Food security in india

Food Security in India
PPT by Jyoti Anand
Socialscience4u.blogspot.com

What is Food Security
Food security means
availability, accessibility and
affordability of food to
all people at all times.
Food security depends on
the Public Distribution
System (PDS) and
government vigilance and
action at times, when this
security is threatened.

Why food security?
The poorest section of the
society might be food
insecure most of the times
while persons above the
poverty line might also be
food insecure when the
country faces a national
disaster/calamity like
earthquake, drought,flood,
tsunami, widespread
failure of crops causing
famine, etc.

?WHO ARE FOOD INSECURE?
Economic Groups :
The worst affected groups are
landless people with little or no
land to depend upon, traditional
artisans, providers of traditional
services, petty selfemployed
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.

Social Groups :
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
Large proportion of pregnant and nursing mothers and
children under the age of 5 years constitute an
important segment of the food insecure population.

Food Insecure Regions :
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.

Hunger :
Hunger is another aspect indicating
food insecurity. Hunger has chronic and
Seasonal dimensions. 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. 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.This type of hunger
exists when a person is unable to get work
for the entire year.

Indian measures to achieve Self-sufficiency inFoodgrains
Green Revolution :
I ) ‘GreenRevolution’ especially in the production of wheat
and rice.
II ) The then Prime Minister of India, officially recorded the
impressive strides of the Green revolution in agriculture
by releasing a special stamp entitled ‘Wheat Revolution’
in July 1968. The success of wheat was later replicated
in rice.

Graph : Production of Foodgrains in India (Million Tonnes)
Source: Economic Survey 2011–12, 2013-14

Food Security in India :
India has become self-sufficient in foodgrains
during the last thirty years because:
i) a variety of crops grown all over the country.
ii) 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.
a) Buffer System b) Public Distribution System

What is Buffer stock?
Buffer Stock is the stock of
foodgrains, namely wheat and
rice procured by thegovernment
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. This price is called
Minimum Support Price.

Advantages of maintaining Buffer Stock :
i) distribute foodgrains in the deficit areas
and among the poorer strata of society
at a price lower than the market price
also known as Issue Price.
ii) helps resolve the problem of shortage of
food during adverse weather conditions or
during the periods of calamity.

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 also known as Fair Price Shops keep stock
of foodgrains ,sugar, kerosene oil for cooking.

P.D.S
Source: Saini Shweta and Marya Kozicka (2014)
Graph : Levels of buffer stocks vs. norms for rice and wheat (million tonnes)

There are three kinds of ration cards:
(a) Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the
poor;
(b) BPL cards for those belowpoverty line; and
(c) APL cards for all others.

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 wakeof 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 themid-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) and Food-for-Work** (FFW)
(introduced in 1977–78).
Over the years,several new programmes have been launched and
some have beenrestructured with the growing experience of
administering the programmes. At present, there are several Poverty
Alleviation Programmes (PAPs), mostly inrural areas, which have an
explicit food component also. While some of the programmes such as
PDS, mid-day mealsetc. are exclusively food security
programmes, most of the PAPs also enhance food security.

Importance of PDS
• Helps in stabilizing prices and making food
available.
• It has been instrumental in averting
widespread hunger and famine.
• In addition, the prices have been under
revision in favour of poor households in
general.
• Has contributed to an increase in food grain
production and provided income security to
farmers in certain regions.

Criticism of PDS
• Instances of hunger are prevalent despite
overflowing granaries.
• There is a general consensus that high level of
buffer stocks of foodgrains is very undesirable
and can be wasteful.
• Has been responsible for high carrying costs, in
addition to wastage and deterioration
in grain quality.

Problems related with MSP
• Procurement is concentrated in a few
prosperous Regions.
• Farmers have diverted their land from coarse
grains to wheat and rice.
• The intensive utilisation of water in the
cultivation of rice has also led to enviro-
nmental degradation and fall in the water
level.

Role of cooperatives in
food security
• The cooperative societies set up shops to sell low priced
goods to poor people.
• Tamil Nadu, around 94 per cent are being run by the
cooperatives.
• In Delhi, Mother Dairy is making strides in provision of
milk and vegetables
• Amul is another success story of cooperatives in milk
and milk products from Gujarat.
• In Maharashtra, Academy of Development Science
(ADS)

Academy of Development
Science (ADS)
• 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.

Food security in india

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