An Opportunity to Recast India’s Food System

Why in News?

• On October 16, the world celebrated World Food Day, but food as a system is looked rarely. Therefore, there is a need to transform the food system.
• To achieve this and address the challenges, India must invest, innovate, and create lasting solutions in sustainable agriculture contribution to equitable livelihood, food security, nutrition, and environmental security.
• 

Significance of Interlinked Nature of Livelihood, Nutritional and Environmental security

• To Make Economic Returns on Produce Resilient: While the primary goal of a food system is to ensure nutrition security for all, it can only be achieved sustainably if the producers producing the food make reasonable economic returns that are resilient over time.
• Essential to Make Food System Sustainable
  • The resilient economic returns for producers are intricately linked with the resilience of natural ecosystem because the largest inputs to agriculture; soil, water and climatic conditions are all natural resources.
  • Therefore, the interconnectedness of nutrition security with livelihood and environmental security is essential to making our food system truly sustainable.

Challenges to India’s Livelihood, Nutritional and Environmental Security

• Burden of Malnutrition
  • On the nutrition front India faces a double burden of malnutrition.
  • Despite making great progress over the years, nutrient deficiencies are prevalent in a sizable proportion of Indian population.
  • As per National Family Health Survey, 2019-21, 35% of children are stunted, and 57% of women and 25% of men are anaemic.
  • At the other end, due to imbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles, 24% of adult women and 23% of adult men are now obese.
  • India has been stepping up efforts to reduce malnutrition, which has included even the Prime Minister calling for a mass movement to eradicate it.
• Insufficient Farm Incomes
  • On the production side, farm incomes are insufficient to meet the ends of marginal and small farmers.
  • According to a report by the Transforming Rural India Foundation, more than 68% of marginal farmers supplement their incomes with non-farm activities.
  • The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and other forms of casual labour are seeing greater participation.
  • It indicates a lack of skills or opportunities for income diversification.
• Depleting Natural Resources
  • Depleting natural resources and changing climate are making India’s food production highly vulnerable.
  • As in the 2023 soil health survey, almost half the cultivable land in India has become deficient in organic carbon, which is an essential indicator of soil health.
  • Groundwater, the largest source of irrigation, is rapidly declining.
  • In States such as Punjab, more than 75% of the groundwater assessment locations are over-exploited, threatening the resilience of farm incomes.

Suggestions to Address these Interconnected Challenges

• Shift Consumer Demands Towards Healthier Diet
  • There is a need to shift to a food plate that is healthier for people and the planet.
  • The private sector drives the aspirational consumption patterns for India’s billion-plus population.
    • What corporations have done to mainstream imported oats or quinoa in India, can be done for locally-grown millets.
  • Civil society and the health community could partner with social media influencers who can shape healthier and sustainable consumption for millions.
  • Alongside, the public sector, through its innumerable touch points such as the Public Distribution System, mid-day meals, railways catering, urban canteens, and public and institutional procurement, can help improve what at least 70% of Indians are consuming.
  • Even religious institutions can shape food choices.
    • For instance, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, which serves nearly 70,000 people daily, has started procuring naturally-farmed produce.
• Transition Towards Regenerative Agricultural Practices
  • To ensure resilient incomes, the government must support farmers’ transition towards remunerative and regenerative agricultural practices.
  • The National Mission on Natural Farming is a step in this direction, but the overall funding for sustainable agriculture is less than 1% of the agricultural budget.
  • The government needs to broaden and scale up such initiatives to various agro-ecological practices such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture, precision farming, and much more.
• Shift Agricultural Support from Input Subsidies to Direct Cash Support
  • Agriculture support should move from input subsidies to direct cash support to farmers per hectare of cultivation.
  • It would promote efficient use of inputs, while enabling a level playing field for agroecological practices to thrive.
• More Research on Sustainable Agricultural Pracitices: Agricultural research and extension services should also earmark a proportion of their respective budgets to focus on sustainable agricultural practices.
• More Value Addition of Agricultural Produce in Rural Areas
  • To improve farm incomes there is a need to shift farm-to-fork value chains towards more sustainable and inclusive ones.
  • A critical approach to enhance rural (farm) incomes is to enable more value addition of agricultural produce in rural areas.
  • Middlemen, such as corporations supplying raw and processed food to consumers, should prioritise direct procurement from farmers, incentivise procurement of sustainably harvested produce, and implement well-established approaches such as fair trade.
  • Various young agri-tech enterprises such as DeHaat and Ninjacart are enabling such farm-to-buyer linkages.
• Enable Trading Between Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)
  • Since all farmer families in a farmer producer organisation (FPO) are consumers of other farming goods.
  • Enabling trading of produce between FPOs is another way to ensure a greater value share for farmers, as showcased by a few FPOs in Odisha.

Conclusion

• Shifting an entire food system is not a small task. But the scale of the challenge must not deter India’s ambitions.
• If India acts fast, India has a unique opportunity to showcase to the rest of the world how to get its food system right.

Q1) What is Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna?

PMGKAY is a part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) to help the poor fight the battle against Covid-19. The scheme aimed at providing each person who is covered under the National Food Security Act 2013 with an additional 5 kg grains (wheat or rice) for free, in addition to the 5 kg of subsidised foodgrain already provided through the Public Distribution System (PDS). It was initially announced for a three-month period (April, May and June 2020), covering 80 crore ration cardholders. Later it was extended till September 2022. Its nodal Ministry is the Ministry of Finance.

Q2) What is the National food security Scheme Act?

The Act aims to provide for Food and Nutritional Security in Human life cycle approach by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity. The State of Karnataka is committed to the effective implementation of the Act.

Source: The Hindu