FOOD SECURITY

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Context

• Union Government has prohibited wheat export with immediate effect to manage overall food security. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued a notification in this regard.

Details

• There is a sudden spike in the global prices of wheat due to several factors and as a result, food security of India, neighboring countries and other vulnerable countries is at risk.
• Therefore, an amendment in the export policy of wheat has been done in order to manage the overall food security of the country and to support the needs of the neighboring countries and other vulnerable countries.
• Export will be allowed on the basis of permission granted by the Government to other countries to meet their food security needs and based on the request of their government.
• The Government has assured that there is no crisis of wheat and adequate food stock is available in the country.
• Unregulated trade is the reason behind the rising prices of wheat and the primary goal of the government is to check the inflation.

Food security

• Food security refers to ensuring adequate food supply to people, especially those who are deprived of basic nutrition.
• Food security has been a major concern in India. According to UN-India, there are nearly 195 million undernourished people in India, which is a quarter of the world's hunger burden. Also, roughly 43% of children in India are chronically undernourished. India ranks 71 out of 113 major countries in terms of Global Food Security Index 2021.
• Though the available nutritional standard is 100% of the requirement, India lags far behind in terms of quality protein intake at 20% which needs to be tackled by making available protein-rich food products at affordable prices.
• The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that India is doing 56.8% of what should be possible at its level of income for the right to food.

Pillars of Food Security

The three pillars of food security as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be:

1. Food Access – Having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.
2. Food Availability - Sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis.
3. Food use - Appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation.

Laws

• In order to provide the Right to food to every citizen of the country, the Parliament of India, enacted a legislation in 2013 known as the National Food Security Act, 2013.
• Also called as the Right to Food Act, this Act seeks to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of India's 1.33 billion population.

Government steps taken to ensure food security

• To ensure Food Security Government has taken several steps for instance the National Food Security Mission, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), the Integrated Schemes on Oilseeds, Pulses, Palm oil and Maize (ISOPOM), Antyodaya Ann Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the e-marketplace, as well as a massive irrigation and soil and water harvesting programmes.
• Other include: Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains; Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Midday Meal Scheme, and Food-for-Work (FFW).

Challenges of Food Security

The challenges India faces to meet its food security are as follows:

Climate change

• Climate change is expected to affect agricultural land use and production due to less availability of water for irrigation and other factors.
• There is climate change in India due to rising temperature and extreme events on the food production systems which impacts agricultural growth adversely.
• Various reports indicate that climate change would result in further intensification of temporal and spatial variation in the availability of water and extreme events of flood and drought.
• There is a strong need to address changes in institution and resource accessibility to tackle the climate induced natural hazards.

Crop Diversification

• In recent years there has been great emphasis of agricultural scientist on implementation of crop diversification.
• The, price of food grains like rice and wheat are no encouraging and farmers ended up with very low return.
• By concentrating on other crops the farmers were encouraged to earn higher profits. The creation of decentralized food grain bank in each block or district would enable the villagers to get subsidized food. This concept will improve the delivery of food grains and reduce corruption.

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Mismatch between water demand and availability

• There is a vast temporal and spatial variation in rainfall and water availability in the country. Majority of water is available during monsoon period and that too, through few spell of intense rainfall.
• The average rainfall in India is 1170mm . The demand for water for various purposes is increasing due to population growth, industrialization and urbanization.
• Presently agriculture sector is using about 83% of water resources, but due to demand from other sector availability may decline to 68% in 2050. Hence, mismatch between demand and supply of water24

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Land fragmentation

• Fragmentation of land is widespread in India and it is believed that fragmented nature of land holding plays a major role in explaining low levels of agricultural productivity.
• Increasing population has led to reduction in availability of land over the decades. There has been increase in putting agriculture land into non agriculture uses to accommodate developmental activities leading to land fragmentation and low productivity. Therefore there is a need for shift in land use and cropping pattern.

Quality seeds and Planting material

• The challenge confronting the seed sector is to make available quality seeds having good genetic potential at an affordable price and across the country to the farmers to enable them harvest maximum yield in the given agroclimatic conditions.

Agricultural Marketing

• Another critical and crucial challenge is supply chain management in agricultural marketing in India.
• Farmer’s access to market is hampered by poor roads, excessive regulation and poor market infrastructure. Hence steps must be taken for the betterment of agricultural marketing by allowing private sector and Foreign Direct Investment to improve the marketing and agricultural produce in India.

Globalisation

• Though globalization positively bought various changes like technology development, transport, fast communication and higher growth in service sector, at the same time it has also resulted in challenge.
• Globalization has certainly intensified interdependence and competition between economies in the world market creating worse condition for domestic framers and producers. The impact of globalisation culminated in the establishment of special economic zones(SEZs) which also led to widening the gap between rich and poor section.

Way Ahead and Conclusion

• Food security can be achieved by closing ‘yield gaps,’ increasing crop and livestock production efficiency, reducing waste in the food supply chain; crop/livestock diversification and integration; conserving crop wild relatives and agro-biodiversity, by adopting greenhouse gas abatement , production boosting technologies in agriculture and animal husbandry.
• Application of these measures together, could double the food production with available resources without increasing environmental impacts.
• Smallholder’s intensification and linking them with corporate bodies and modern retail food supply chains needs urgent attention since they hold majority of livestock in the country and can play a major role in food security and environmental stability.
• To avoid harmful effects of global warming, small changes in our day to day life style is a crucial turning point which need due attention.
• Techniques of remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) need to be fully explored against various unpredicted outcomes because of fluctuating climatic conditions.
• The recent advances in science and novel technologies/concepts need to be fully explored for their optimum potentials like genetic engineering, disease resistant varieties, embryo transfer technology, artificial insemination, superior genetics and breeding practices, cloning, nutrigenomics, immunemodulatory among others.
• These altogether may help increase and boost both agricultural and animal produces including of crops, cereals, foods, milk, meat and other products, and this will help us to achieve the objective of feeding the population with enhanced food security for everyone.