Role of farmers in food security long best answer
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The term 'food security' means that everybody is able to get enough healthy food to be well and active. For everybody to get enough healthy food, we need a food system that works well. Various measures taken by the government are as follow:
Technology Measures
Introducing technology in agriculture was an initiation taken by the Government to meet the growing demand of agricultural production. The measures taken to improve food production were expanding irrigation facility, water management, advance usage of high yielding variety of seeds and protection of crops through the usage of fertilisers and pesticides. These facilities were provided on a large scale to farmers. Through this, land unfit for cultivation was also made fit. This has made our country independent, and we have turned from a larger importer of food grains to a larger exporter.
Nationalisation
Banks have always paid attention to the increasing demand of agriculture. To centralise the needs of agricultural reforms, a National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was set up in 1982, which worked on expanding the credit facility to farmers. NABARD looks after the development of the cottage industry, small industry, village industry and other rural industries. It also finances the needs of the rural sector and monitors the development of the rural economy.
Support Prices
Another important measure is the announcement of support prices to ensure fair returns to farmers. This policy was passed so that even if the production was high, farmers should not suffer because of price cut. If the supply increases, the demand decreases; it means the price tumbles if the supply is adequate. This policy was necessary to ensure that farmers are not penalised for producing more. In fact, this policy was introduced to provide incentive to farmers for high production.
Food Security System
The Government of India had built a food security system in the form of the Public Distribution System (PDS). PDS does not mean that food will be available at cheaper cost. It means that it will work as a ‘safety net’ to maintain larger stocks of food grains. This was done in a bid to combat any shortages or shortfalls which might occur in the coming years because of natural disaster or during emergency.
Rural Employment Programmes
PDS was not very effective for the poor who did not have adequate amount of money to buy facilities available. Thus, the government planned various programmes particularly for poor farmers such as Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA), Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labour Development Agency (MFALDA), National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP), Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) and Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS).
Answer:
There are many factors contributing to today’s food security crisis. For example, how is climate change having an impact?
Climate change is certainly having a negative influence on food prices and food security. Irregular or insufficient harvests due to weather-related conditions fuel price instability and the income and food security conditions of small scale farmers, pastoralists, and rural and urban net buyers. This leads to increased poverty that can quickly afflict the entire local community. This is why we need to invest more in sustainable agriculture and take into account the social dimension of adapting to climate change. This includes social safety nets for dealing with short term shocks, as well as longer term initiatives that can better help to improve livelihoods and manage risk. Unless such measures are introduced to limit the consequences of climate change, the situation is likely to further deteriorate.
What is the impact of rising food prices on farmers and producers?
Our study shows that the positive effects of rising food prices have been limited mainly because gains from higher prices have accrued disproportionately to large scale farmers, intermediaries and operators in financial markets rather than small producers. Also, because food prices are so volatile, any increase in agricultural income is seen by producers – especially small ones – as temporary, and does not lead to additional investment. Food prices were twice as volatile during 2006-2010 than during the preceding five years, and here adverse weather conditions related to climate change played a significant role as droughts and severe floods, particularly in developing countries, lowered yields of important staple foods and reduced the amount of arable land. As a result, producers lack the stable horizon they need to invest their gains, perpetuating food shortages. Evidence suggests that the gains from higher food prices mainly accrue to high-income groups while most low-income groups are net losers.
Is there a clear connection between higher food prices and the rise of poverty?
Higher food prices definitely threaten the achievement of poverty reduction goals and affect the development prospects of many countries. An increase in food prices reduces purchasing power since higher food prices reduce total household spending for other essentials, and can lead to increased poverty. For example, the World Bank estimates that the rise in food prices between June and December 2010 pushed an additional 44 million people below the US$1.25 extreme working poverty line.
Also, higher food prices could lead to a reduction in real wages. To make wage adjustments necessary to neutralize losses from price increases, households in many developing countries make their children available for work, thus increasing child labour. Our analysis shows that a further 30 per cent increase in food prices may increase poverty rates by 3 percentage points in countries with chronic food shortages such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malawi, Nepal and Vietnam. Also, we estimate that a 30 per cent rise in food prices will require low-paid workers to find one additional week’s employment every month to maintain their standard of living.
You say that food commodities have become a major financial product. In what way?
The amount of money invested in commodity index funds rose from US$13 billion in 2003 to US$192 billion in March 2008, which means that the volume of index fund speculation increased by 1,900 per cent during the same period. It is clear that there is a growing use of commodities as investments, largely due to the high short-term gains that are expected and because they are considered as an attractive vehicle for portfolio diversification. Several studies show that there is increasing evidence that financial speculation in the commodity markets has been one of the driving factors behind rising food prices and volatility.
You mention quinoa in the Andes as one example that shows how turning a local crop into a financial product may be detrimental to the health and wealth of local communities?
The case of quinoa shows how local communities have seen their access to nutrient-rich food reduced because of financial speculation. The development of quinoa, the “miracle grain of the Andes” into a major Bolivian export crop led to improved income for farmers. However, it also brought steep local price increases that reduced or prevented access by the majority of the Bolivian population to this highly nutritious traditional food source. One policy consideration could now be to implement price controls on the domestic market for quinoa.