speech on alteration of food
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Introduction to Food Problems in India:
India has been facing food problems since long period. During Second World War India experienced a severe food crisis leading to a phenomenal increase in the prices of foodgrains. Again in 1943, Bengal faced a serious Agriculture and its Development in India famine where nearly 3.5 million people died out of starvation.
In order to meet the situations, the rationing system was introduced and about 45 million people were covered by this rationing system. But due to corrupt and inefficient administrative structure, the entire system failed leading to a widespread hoarding and speculation of foodgrains causing huge suffering of millions of people of the country.
The partition of India in 1947 again aggravated the food crisis as after partition the country received about 82 per cent of the population but had to manage with nearly 45 per cent of the total cultivated area under cereals and with 69 per cent of the irrigated area. The country had to forego the surplus area of West Punjab and Sind.
Thus, while the separation of Burma aggravated the situation and forced the country to import rice but the partition of the country again forced the country to import wheat from foreign countries.
To meet the deficiency in the supply of foodgrains in the short run, the Government made the following provisions:
(a) Extension of the rationing system to cover both urban and rural areas;
(b) Import of foodgrains to make easy the situation and the amount of import reached the level of 2.7 million tonnes in 1947; and
(c) Introduction of subsidy for the distribution of imported food grains as it was expensive as compared to indigenously produced foodgrains. But the public distribution system which was mostly maintained in the urban areas primarily had been suffering from huge degree of inefficiency and corruption. .
To meet the situation, the First Five Year Plan accorded highest priority to agriculture. During the First Plan period, the country experienced a series of good harvests leading to an improvement in the food supply situation, curtailment of imports and a consequent fall in the prices of food grains by 23 per cent.
Considering the situation the planners became very much optimistic and an impression was created that the food problem was finally solved. But the situation was short-lived because whatever improvement in food situation was achieved that was mainly due to better climatic conditions and timely arrival of monsoons.