 |
VOOZH | about |
|
VOOZH | about |
Food Security is multi-dimensional and means something more than getting two square meals. Food security is described by the United Nations Committee on World Food Security as, having physical, social, and economic access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food that fits their food choices and dietary needs for an active and healthy life at all times. There are three dimensions to food security:
Thus, food security is ensured in a country if a sufficient food supply is available for everyone, has the means to purchase food of acceptable quality and there is no barrier to access.
Table of Content
Food security refers to a basic and omnipresent feature for any society and any society is driven by efforts of individuals, and also very important necessity of society and is driven by economic order to be followed by a society. Food security depends largely on income of a individual and a person whose income satisfies all his necessities, without any form of disruption, will experience more accessibility of food than those who suffer to make their ends meet. Food security varies depending upon the economic statuses of individuals in a country.
Food security is largely depended on agriculture, therefore program of agriculture and food security exists for helping the agricultural production in case of farmers and also to facilitate the process of globalisation. Global Food Security is meant for improving the nutrition level for those who are affected and to support the small farmers across the globe and improve their nutrition along with incomes. National Food Security Mission was launched in 2007 in India and objective was for food security and agriculture.
The factors which affects food security include:
Food insecurity refers to an disruption in the security of food as well as health among people and one of the main causes for food insecurity among people is related to economic standards. Unemployment can be considered as one of the important elements for food insecurity and this is evident in developing countries like India. Due to growing population, food insecurity has become more evident among people of world and effects many countries.
The different levels of food security includes the following:
According to the assessment by the UN, India has nearly 195 million undernourished people, which is almost a quarter of the world's hunger burden. Approximately, around 43% of young ones in India are undernourished chronically. India was ranked ar 76th out of 113 countries in the assessment by The Global Food Security Index in 2018, based on the three dimensions of food security.
Food security is needed because the poor section of society is more insecure as compared to the person above the poverty line when the country faces national disasters or calamities like earthquakes, drought, flood, failure of crops, etc. Due to drought total production of food grain decreases as it creates a shortage of food in affected areas as well as an increase in the price. At the high price, some people cannot afford the food. If such calamity happens for a long time or in a widespread area then it can lead to starvation.
Massive starvation can cause famine. Famine is defined as widespread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or decaying food and loss of body resistance due to weakening from starvation. The devastating famine that occurred in India was the famine of Bengal. In this famine, thirty lakhs person has lost their lives in the province of Bengal. In this famine agricultural laborers and other casual laborers were affected the most by a rapid increase in the price of rice and their number of death was high. In the 1970s Food security was understood as the availability of basic foodstuffs at all the tie. Amartya sen gives a new dimension to food security as it emphasizes access to food through Entitlements i.e. a combination of food one can produce and exchange in the market along with the state.
Accordingly, there has been a frequent change in the understanding of food security. The 1995 world food summit declared food security at the individual, household, regional, national, and global level exist for all people to have access to physical and economic means to meet their basic dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life at all times. Later on, they also came to the conclusion that Poverty eradication is necessary to improve access to food.
Because of the following reason given below food security in India is needed:
The following are included in the Food Security Programmes of India:
Public Distribution System: It refers to the major chunk of Government Expenditure on Food Security, which is spent on Food Subsidies, which are mostly implemented through the Targeted Public Distribution System
Mid-Day Meal Scheme: It refers to the wholesome freshly cooked lunch served to children in government and government-aided schools in India.
Integrated Child Development Services Scheme: The main aim is to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group of 0-6 years and lay a foundation for proper psychological, physical, and social development of the child.
Food management system and food price policy, to ensure food security in India consists of three major instruments:
Food Security is assured by distributing food grains at subsidized prices through the Targeted Public Distribution System. Protection from price volatility due to inflation. Over the years, spending on food subsidies has increased, and the ratio below the poverty line has decreased.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution is the main ministry for the implementation of food subsidies. Food Subsidy accounts for 95 percent of the total budget allocated to the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
Department of Food and Public Distribution gives food subsidies to the Food Corporation of India and states. These elements in turn procure food grains from farmers at Government notified Minimum Support Prices (MSP).
Three main components of food subsidy are as follows:
- The subsidy is given to the Food Corporation of India.
- The subsidy is given to states.
- Sugar subsidy.
Conflict, climate variability and extremes, and economic slowdowns were major drivers slowing down progress and the COVID-19 pandemic exaggerated the situation. The prevalence of undernourishment increased from 8.4 percent in 2019 to 9.9 percent in 2020. In the context of population, around 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020.
46 million more people in Africa, almost 57 million more in Asia, and about 14 million more in Latin America and the Caribbean were affected by hunger immensely in 2020. Severe food insecurity estimated increase in 2020 was equal to that of the previous five years combined.
In India, there is a large section of people suffering from food and nutrition insecurity. People who suffered the worst are the ones having little or no land, traditional artisans, petty self-employed workers, and the destitute including beggars. In urban areas, food-insecure families are those who are generally employed in ill-paid or ill-treated occupations. workers who are largely engaged in seasonal activities and are paid very low wages are the ones who are food insecure.
The less ability to buy food also plays a role in food insecurity. People who are either poor land-based or have very low land productivity are prone to food insecurity. People who migrate to other areas because of natural disasters in search of work are among the most food-insecure people. There is a large number of pregnant women and nursing mothers, and children under the age of 5 years are the ones who have constituted an important segment of the food-insecure population.
Another aspect of food insecurity is hunger and it is of two types chronic hunger and seasonal hunger.
After Independence India has been constantly working at self-sufficiency in food grains. Indian government and policymakers have adopted all policies to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains. India adopted a new strategy in the field of agriculture, which resulted in the ‘Green Revolution.
Indian Constitution doesn't have explicit provisions regarding the right to food, but the Fundamental Right to Life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution can be interpreted to include the right to live with human dignity; including the right to food and other basic necessities.
It marks a paradigm shift from welfare to right based approach. It covers 75 percent of the rural population and 50 percent of the urban population under:
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has the main responsibility of procuring food grains at Minimum Support Price (MSP) stored in its warehouses and supplied to state governments in terms of requirements.
It has become an important part of Government policy for food management in the economy of the country. It is supplemental in nature and not intended to make available the entire requirement of any commodity.
Due to excessive or inappropriate use of agrochemicals. deforestation and natural calamities are significant challenges to food production.
10 major invasive pest and weed attacks in the past 10 years in India. Fall Armyworm destroyed almost the entire maize crop of the country in 2018. In 2020, a locust attack was reported in Rajasthan and Gujarat.
India lacks a strict management framework for food security. The prevalence of fake ration cards and weak grievance addresses are a few examples.
Changing precipitation patterns and the growing intensity and frequency of weather events such as heatwaves, and floods are serious threats to food security.
