Food Security in India

What exactly is food security?

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. It has three dimensions: availability (food produced within the country, food imports, and the previous stock held in government godowns), accessibility (food being within reach of every person without barriers of distance or discrimination), and affordability (a person having enough money to buy enough, safe and nutritious food). Food security is ensured only when all three are satisfied together. A country may grow lots of food, yet a poor family may still go hungry because it cannot afford to buy it.

Why do we need food security?

The poorest section of society can be hit by hunger at any time, but the need for security is felt sharply during a calamity such as an earthquake, drought, flood, tsunami, or widespread crop failure. When a disaster strikes, total food production falls, prices of food shoot up, and the poor cannot afford to buy. If such a shortage continues for a long time it may cause famine — widespread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or rotten food.

Who are the food-insecure?

The worst affected groups are landless people with little or no land, traditional artisans, petty self-employed workers, beggars, and destitutes. In urban areas, the food-insecure are mostly people in ill-paid jobs and casual labour. The social composition shows that Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and some sections of Other Backward Classes who have poor land base or very low land productivity are prone to food insecurity. People hit by natural disasters and migrants are also affected. A large number of pregnant and nursing mothers and children under five form an important food-insecure group.

Hunger — a sign of food insecurity

Hunger has two faces. Chronic hunger is a consequence of diets persistently inadequate in quantity and quality; poor people suffer it because of very low income and an inability to buy food even for survival. Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting — it is common in rural areas because of the seasonal nature of agricultural activities, and in urban areas because of casual labourers getting work in some months only.

Food security in India since Independence

India adopted a careful approach. After the Green Revolution in the early 1970s, the country became largely self-sufficient in foodgrains. The government created a system to (a) procure grain from farmers, (b) store it as a buffer, and (c) distribute it to the needy. The largest impact of the Green Revolution came in wheat (and later rice). This success means that even during natural calamities India no longer depends only on imports.

Buffer stock

Buffer stock is the stock of foodgrains, mainly wheat and rice, procured by the government through the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The FCI buys grain from farmers in surplus states at a pre-announced price called the Minimum Support Price (MSP). This MSP is declared by the government every year before the sowing season to encourage farmers to grow more. The purchased grain is stored in granaries and used to distribute foodgrains in the deficit areas and to the poor at a price lower than the market price, called the Issue Price. Buffer stock also helps fight shortages during a bad year or calamity.

Public Distribution System (PDS)

The food procured by the FCI is distributed through government-regulated ration shops (also called Fair Price Shops) among the poorer sections of society. This is the Public Distribution System. Ration shops keep stocks of foodgrains, sugar and kerosene oil for cooking, and these are sold to people at a price lower than the market price. A family holding a ration card can buy a fixed quantity of these items every month from a nearby ration shop.

Ration cards and PDS types

There are three kinds of ration cards: Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the poor; BPL cards for people below the poverty line; and APL cards for all others above the poverty line. Over the years PDS evolved — the Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS, 1992) targeted remote and backward areas, and the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS, 1997) introduced different prices for poor and non-poor families. Later schemes like the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY, 2000) focused on the poorest families.

Problems with the PDS

Although the PDS has helped greatly, it faces problems. The high MSP and rising procurement led to overflowing godowns while the hungry still went without food. Carrying costs of huge stocks rose, and grain sometimes rotted or was eaten by rats. The three-price system (APL, BPL, Antyodaya) sometimes made grain costly for the APL families, who then bought little from ration shops. Ration shop dealers are also accused of malpractices such as diverting grain to the open market, selling poor quality grain, and irregular opening of shops.

Role of cooperatives and others

Apart from the government, cooperatives play an important role in food security, especially in the southern and western parts of India. They set up shops to sell low-priced goods to poor people. For example, in Tamil Nadu, around 94 per cent of fair price shops are being run by cooperatives. In Delhi, Mother Dairy provides milk and vegetables at controlled rates. Amul in Gujarat brought the White Revolution. Such efforts complement government action and strengthen the food-security net.