Examine the three features of food security in india
Answers
Food security has following dimensions:
Availability of food: This means the food production within the country, food imports and previous years’ stock stored in government granaries.
Accessibility of food: This means food should be within reach of every person.
Affordability: This means that every individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet one’s dietary needs.
The green revolution initiated in the late 1960s was a historic watershed that transformed the
food security situation in India. It tripled food grain production over the next three or four
decades and consequently reduced by over 50 percent both the levels of food insecurity and
poverty in the country, this was achieved in spite of the increase in population during the period,
which almost doubled. The country succeeded in the laudable task of becoming a food self-sufficient nation, at least at the macro level.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food security has three components, viz., availability, access, and absorption (nutrition). The three are interconnected.
Food security means availability, accessibility, and affordability of food to all people at all times. The poor households are more vulnerable to food insecurity whenever there is a problem of production or distribution of food crops.
Food security depends on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and government vigilance and action at times, when this security is threatened. Public Distribution System (PDS) is an Indian food security system. Established by the Government of India under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution and are managed jointly by state governments in India, it distributes subsidized food and non-food items to India’s poor. This scheme was launched in India on June 1947. Major commodities distributed include staple food grains, such as wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene, through a network of fair price shops (also known as ration shops) established in several states across the country. Food Corporation of India, a Government-owned corporation, procures and maintains the PDS