Food security denotes the availability, access, utilisation and stability of food over time. In developing countries such as India, issues of food security, and insecurity, have wide economic, political and social dimensions. Achievement of food security plays an important role in the overarching goal of alleviating poverty and inequality in India.
The National Food Security Act (NFSA), that came into force in 2013, aims to ensure access to food for priority households at subsidised rates. However, one of the greatest shortcomings of the act has been in the definition of food security itself. Food security has been defined in terms of access to food grains. Confoundingly, concerns regarding access to food grain has been a source of bitter debate and policy failure. Inadequate procurement by the government agencies have led to reduced access in several regions of the country. Coupled with these difficulties, the issue of identifying the intended beneficiaries and associated leakages in the existing PDS system have posed as an additional obstacle. Success of the NFSA depends on the inclusion of non-food grain and nutrient rich commodities, and provisions for the establishment of market mechanisms that will guide aspects of provision, pricing and storage of food.
Concerns regarding access to food grain has been a source of bitter debate and policy failure. Inadequate procurement by the government agencies have led to reduced access in several regions of the country.
Augmenting nutritional status through increased coverage under NFSA
Emphasis on food grains such as rice and wheat and certain coarse cereals have come at the cost of nutrition. While, cereals are a major source of calories, other micro-nutrients and essential vitamins which are essential for healthy development of an individual have been neglected in the NFSA. Therefore, despite increasing production and achievement of self-sufficiency in food grains, nutritional status of India still remains a major handicap. According to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2018, India ranks 103 out of 119 countries. Albeit an improvement from previous scores that depicted an ‘alarming’ situation of hunger in India in 2000 and 2004.
Problem of hunger is still at a ‘serious’ level according to the index.
The GHI scores reiterate the findings of the NFHS-4.
Findings from the survey suggest that around 38% of children below 5 years of age are stunted and 36% of them are still underweight. Stunted and underweight children represent the proportion of children who suffer from chronic and acute undernutrition, respectively. This trend is observed to be higher among rural areas as compared to urban areas. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are some of the states where percentage of stunted children is higher than the national average. Moreover, 59 percent of children had some degree of anaemia. This is a serious concern as it can impair cognitive abilities and increase vulnerability to other diseases. Prevalence of anaemia among adults, both male and female, presents another challenge in attainment of food security in India. Therefore, achievement of food security requires tackling the triple threat of malnutrition characterised by inadequate calorie intake, obesity and micronutrient deficiency, as rightly identified by development economist Sudha Narayanan.
With increasing incomes and trends toward greater urbanisation, diversification of the food basket is inevitable. This might help in improving the nutritional status of the urban population of India. But with majority of the population still living in rural areas and highly dependent on cereals as an affordable source of calorie, the importance of the PDS in ensuring economic security of the people cannot be ignored.
Food security, as such, must be expanded to include other crops, and even high value commodities which can supplement the nutritional requirements of an average diet. A
recent study has shown that the food basket has become diversified across urban and rural areas. Traditional commodities such as cereals and pulses are gradually getting replaced by vegetables, fruits, milk, meat, fish and eggs. Increase in the consumption of fruits has seen a 260% change from 1983 levels in 2011, edible oil consumption has also increased by 78.5% and at the same time intake of milk, livestock and poultry products have increased by 44.3 and 39.7% respectively over the same period. Consumption of cereals and pulses, on the contrary, have experienced a decline of 20.6 and 15.6% respectively, despite occupying three-fourth share of total calorie and protein intake. With increasing incomes and trends toward greater urbanisation, such diversification of the food basket is inevitable. This might help in improving the nutritional status of the urban population of India. But with majority of the population still living in rural areas and highly dependent on cereals as an affordable source of calorie, the importance of the PDS in ensuring economic security of the people cannot be ignored. The provision of food grains must be supplemented with other nutrient-rich commodities. The NFSA has taken certain measures to ensure that children, and pregnant and lactating mothers are getting access to quality food during the crucial stages of development through the ICDS and mid-day meal schemes. Similar efforts must be taken to encourage consumption of nutrient rich commodities such as millets, leafy vegetables, milk and eggs among the general rural population. Unless cereals and pulses are substituted for micro-nutrient, vitamins and other nutrient rich commodities, nutritional security will not be achieved and prevalence of hunger and malnutrition will continue to challenge policy makers. Production and distribution of nutrient rich commodities need to be encouraged under the NFSA. Instead of focusing only on provision of food grains, it must expand its scope to the production, storage and distribution of those crops that enhance the nutritional status of the country.
Efficient markets: A necessary condition for the NFSA
Markets, if allowed to operate efficiently, are the most desirable option for improving the welfare of the economy. Not only is it going to ensure remunerative prices for farmers, but also competitive and better-quality products for the consumers. Markets play an important role in reducing the leakages from post-harvest activities and also ensure efficient functioning of the pricing system.
Subsequently, this has a positive effect on the market for inputs, productivity, profitability of farmers, and affordability of consumers. However, the agricultural marketing system has been highly inefficient with certain players appropriating a larger share of the benefits and leading to situations of distress among both buyers and sellers.
As highlighted in the
Dalwai Committee report on doubling farmers’ income, lack of alternate marketing mechanisms and inadequate procurement by the government has led to the present situation of agrarian distress. Post production marketing interventions have not been commensurate to ensure an efficient market equilibrium in the agriculture sector. For example, FCI procurement in 2016-17 had been able to acquire only 35.51 and 24.88% of total paddy and wheat production, while that of oilseeds and pulses had been 0.66 % and 7.76% of the total production respectively. Moreover, this procurement has not been secular, geographically or across crops, as out of the 33% of the marketable surplus of wheat procured by the FCI for the central pool, 90% had been from Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. And primarily wheat and paddy growers have benefitted from such procurement mechanisms. Therefore, a majority of agricultural produce had to be sold to middlemen at below MSP prices.
The agricultural marketing system has been highly inefficient with certain players appropriating a larger share of the benefits and leading to situations of distress among both buyers and sellers.
In addition to this, post-harvest losses have been estimated to be around 6.36 to 8.4 percent of total production in case of pulses, and 3.24 to 9.96 percent of total production in case of oilseeds. Efficient market practices aimed at reducing such leakages will be instrumental in solving the problem of protein malnutrition and reduce the burden on the foreign exchequer. Most of these commodities, especially oilseeds, are being imported. Future demand projections also suggest that if these inefficiencies in the marketing system persist then domestic production of oilseeds is unlikely to meet growing demand.
Another critical aspect of food security is affordability. Market price of agricultural commodities are critical from the point of view of the vulnerable sections of the society i.e., the targeted population of the NFSA.
Office of the Economic Adviser data suggest that WPI in food articles has been showing a rising trend. Moreover, volatility in prices is largely attributed to the lack of competitive agriculture markets and infrastructure, apart from the demand and supply factors. Such volatility in food prices adversely affect the vulnerable population, reducing their capacity and capability to access food, health and a better standard of living. Therefore, efficient markets ensure price stability and reduced leakages in the post-harvest phase of agriculture production and are extremely important for the successful implementation of the NFSA.
Nutritional security and access to better markets are two important components of the NFSA. The former is important for ensuring proper utilisation and absorption of quality food that is central to the objective of food security. The latter tries to address issues of supply chain management. Lack of markets have led to price volatilities and leakages from the agriculture sector in India. Unless the government takes adequate measures to address these issues, the problem of malnutrition will continue to persist and affect the productivity of the country’s labour force.
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