Solutions for Food Security

Structure of the Paper

The Paper begins with a Concept Note so as to introduce the connotation of food security, as has been used in the entire paper to look at all the 12 Five Year Plans as well as various policies and give a brief contextual background. The Paper then goes on to a description of the entire planning phase, followed by an analytical summary of each Five Year Plan. After discussing the Plans, the paper gives a very brief overview of policies pertaining to food security before delving into 5 specific policies, in detail and ends with a conclusion.

Concept Note

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, food security is a condition in which 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.

The concept of food security involves the following 5 A’s:

1. Availability- Sufficient food for all people consistently, ensured through sustainable growth in production
2. Accessibility- Physical and economic access to food for all at all times through sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet
3. Adequacy- Access to food that is nutritious and safe, and produced in environmentally sustainable ways
4. Absorption- A function of environmental hygiene, nutrition practices and access to primary health care and clean drinking water
5. Agency- The policies and processes that enable the achievement of food security

It can be deduced that these relate not only to production and distribution of food which can addressed through agricultural policies but are also linked to Amartya Sen’s concepts of ‘endowment’ and ‘exchange entitlements’ which looks at resources at one’s disposal that determines one’s capacity to buy food which can be enhanced through education, employment and labour policies as well. Therefore, a comprehensive approach to food security involves not only direct approaches but also indirect approaches such as asset redistributive programs, employment programs, etc. From the policy point, price stabilization and crop insurance policies, alongside long-term interventions to improve food availability and incomes of the poor, e.g., land reforms, capability enhancement, e.g., investment in public health, nutrition and education etc. are all connected with food security.

The following table provides a glimpse of food security on the international agenda:

India has grappled with issues of food security since the time of partition, when the country’s agriculturally prosperous states of West Punjab and Sind went to Pakistan, leaving it with 82% of the population of undivided India, and 75% of cereal production. Consequently, policies immediately post-independence focused on boosting food production, and increasing the availability of food. The Indian Constitution, which was written, with this background, provides for food security in its full connotation through the following provisions:

The interpretation of Article 21 in the sense that it has been mentioned above has its origin in a petition by People’s Union for Civil Liberties. Despite the presence of food distribution schemes, and excess grain (for times of famine), Rajasthan was seeing the occurrence of a number of starvation deaths which prompted the People’s Union for Civil Liberties to go to court in 2001, pushing for the right to food, as an extension of the right to life. After two years of limited court intervention and governmental implementation, in 2003, the court ruled that the right to life was jeopardized by the shortcomings of these schemes. Noting the paradox of availability but not accessibility, it ordered the Famine Code to be enforced for three months, grain allocation for the food for work scheme be doubled and financial support for schemes be increased; ration shop licensees to stay open and provide grain to BPL families at set prices; publicity for the rights of BPL families to grain, all individuals without means of support to be granted an Antyodaya Anna Yozana ration card for free grain, and the progressive implementation of mid-day meal schemes in schools. It was then that while interpreting the Article 21, the Supreme Court of India found that the Government has a constitutional obligation to take steps to fight hunger and extreme poverty and to ensure a life with dignity for all individuals. In the light of this, this paper looks at the ways in which the Government has tried to fulfil its obligation to ensure food security, through Five Year Plans and various policies.

Food Security and Five Year Plans

Successive five year plans have laid down policies and strategies for achieving food security. The following section gives an overview of the 12 Five Year Plans with respect to food security. The section begins with a brief summary of the four phases of planning, then moves on to providing a glimpse of all 12 year plans and their diverse approaches to food security before delving into the details of each plan.

Planning can be divided into four phases, depending upon the idea of food security in the plan and the approach taken towards it, as shown below:

1950s -Mid 1960s:

In this phase, the concept of food security focused mainly on availability and stability of food. Planning focused on coping with localised situations of scarcity.

Mid 1960s -Mid 1990s:

This phase focused on food self-sufficiency and evolved long term strategy for policies and structures for the regulations, management and development of the country’s food economy. The phase with overall similar characteristics can still be distinguished into two sub-periods. From 1965 to about late 70s, the emphasis was on production and distribution. In 80s and till mid 90s, additional focus was on affordability and inclusivity.

Mid 1990s – 2012:

This phase saw a more direct approach to food security in terms of availability, accessibility as well as absorption through adequate support structures and focus on sectors like health, education and employment.

2012 – Present:

The current phase focuses on holistic food security by encompassing sustainability in addition to all the aspects of food security as outlined in all other planning phases. It marks the introduction of National Food Security Act, 2013 making food, a legal entitlement.

The following table gives a glimpse of all the Plans:

1^st Five Year Plan (1951-56)

Context:

Existential Problems

Inadequate production of food grains

High Imports

Increasing Population

Underlying Sentiment:

“A well-defined food policy for the period of the Plan is an essential condition for the successful implementation of the Plan.”

Approach:

In the first plan, agricultural development received the highest precedence and the plan made a provision of INR 184 crores for the same.

The plan sought out to initiate a programme of public investment to give farmers the water, the power, the seeds and the manures they need in order to maintain a steady supply of food grains at reasonable prices (for consumers as well as producers). Steady supply at reasonable prices is a prerequisite for expanding real income, as against money income, so as to accrue the beneficial results of increased employment and incomes.

Plan:

For the period of the Plan, rationing and procurement together with certain minimum imports was regarded as the key to the maintenance of a stable system of food controls. The case for food controls was presented through its vitality for safeguarding the minimum consumption standards of the poorer classes, preventing excessive or ostentatious consumption by the well-to-do and facilitating the country’s programme of direct utilisation of unemployed manpower for investment.

Therefore, the plan outlined the following elements of food policy:

1. Progressive reduction in imports and steady improvement in the system of internal procurement
2. Retention of basic structure of food controls until the domestic consumption is stepped up to the extent of 7.5 million tonnes to consider an adequate and assured food supply.
3. Price Stabilisation with setting Maxima and Minima and judicious purchases by Government at defined prices (evening out inter-State disparities)
4. Income Stimulation through Capital Expenditure and Deficit Financing to ensure a high level of demand of food
5. Permitting universal entitlement to food subsidy but restricting it to urban and food deficit regions
6. Securing from each surplus State the maximum it can make available to the common pool and to organise the procurement and distribution of grains in each deficit State so as to restrict its drawings from the central pool to the minimum necessary
7. Encouraging the use of wheat and other supplementary foods in place of rice, given the special difficulties associated with it, by making the public aware of the benefits of a varied diet

Therefore, all in all, the main thrust of the plan was to increase the domestic availability of food. It also looked at improving the accessibility of food through income redistribution and employment generation measures.