Ridding India of Food Insecurity

Why in News?

• India may be the fastest growing large economy of the world, but it is also facing accelerating food-price inflation. 
• An implication of continuing high food-price inflation is that a section of the population could be facing hardship in consuming food of adequate nutritional value.

Data Regarding the Affordability of a Healthy Diet

• Data Collected by International Agencies
  • The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates the proportion of the population across countries unable to afford a healthy diet.
  • The figure for India in 2021 is worrying as an estimated 74% of the population cannot afford a healthy diet.
  • Given a population of 1,400 million, this makes for approximately one billion Indians.
  • A shrinking ability of households to finance their food requirement is evident also in studies undertaken in India itself.
• Data Provided by Indian Agencies
  • The trend in the price of food in Mumbai city over 2018-2023 found that while the cost of preparing a thaali at home has risen by 65%, in this period, the average wage of a manual worker rose by 38% and that of a salaried worker by 28%.
  • The implied reduction in purchasing power is considerable, and it would be reasonable to expect that food consumption has been impacted.
  • Also, this would be in line with the reported rise in the prevalence of anaemia, mostly induced by nutrient deficiency, in the latest NFHS(2019-21). Over 50% of adult women were estimated to be anaemic. 

Policy Failures to Contain Rising Food Prices

• Macroeconomic policy relied upon to control inflation has proved to be useless in the context.
• The Reserve Bank of India has failed in this task, with the inflation rate mostly higher than the target for four years by now.
• Its approach of contracting output when the inflation rate rises does nothing to manage food inflation stemming from the supply side.
• Central banks are incapable of solving this problem and it must be said within any time frame.

The Significance of Green Revolution

• The Green Revolution aided India’s quest to be self-reliant in the highly polarised climate of the Cold War.
• Western economists have pointed to the success of the United States’ mission to land a human on the moon as an example of an entrepreneurial state.
• However, the Green Revolution in India, at a time when it was a miserably poor country tasked with ensuring food security for a staggeringly enormous number of people, is possibly more significant.

Lessons From the Green Revolution to Address Current Rising Food Prices

• More Focus on the Supply Side
  • It is necessary to focus on the supply side to ensure that food is produced at a steady price by raising the yield on land.
  • During the Green Revolution, under extreme food shortage following two successive droughts, the government worked on a supply-side response.
  • The government provided farmers with high-yielding seeds, cheap credit, and assured prices through procurement.
  • This succeeded spectacularly and within a few years India was no longer dependent on food imports.
• Work on Mistakes Made by the Government during the Green Revolution
  • During the Green Revolution some mistakes were made such as rampant use of chemical fertilizers, fuelled by subsidy, which degraded the soil.
  • There was also the reliance on procurement prices rather than productivity increase to ensure farm incomes, which fuelled inflation.
  • Moreover, the policy was almost exclusively focused on cereals rather than pulses, the main source of protein for most Indians.
  • However, rather than being critical about the errors made during a successful economic policy intervention, the government should be correcting them now.

Suggestions for the Government to Eliminate Food Insecurity from India

• Focus on a Specific Goal of Lowering the Production Cost
  • The first Green Revolution had a specific agenda; of making India self-sufficient in food.
  • In this it succeeded eminently and in a remarkably short time but without paying any attention to the cost of producing food. For this, a second agricultural revolution is needed now.
  • To contain the rising price of food would require action on many fronts; a mission mode is necessary.
  • As for policy, procurement prices, cash transfers, the Public Distribution System (PDS), and priority lending requirement of public sector banks are not sufficient.
• Focus on Yield Increasing Interventions
  • Yield increasing interventions on the farm are needed to at least contain the cost of production, if not to lower it.
  • Agricultural yield is lower in India than in East Asia, pointing to the potential for an increase.
  • Attention is needed to extend irrigation to 100% of the net sown area, an end to restrictions on leasing of land, a quickening of agricultural research and the re-institution of extension.
• Enhance Role of Public Agricultural Research Institutes: India’s network of public agricultural research institutes needs to be energised to resume the sterling role they had played in the 1960s.
• Revive the Role of Gram Sevak
  • Once the gram sevak was a familiar figure in the village playing a crucial role in the spreading of best practices. It must be revived.
  • These initiatives should be fit together into a programme for the manifold increase of protein production, which India is severely deficient in.
• Co-operative Federalism
  • In the 1960s, the States that were chosen for the spread of the new technology worked closely with the central government.
  • This would have to be replicated in order to make a difference to the country, with the central government taking the States along in a spirit of co-operative federalism.
  • At the same time, states must be held accountable. States should play their part to enhance agricultural productivity rather than relying on food allocations to their PDS from the central pool.
• Need for a Non-Ideological Approach
  • To make a difference on the ground, non-ideological approach would be needed, whether at the Centre or in the States.
  • For instance, during the first Green Revolution by relying on private enterprise the then PM chose a capitalist approach (with the objective of making India self-sufficient in food), unmindful of any damage that would be caused to her socialist image.

Conclusion

• It was the Green Revolution that made the first dent on poverty in India. So, the poor did benefit from this strategy.
• Similarly, in order to ensure that all Indians have permanent access to a healthy diet and to contain food inflation, a new approach is needed now.

Q1) What is food security?

Food security refers to having a consistent amount of nutritious food. This condition is marked by regular nutritious meals minus interruptions due to lack of resources, mobility issues, or adverse circumstances.

Q2) How has the pandemic contributed to food insecurity?

COVID-19 has caused a number of issues that have exponentially reduced food security for masses of people. As a global pandemic, the impact of the coronavirus has been felt by billions. Shelter in place orders and massive shutdowns have rocked the world’s economy. The economic upheaval has led to massive unemployment, damaging the economic security of many people who now cannot afford enough food to eat.  

Source: The Hindu