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Food Security Notes

Food security means all people having availability, accessibility, and affordability of food at all times. It relies on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and government actions during threats. The PDS involves buffer stocks of grains procured from farmers and distributed through ration shops at subsidized prices, aiming to ensure food security especially for poorer populations. However, the PDS has faced issues like corruption and declining effectiveness over time.

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747 views

Food Security Notes

Food security means all people having availability, accessibility, and affordability of food at all times. It relies on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and government actions during threats. The PDS involves buffer stocks of grains procured from farmers and distributed through ration shops at subsidized prices, aiming to ensure food security especially for poorer populations. However, the PDS has faced issues like corruption and declining effectiveness over time.

Uploaded by

Chethana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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.

What is food security?


Food security has the following dimensions

(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.

(c) affordability implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and
nutritious food to meet one’s dietary needs.

Food security is ensured in a country only if

(1) enough food is available for all the persons

(2) all persons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable quality

(3) there is no barrier on access to food.

Why food security?


During natural calamity such as drought, production of food grains get decreased,
creating a shortage of food in the affected areas. The prices get increased due to
shortage of food. People cannot afford to buy food and if such a calamity happens in a
very wide spread area or is stretched over a longer time period, it might cause a
situation of starvation. Massive starvation might take a turn into a famine. A Famine is
characterised by widespread 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.

Who are food-insecure?


In India, a large section of people suffers from food and nutrition insecurity. People
having little or no land, traditional artisans, providers of traditional services, petty
self-employed workers and destitute including beggars are the worst affected groups.
In the urban areas, the food-insecure families are those who are generally employed in
ill-paid occupations and the casual labour market. These workers are largely engaged in
seasonal activities and are paid very low wages.

The social composition along with the inability to buy food also plays a role in food
insecurity. People of SC, ST and OBC communities who have either poor land-base or
very low land productivity are prone to food insecurity. People affected by natural
disasters, who migrate to other areas in search of work, are 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.

Another aspect of food insecurity is hunger, which is not just an expression of poverty,
it brings about poverty. Hunger has chronic and seasonal dimensions. Chronic hunger is
a consequence of diets persistently inadequate in terms of quantity and/or quality.
Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting.

Since Independence, India has been aiming at self-sufficiency in food grains. After
Independence, Indian policymakers adopted all measures to achieve self-sufficiency in
food grains. In the field of agriculture, India adopted a new strategy, which resulted in
the ‘Green Revolution’.

Food Security in India


Since the Green Revolution, the country has avoided famine even during adverse
weather conditions. India has become self-sufficient in food grains during the last 30
years because of a variety of crops grown all over the country. The availability of food
grains has been ensured with a carefully designed food security system by the
government. This system has two components: (a) buffer stock, and (b) public
distribution system

What is Buffer stock?


Buffer Stock is the stock of food grains, namely wheat and rice, procured by the
government through the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The stock of wheat and rice
are purchased by the FCI from the farmers where there is surplus production. The
farmers are paid a pre announced price for their crops, called Minimum Support Price
(MSP). Every year, the MSP is declared by the government before the sowing season to
provide incentives to farmers for raising the production of these crops. Buffer Stock
is created to distribute foodgrains in the deficit areas and among the poorer section of
the society at a price lower than the market price also known as Issue Price.

What is the Public Distribution System?


FCI distributes the food procured from the farmer through government-regulated
ration shops. It is called the Public Distribution System (PDS). Ration shops also, known
as Fair Price Shops, keep stock of foodgrains, sugar, and kerosene for cooking.
Rationing in India was introduced during the 1940s against the backdrop of the Bengal
famine. In the mid-1970s, three important food intervention programmes were
introduced:

Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) a

Food-for-Work (FFW).

At present, there are several Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAPs), mostly in rural
areas, which have an explicit food component also. Employment programmes greatly
contribute to food security by increasing the income of the poor.
Current Status of Public the Distribution System
Public Distribution System (PDS) is the most important step taken by the Government
of India towards ensuring food security. In 1992, Revamped Public Distribution System
(RPDS) was introduced in the country. From June 1997, Targeted Public Distribution
System (TPDS) was introduced to adopt the principle of targeting the ‘poor in all areas’.
In 2000, two special schemes were launched Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and
Annapurna Scheme (APS).

Over the year, the PDS proved to be the most effective instrument of government
policy in stabilising prices and making food available to consumers at affordable prices.
However, the Public Distribution System has faced severe criticism on several grounds.
High level of buffer stocks of foodgrains is very undesirable and wasteful. In states
such as Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh mainly two crops—
wheat and rice— are grown. The intensive utilisation 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.

PDS dealers started malpractice like diverting the grains to open market to get better
margin, selling poor quality grains at ration shops, irregular opening of the shops, etc.
In recent years, there is another factor that has led to the decline of the PDS. The
three types of cards and the range of prices that you see today did not exist. Now,
with TPDS of three different prices, any family above the poverty line gets very little
discount at the ration shop. The price for APL families is almost as high as open market
price, so there is little incentive for them to buy these items from the ration shop.

Role of cooperatives in food security


In India, the cooperatives are also playing an important role in food security especially
in the southern and western parts of the country. The cooperative societies set up
shops to sell low priced goods to poor people. Some of the examples of cooperative
societies are Mother Dairy in Delhi, Amul from Gujarat, Academy of Development
Science (ADS) in Maharashtra

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