🍚 Chapter 4 – Food Security in India 🧺🌾

Food security

Availability

Availability of food

Production within country

Accessibility of food

Food is within reach of every person

Affordability of food

Having enough money to buy safe and nutritious food

Conditions for food security

Enough food

Calamities affecting food security

E.g. drought

Starvation

Prolonged food shortage in an area leading to mass hunger

Famine

Widespread deaths due to starvation and epidemics

Bengal Famine 1943

Killed 30 lakh people due to starvation and food shortage

Worst affected in famine

Agricultural labourers

UN definition of food security

Access to sufficient

Amartya Sen’s concept

Entitlements: production

Food insecure groups

Landless labourers

Urban food insecure

Casual labourers in low-paid

Ramu example

Seasonal rural worker facing food insecurity during unemployment

Ahmad example

Urban rickshaw puller using yellow ration card to survive

SCs

STs

Malnutrition risk groups

Pregnant/nursing mothers and children under 5 years

Food insecure regions

UP

Chronic hunger

Long-term inadequate diet due to poverty

Seasonal hunger

Hunger during specific times due to seasonal work

Decline in hunger

From 18.5% (1983) to 3.3% (2000) in rural India

Green Revolution

1960s strategy to increase foodgrain production

Wheat Revolution

Stamp released in 1968 to celebrate wheat production success

India’s foodgrain output (2021–22)

315 million tonnes

Food self-sufficiency

India became self-sufficient in foodgrains post-Green Revolution

Buffer stock

Stock of foodgrains maintained by FCI for emergencies

Minimum Support Price (MSP)

Pre-announced price at which FCI buys from farmers

Issue Price

Lower price at which foodgrains are sold to the poor

Public Distribution System (PDS)

Government system to distribute food via ration shops

Fair Price Shops (FPS)

Ration shops selling foodgrains and kerosene at subsidised rates

Types of ration cards

Antyodaya (AAY)

Revamped PDS (RPDS)

1992 reform to benefit remote/backward areas

Targeted PDS (TPDS)

1997 scheme to provide differential prices for poor and non-poor

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)

2000 scheme for poorest families with subsidised food

Annapurna Scheme (APS)

Free foodgrains for indigent senior citizens

National Food Security Act (NFSA)

2013 Act to provide food at low prices to 67% of population

NFSA entitlements

5 kg per person per month at ₹2 (wheat)

Problems in PDS

Diversion of food

Excess buffer stock

Leads to grain wastage

Cooperatives in food security

Run most ration shops in TN; support from Mother Dairy

Academy of Development Science (ADS)

Facilitates grain banks via NGOs in Maharashtra

Role of FCI

Procures

Price stability

PDS helps prevent hunger and stabilize food prices

Environmental impact

Over-cultivation of rice leads to water depletion and soil degradation

Decline in rice consumption

From 6.38 kg (2004) to 5.98 kg (2011) in rural India

PDS wheat consumption

Doubled in both rural and urban India since 2004

Subsidy

Government payment to keep prices low for consumers

Food intervention programmes

ICDS

Importance of food security

Ensures nutrition