what is a food security? what is the system of food security in India described
Answers
Answer:
Food security entails ensuring adequate food supply to people, especially those who are deprived of basic nutrition. Food security has been a major concern in India.
Explanation:
Food insecurity is a situation of limited access to safe and healthy food [1], while food security refers to a situation when ‘all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’ [2]. Food insecurity can be understood as a continuum that progresses from uncertainty and anxiety about access to sufficient and appropriate food at the household level, to the extreme condition of hunger among children because they do not have enough to eat [3]. The experience of food insecurity has been found to be more severe in low-income communities, and for those who already experience poor health [4,5]. While factors contributing to poverty are important when considering food insecurity, it is not the only determinant. Other influences include policy, the distribution of food across populations, countries, and regions, unstable political conditions, and climate change induced adverse environmental conditions including severe droughts, lack of water, and soil degradation and erosion [1,6,7,8,9].
2. Food Security in India
While overall global rates of food insecurity have decreased, there remains a large population of people experiencing food insecurity living in sub-Saharan African and South Asia. Countries most affected are typically characterised by high rates of disease and mortality associated with nutritional deficiencies coupled with high rates of poverty [10,11,12]. Despite rapid economic growth over the last two decades, many Indians have not benefited from the economic improvement, and continue to experience food insecurity and hunger, a high burden of malnutrition and undernourishment, and increasing obesity [13]; in 2016, over 190 million people were reported undernourished—the highest in any single country [14].
The reasons behind food insecurity and hunger in India are complex. Some research indicates that high rates of migration from rural to urban areas may play a role [15], as evidenced by the concentration of economic gains in urban areas, and the significant changes to the contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP [16]. The adverse effects of climate change are also an emerging contributor to food insecurity, with uneven weather patterns and increasing droughts to blame for uneven growth and production of food stock [5]. The most recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks India at the high end of the ‘serious’ category, as India continues to perform poorly in addressing hunger and malnutrition; currently one in three Indian children is stunted representing one third of the world’s stunted population, and one in five is wasted [17]. Many in India also experiences hidden hunger. Hidden hunger refers to a situation of chronic micronutrient deficiency, where a person might have access to sufficient calories, but lacks adequate micronutrients [18]. Hidden hunger can have lasting effects on health and wellbeing, and is especially problematic for children [19].
The government of India have adopted a range of policies over the last 60 years in an attempt to strengthen food security [5]. One of the key responses to food insecurity and hunger in India is the distribution of food grains through the government controlled Public Distribution System (PDS) [20]. Established after World War Two with an aim of increasing domestic agricultural production and improving food security, the PDS has evolved to the largest universal distribution system in the world for the supply of subsidised food grains [20,21]. Through a partnership between central and state governments, the food-safety net program aims to supplement essential household supplies including wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene. However, like other solutions to food scarcity, this program is not intended to provide all required household foods, but rather provide goods to supplement purchased or farmed goods [20,22]. To facilitate the distribution, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) acts a central nodal agency responsible for the procurement of food grains from farmers at a price that is often higher than market price [20,23]. The individual state governments then procure the food grains at a subsidised price known as the ‘central issue price’ from the FCI [20,24], these goods are then distributed to consumers via fair price or ration shops [20].