Headline: Can we feed the 1.21 billion Indians?
Success of any democratic nation can be measured by the essential criteria whether it has been able to ensure that minimum needs of citizens have at least been addressed. Food being one of the primary requirements of existence, it is crucial that at least this minimum need of every citizen is satisfied. The issue of food security has gained significance precisely for the reason that without satisfying the basic nutritional requirement of its citizens no nation which claim to be an effective functional democracy can be proud of it’s achievement in true earnest. According to Food and Agriculture Association (FAO), “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” India
Do we have enough food?
Food Security has been a major developmental objective in India since the beginning of planning in independent India India USA
There have hardly been any food grain imports after the mid-1970s. Food grain production in the country increased from about 50 million tonnes in 1950-51 to around 241 million tonnes in 2010-11. The growth rate of food grains has been around 2.5 per cent per annum at an average between 1951 and 2006-07. The production of oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, and milk has also increased appreciably. So availability is not an issue. But we still have not cracked the distribution puzzle. Unfortunately the national self sufficiency in production of food grains did not percolate down to households and the level of chronic food insecurity is still high.
High level of malnutrition
Presence of persistent high level of malnutrition in India can be gauged from the fact that in the latest Global Hunger Index; India India India Europe . Similarly prevalence of child nutrition among children had hovered around 45 percent in last decade. It is also manifested through the ‘Economic Survey 2009-10’ observation in the chapter titled “Human Development, Poverty and Public Programmes”. Quoting a report by the committee constituted by the Ministry of Rural Development, it said that the calorie consumption of the bottom 50 per cent of the population had been consistently decreasing since 1987. It’s obvious that such dramatic level of wasting away of human resources should be a cause for concern to anyone.
Declining per capita availability
The significant achievement in terms of increased food grain production has not been able to make the desired impact because it was not able to keep pace with growth in population. Consequently, the per-capita availability of food grain has remained stagnant. It can be ascertained from the fact that as per Economic Survey, 2010-11 the per capita availability of food grains in 1961 was 468.70 grams/per day per person in the country which has fallen to 444 grams/ per day in 2009. (Refer table 1) As per the latest available estimates it is 438 grams/ per day per person in 2010. The availability of pulses especially among the total food grains has fallen dramatically from 69 grams/per day per person to 37 grams/per day per person from 1961 to 2009. This has resulted in whatever little increase in cereals availability being achieved in per capita terms in these years being more that off set by dramatic fall in per capita availability of pulses, resulting in a net scenario where the total food grain availability in per capita terms being effectively reduced. The situation can’t be explained merely through increase in population. It is also attributable to less than proportionate increase in growth rate of production and yield especially in last decade and half. It’s reflected by the fact that growth rates of production and yield have declined for different crops during the period 1996-2008 as compared to the period 1986-97. The growth rate of food grain production has declined from 2.93 per cent to 0.93 per cent during the same period. The growth rate of production is much lower than the rate of population growth in the latter period. Similarly, growth rate of yields of food grains declined from 3.21 per cent to 1.04 per cent. There was also a decline in growth rates of production and yields for cereals, pulses, oilseeds, rice, and wheat. (Refer table 2)
Data speaks for itself
According to NSS, per capita cereal consumption has been declining since the early 1970’s. The reality is that the bottom half of the population has not shown any improvement in cereal and calorie intake in the rural and urban areas despite an improvement in their real per capita expenditure to some extent. Their per capita calorie intake of 1600-1700 falls short of the required level. Intra-family food distribution is also inequitable in the rural households and the pre-school children get much less than their physiological needs as compared to adult males and females. Micronutrient deficiency is common among people. Diets of about 80% of the rural population contain less than half of the normal requirement of vitamin-A. This deficiency leads to preventable blindness. Iron deficiency is widely prevalent among pregnant women. This results in a high incidence of low birth weight children, which in turn contributes to malnutrition. The most important challenge is to increase the energy intake of the bottom half of the population and at the same time facilitate diet diversification to meet micronutrient deficiency. The food gap can be met from the available food grain stocks in the short and medium term. Even Supreme Court as indicted government that it is not acceptable that people suffer from malnutrition when simultaneously food grain rots in godowns.
Right to food Campaign
The campaign has filed a case in the apex court in 2001 which became famous as Right to food case (PUCL vs Union of India and others) with the argument that right to food can be seen as a corollary of the fundamental "right to life" (Article 21 of the Indian Constitution), in so far as it is impossible to live without food. As the Supreme Court itself noted in an interim order dated 2 May 2003, "reference can also be made to Article 47 which inter alia provides that the State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties". The court gone to the extent of appointing ‘Commissioners’ for the implementation of interim orders like direction in Mid-day meal in the case. The case has been able to exert pressure on the government in a democratic way to take legislative steps to ensure food security of the citizens of the country. Among other things the bill caps the number of households entitled to benefits to be identified through socio-economic census currently underway. The criteria for identification of households in the survey too are much diluted. These factors in combination results in the possibility of high level of ‘exclusion’ errors creeping in which may lead to denial of food security to many deserving households. It is also short on the demand of universalization of public distribution with self selection as the criteria for those not availing the benefit.
Food Security Bill
The government has responded to prevailing malnutrition in the country by coming up with National Food Security Bill, 2011. The bill, seeks to cover 75% of the rural population and 50% of urban population in the country. Preliminary estimates suggest that the food subsidy bill could be upwards of Rs 1 lakh crore. Present food security bill is around Rs 60,000 crore. A minimum of 46% of the rural population and 28% urban population will get 7 kg of food grains per month per person. Rice would be provided at Rs 3 a kg, wheat at Rs 2 and coarse grains at Rs 1 a kg. The rest of the targeted population would get 3 kg of grains per person per month at half the minimum support price offered to farmers by government during procurement. Existing nutrition and select social security schemes would also be brought under the legislation as an entitlement. The bill though an important step from the government side, is short on the expectation of Right to food campaign (see interview with Kavita Srivastava), which has long been protagonist for such bill.
Policy approaches to ensure food security
In recent period there has been more emphasis and policy focus towards ensuring household level food security and per capita food energy intake. It has now been widely accepted as appropriate framework to measure food security. The government has been implementing a wide range of nutrition intervention programmes for achieving food security at the household and individual levels. The Public Distribution System (PDS) supplies food items, such as food grains and sugar, at administered prices through fair price shops. There have been a range of food-for-work and other wage employment programmes like MNERAGA. Another approach adopted by the government is to target women and children directly; this includes mid-day meal programme for school going children and supplementary nutrition programme for children and women like Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). These efforts to reach vulnerable section of population should be appreciated but this can’t work by neglecting adequate efforts towards boosting the production of food grains. This is for the simple reason that food availability continues to remain a necessary condition for food security. It’s true that food availability per se won’t ensure food security to all but it can also be put forward with equal assertion that without food availability the problem of food security can’t be addressed. It’s pertinent from the fact that per-capita availability of food grains in the country is only one-fifth of US. Food Security thus has two essential parameters-Production and Distribution especially to those vulnerable section of the population who lack adequate purchasing power. In long run however both production and distribution system needs to be strengthened by increasing the purchasing power especially of marginalised sections of the society by hiking job opportunities.
Reasons for stagnation in production
The performance of agriculture remains crucial in ensuring the availability and access to food, as more than 55 per cent people in the country is dependent on this sector. There are both short run and long run problems in Agriculture. Farmers’ suicides continue unabated, as growth rate in yield is on the decline. Farming is fast becoming a non-viable activity. It’s also true that scope for increase in net sown area is limited. Land degradation in the form of depletion of soil fertility, erosion, salinity, water logging has increased. There has been decline in the surface irrigation expansion rate coupled with a fall in the level of the ground water table due to over-extraction. Exposure of domestic agriculture to international competition has resulted in a high level of volatility in prices. Disparities in productivity across regions and crops, and between rainfed and irrigated areas have increased. The Steering Committee report on agriculture for the Eleventh Plan has identified the possible reasons for deceleration in agriculture since the mid- 1990s. According to the report, the major sources of agricultural growth are, public and private investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure including irrigation, technological change, diversification of agriculture, and fertilizers. It seems that progress on all these fronts has slowed down since the mid-1990s (refer table 3). Expansion has taken place only in the case of agricultural credit. Thus structural reasons basically account for the present state of agrarian crisis in the country as reflected in less than proportionate growth on front of technological up gradation, public investment in infrastructure building for agriculture, expansion in irrigated area, NPK fertilizer use etc.
What needs to be done?
Food Security can best be addressed by integrating two policy approaches elaborated earlier. Food self sufficiency at national level along with targeted public distribution system in vogue from 1997 has been found inadequate to address the problem of food security. Thus what is needed is a mechanism to ensure consumption and distribution of food grains at household level. It can be done by near universalization of public distribution covering most of the households in the country in a way that the farmers are ensured fair price for their produce. Adequate prices and guaranteed procurement to farmers through this mechanism can put required incentive system in place for evergreen revolution to ensure sustain food self sufficiency for the country. Public procurement has never exceeded one-fourth of total available food grains in the country and has largely restricted to relatively better-off farmers. Small and marginal farmers which accounts for bulk of farmers in the country need to be brought in its ambit forthright for them to be in a position to sustain them in agriculture and not be pushed out resulting in distress migration to urban areas in search of manual work, as reflected in census, 2011 data. Vulnerable sections of population like SC, ST, women, children, senior citizens need to be given adequate attention by strengthening and expansion of existing mechanism.
Structural issues seem to be the major reason for stagnating production of food grains as elaborated earlier. There is lot of scope for giving a quantum jump to agriculture production as yield/ per hectare for most of the food crops is 3-4 times less than global benchmarks. For this to materialize what is needed is push in public investment for building infrastructure needed for agriculture like irrigation facilities, revival of extension services, and public funded research for creating high yielding varieties of seeds suitable in Indian conditions at affordable costs to farmers. Administrative reforms through participatory approach is required to ensure efficient working of public distribution system which would be much needed for the efficient working of food security bill along with technological up gradation of the system to bring it in tune with contemporary requirements.
Saurabh Naruka
Headline: Can we feed the 1.21 billion Indians?
Intro: Despite attaining self sufficiency in food production
Success of any democratic nation can be measured by the essential criteria whether it has been able to ensure that minimum needs of citizens have at least been addressed. Food being one of the primary requirements of existence, it is crucial that at least this minimum need of every citizen is satisfied. The issue of food security has gained significance precisely for the reason that without satisfying the basic nutritional requirement of its citizens no nation which claim to be an effective functional democracy can be proud of it’s achievement in true earnest. According to Food and Agriculture Association (FAO), “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” India
Do we have enough food?
Food Security has been a major developmental objective in India since the beginning of planning in independent India India USA
There have hardly been any food grain imports after the mid-1970s. Food grain production in the country increased from about 50 million tonnes in 1950-51 to around 241 million tonnes in 2010-11. The growth rate of food grains has been around 2.5 per cent per annum at an average between 1951 and 2006-07. The production of oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, and milk has also increased appreciably. So availability is not an issue. But we still have not cracked the distribution puzzle. Unfortunately the national self sufficiency in production of food grains did not percolate down to households and the level of chronic food insecurity is still high.
High level of malnutrition
Presence of persistent high level of malnutrition in India can be gauged from the fact that in the latest Global Hunger Index; India India India Europe . Similarly prevalence of child nutrition among children had hovered around 45 percent in last decade. It is also manifested through the ‘Economic Survey 2009-10’ observation in the chapter titled “Human Development, Poverty and Public Programmes”. Quoting a report by the committee constituted by the Ministry of Rural Development, it said that the calorie consumption of the bottom 50 per cent of the population had been consistently decreasing since 1987. It’s obvious that such dramatic level of wasting away of human resources should be a cause for concern to anyone.
Declining per capita availability
The significant achievement in terms of increased food grain production has not been able to make the desired impact because it was not able to keep pace with growth in population. Consequently, the per-capita availability of food grain has remained stagnant. It can be ascertained from the fact that as per Economic Survey, 2010-11 the per capita availability of food grains in 1961 was 468.70 grams/per day per person in the country which has fallen to 444 grams/ per day in 2009. (Refer table 1) As per the latest available estimates it is 438 grams/ per day per person in 2010. The availability of pulses especially among the total food grains has fallen dramatically from 69 grams/per day per person to 37 grams/per day per person from 1961 to 2009. This has resulted in whatever little increase in cereals availability being achieved in per capita terms in these years being more that off set by dramatic fall in per capita availability of pulses, resulting in a net scenario where the total food grain availability in per capita terms being effectively reduced. The situation can’t be explained merely through increase in population. It is also attributable to less than proportionate increase in growth rate of production and yield especially in last decade and half. It’s reflected by the fact that growth rates of production and yield have declined for different crops during the period 1996-2008 as compared to the period 1986-97. The growth rate of food grain production has declined from 2.93 per cent to 0.93 per cent during the same period. The growth rate of production is much lower than the rate of population growth in the latter period. Similarly, growth rate of yields of food grains declined from 3.21 per cent to 1.04 per cent. There was also a decline in growth rates of production and yields for cereals, pulses, oilseeds, rice, and wheat. (Refer table 2)
Data speaks for itself
According to NSS, per capita cereal consumption has been declining since the early 1970’s. The reality is that the bottom half of the population has not shown any improvement in cereal and calorie intake in the rural and urban areas despite an improvement in their real per capita expenditure to some extent. Their per capita calorie intake of 1600-1700 falls short of the required level. Intra-family food distribution is also inequitable in the rural households and the pre-school children get much less than their physiological needs as compared to adult males and females. Micronutrient deficiency is common among people. Diets of about 80% of the rural population contain less than half of the normal requirement of vitamin-A. This deficiency leads to preventable blindness. Iron deficiency is widely prevalent among pregnant women. This results in a high incidence of low birth weight children, which in turn contributes to malnutrition. The most important challenge is to increase the energy intake of the bottom half of the population and at the same time facilitate diet diversification to meet micronutrient deficiency. The food gap can be met from the available food grain stocks in the short and medium term. Even Supreme Court as indicted government that it is not acceptable that people suffer from malnutrition when simultaneously food grain rots in godowns.
Right to food Campaign
The campaign has filed a case in the apex court in 2001 which became famous as Right to food case (PUCL vs Union of India and others) with the argument that right to food can be seen as a corollary of the fundamental "right to life" (Article 21 of the Indian Constitution), in so far as it is impossible to live without food. As the Supreme Court itself noted in an interim order dated 2 May 2003, "reference can also be made to Article 47 which inter alia provides that the State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties". The court gone to the extent of appointing ‘Commissioners’ for the implementation of interim orders like direction in Mid-day meal in the case. The case has been able to exert pressure on the government in a democratic way to take legislative steps to ensure food security of the citizens of the country. Among other things the bill caps the number of households entitled to benefits to be identified through socio-economic census currently underway. The criteria for identification of households in the survey too are much diluted. These factors in combination results in the possibility of high level of ‘exclusion’ errors creeping in which may lead to denial of food security to many deserving households. It is also short on the demand of universalization of public distribution with self selection as the criteria for those not availing the benefit.
Food Security Bill
The government has responded to prevailing malnutrition in the country by coming up with National Food Security Bill, 2011. The bill, seeks to cover 75% of the rural population and 50% of urban population in the country. Preliminary estimates suggest that the food subsidy bill could be upwards of Rs 1 lakh crore. Present food security bill is around Rs 60,000 crore. A minimum of 46% of the rural population and 28% urban population will get 7 kg of food grains per month per person. Rice would be provided at Rs 3 a kg, wheat at Rs 2 and coarse grains at Rs 1 a kg. The rest of the targeted population would get 3 kg of grains per person per month at half the minimum support price offered to farmers by government during procurement. Existing nutrition and select social security schemes would also be brought under the legislation as an entitlement. The bill though an important step from the government side, is short on the expectation of Right to food campaign (see interview with Kavita Srivastava), which has long been protagonist for such bill.
Policy approaches to ensure food security
In recent period there has been more emphasis and policy focus towards ensuring household level food security and per capita food energy intake. It has now been widely accepted as appropriate framework to measure food security. The government has been implementing a wide range of nutrition intervention programmes for achieving food security at the household and individual levels. The Public Distribution System (PDS) supplies food items, such as food grains and sugar, at administered prices through fair price shops. There have been a range of food-for-work and other wage employment programmes like MNERAGA. Another approach adopted by the government is to target women and children directly; this includes mid-day meal programme for school going children and supplementary nutrition programme for children and women like Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). These efforts to reach vulnerable section of population should be appreciated but this can’t work by neglecting adequate efforts towards boosting the production of food grains. This is for the simple reason that food availability continues to remain a necessary condition for food security. It’s true that food availability per se won’t ensure food security to all but it can also be put forward with equal assertion that without food availability the problem of food security can’t be addressed. It’s pertinent from the fact that per-capita availability of food grains in the country is only one-fifth of US. Food Security thus has two essential parameters-Production and Distribution especially to those vulnerable section of the population who lack adequate purchasing power. In long run however both production and distribution system needs to be strengthened by increasing the purchasing power especially of marginalised sections of the society by hiking job opportunities.
Reasons for stagnation in production
The performance of agriculture remains crucial in ensuring the availability and access to food, as more than 55 per cent people in the country is dependent on this sector. There are both short run and long run problems in Agriculture. Farmers’ suicides continue unabated, as growth rate in yield is on the decline. Farming is fast becoming a non-viable activity. It’s also true that scope for increase in net sown area is limited. Land degradation in the form of depletion of soil fertility, erosion, salinity, water logging has increased. There has been decline in the surface irrigation expansion rate coupled with a fall in the level of the ground water table due to over-extraction. Exposure of domestic agriculture to international competition has resulted in a high level of volatility in prices. Disparities in productivity across regions and crops, and between rainfed and irrigated areas have increased. The Steering Committee report on agriculture for the Eleventh Plan has identified the possible reasons for deceleration in agriculture since the mid- 1990s. According to the report, the major sources of agricultural growth are, public and private investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure including irrigation, technological change, diversification of agriculture, and fertilizers. It seems that progress on all these fronts has slowed down since the mid-1990s (refer table 3). Expansion has taken place only in the case of agricultural credit. Thus structural reasons basically account for the present state of agrarian crisis in the country as reflected in less than proportionate growth on front of technological up gradation, public investment in infrastructure building for agriculture, expansion in irrigated area, NPK fertilizer use etc.
What needs to be done?
Food Security can best be addressed by integrating two policy approaches elaborated earlier. Food self sufficiency at national level along with targeted public distribution system in vogue from 1997 has been found inadequate to address the problem of food security. Thus what is needed is a mechanism to ensure consumption and distribution of food grains at household level. It can be done by near universalization of public distribution covering most of the households in the country in a way that the farmers are ensured fair price for their produce. Adequate prices and guaranteed procurement to farmers through this mechanism can put required incentive system in place for evergreen revolution to ensure sustain food self sufficiency for the country. Public procurement has never exceeded one-fourth of total available food grains in the country and has largely restricted to relatively better-off farmers. Small and marginal farmers which accounts for bulk of farmers in the country need to be brought in its ambit forthright for them to be in a position to sustain them in agriculture and not be pushed out resulting in distress migration to urban areas in search of manual work, as reflected in census, 2011 data. Vulnerable sections of population like SC, ST, women, children, senior citizens need to be given adequate attention by strengthening and expansion of existing mechanism.
Structural issues seem to be the major reason for stagnating production of food grains as elaborated earlier. There is lot of scope for giving a quantum jump to agriculture production as yield/ per hectare for most of the food crops is 3-4 times less than global benchmarks. For this to materialize what is needed is push in public investment for building infrastructure needed for agriculture like irrigation facilities, revival of extension services, and public funded research for creating high yielding varieties of seeds suitable in Indian conditions at affordable costs to farmers. Administrative reforms through participatory approach is required to ensure efficient working of public distribution system which would be much needed for the efficient working of food security bill along with technological up gradation of the system to bring it in tune with contemporary requirements.
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