APL) receive very little discount. Their price is almost as high as the open market price, giving them little incentive to buy from ration shops.
Role of cooperatives in food security
Cooperatives also play an important role in food security, especially in southern and western India.
- Cooperative societies set up shops to sell low-priced goods to poor people. For example, in Tamil Nadu, around 94% of fair price shops are run by cooperatives.
- Mother Dairy in Delhi provides milk and vegetables at controlled rates.
- Amul from Gujarat is a success story in milk and milk products, having brought about the White Revolution.
- In Maharashtra, the Academy of Development Science (ADS) has helped NGOs set up grain banks in different regions, which is now seen as a successful and innovative food security intervention.