Food security in India has always been a critical issue throughout the years. With India stepping into the Presidency of G20, will the issue be resolved? Lets find out in this blog.
The economy of a country largely depends on its people, in fact, people make the economy. The human resource of determines the possibilities of its growth and thus the quality of human resource becomes a significant factor in ascertaining the growth and development of any nation. But is it possible for any nation to develop when its general public or its human resource is deprived of very basic requirement to sustain life i.e. food? Certainly not and with this only strikes the concept of food security. Also the questions such as how long the people will be able to consume that food, its availability, accessibility, affordability and the nutritional level remains same, gets better or worse also enters the frame. Food which is a very fundamental amenity for any person whether working or non-working and its security has a lot to do with the further possibilities and predictions of growth and development of any nation.
Food security in a layman’s language is availability, accessibility and affordability of food to all the people at all the times while at the same time ensuring its quality i.e nutritional level. The concept of food security is not only important for the consideration of poorer sections of the society but also for the times when natural calamities hit, making even the well off people food insecure.
India has faced the situation of extreme food deficit post-independence which was not fulfilled until the green revolution happened in 1967. In fact it has become self-sufficient in foodgrains during the last 30-40 yeas because of variety of crops grown all over the country. The availability of foodgrains (even in adverse weather conditions or otherwise) at the country level has further been ensured by a system which includes buffer stock and Public Distribution System (PDS). Currently India holds the stock of food much more than the prescribed norms and more than 5.5 lakh PDS shops are currently operating in India.
Global Food Security Index
According to the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) Report 2022, India stands at the 68th position along with Algeria with the overall score of 58.9, still lagging behind its neighbor country China which occupies 25th position with the score of 74.2. Its very clear from the report and by looking at the position and the score of India that in the context of food security, India has shown steady improvement in terms of the score, where it moved from 45 points in 2012 to 58.9 points in 2022. Till the year 2017, many hiccups with respect to the global position can be traced which gradually have shown a decline or a downward trend in the last five years. However the position of India has declined as it was standing at 66th position in the year 2012 while it has come down to 68th position in the year 2022. However comparing its position as in 2021 with the same as the year 2022, a progress can be noted as a shift from 71st position to 68th position is evident, still lagging much behind the top countries that include Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Netherlands, United States, Canada, Japan and France which scored between 77.8 to 80.0.
|
YEAR |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
RANK |
70 |
69 |
68 |
75 |
74 |
76 |
72 |
71 |
71 |
68 |
|
SCORE |
44.4 |
48.3 |
50.9 |
49.4 |
48.9 |
50.1 |
58.9 |
56.2 |
57.2 |
58.9 |
Source: impact.economics
Global Hunger Index
Global Hunger Index (GHI) is yet another tool to assess the conditions prevailing in different countries in regard to the number of people affected by hunger. According to the report, India’s condition and its capability in addressing the hunger of its people has deteriorated over the years. It stood at the 63rd position in the year 2013 but has come down to 107th position in 2022. However report is blamed for erroneous measures as three out of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to health of Children and cannot be representative of the entire population. The fourth and most important indicator estimate of Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3000.
|
YEAR |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
RANK |
63 |
65 |
80 |
97 |
100 |
103 |
102 |
94 |
101 |
107 |
Source: Global Hunger Index
Also read: Religious extremism in India: Hereto and the aftermath.
The global hunger index and the global food security index uses different methodologies in order to conduct the survey however both the reports very closely try to ascertain the position of any country with respect to the prevailing situation in relation to food security and hunger. Hunger and food security are the terms that belong to the same genre however because of the inaccurate measurements both the reports give us the conflicting results. Also the GHI report has not taken into the consideration the number of countries being included in the survey. Thus reliability of such reports is still a question.
G20 Presidency and the issue of food security in India
With the ongoing disastrous situations in the world which includes the economies like Syria and Ukraine settled amidst the war like conditions and some of the African and South-Asian economies like Somalia and Pakistan which went through famine and floods respectively caused a massive amount of displacement that has in turn resulted in the projection of number of people affected by hunger to be exceeding 840 million by 2030.
India is taking over the G20 (The Group of Twenty) Presidency when the world is dealing with geopolitical tensions and economic slowdown. However instead of being bogged down by this, the nation continues to be hopeful of making a change in the food security status on a global level with sharing its experience of it’s journey of being an food surplus country when it was once a food deficit country.
The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia -Ukraine War wreaked havoc on global supply chains leading to a global food crisis that is evident in the form of global food shortages and food inflation.
During the pandemic, government provided foodgrains to most vulnerable sections of the society. Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), 5 Kilograms of foodgrains were provided each month to cover over 81 Crore 35 Lakh people. Foodgrains were being provided free of cost, over and above National Food Security Act (NFSA) Entitlement of 5 kilograms per person per month at the rate of 2-3 rupees per kilogram in the vulnerable sections of the Society.
India also catered to global food demand in times of crisis by exporting over 1.21 Lakh Metric Tonnes of foodgrains. Not just that, as a result of India’s initiative, The United Nations adopted a resolution with support from more than 70 nations across the globe to declare the year 2023 as the international year of millets. India is promoting natural farming and re-popularizing nutritious and traditional food grains like millets for sustainable food security and sees the millets as an answer to the global malnutrition and hunger challenge.
With the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, having a plan to serve millet dishes to the delegates in 2023 G20 meet is very much a part of Smart Climate Agriculture which is another practical way in which India has contributed to global food security already much before it became the G20 President.
As G20 president, India now has the opportunity to share with the world its experiences of catering to its own people and population in food distress around the world. By encouraging the nations through its journey and charter a road map which would enhance the food security in India and nutrition of the global family and also strengthen international cooperation for sustainable agriculture and at the same time make agricultural livelihoods more equitable and advantageous to the producers, it can help the world economies steer through their agriculture track.
By focusing on the key areas, that is, short term and long term strategies to combat with the hunger issue, climate smart agriculture which is a practice of agriculture in a way such that it remains unaffected by the prevailing climatic conditions, building inclusive agriculture value chains and food systems along with bringing the digital transformation in the field of agriculture, India can move towards aiming global food security and nutrition.
Leading a millet research and awareness initiative through global forum to bring together the various experts from the technical field who can discuss the ways in which shelf life of millets can be increased and reach out to the G20 members who, traditionally, are not the consumers of millets can amplify the impetus that India has already shown towards the approach of sustainable agriculture so far as 1 million farmers have adopted zero budget natural farming, 5.9 million hectares of agricultural land has been brought under organic farming and 230 million soil health cards have been issued for monitoring soil integrity.
In June 2021 G20 foreign ministers adopted the major declaration in Matera, Italy which asked the global community to step up efforts to contain the effects of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods. They called for building inclusive and resilient food chains and ensure adequate nutrition for all. It recognized that poverty alleviation food security and sustainable food systems are key to ending hunger, encouraging social cohesion, community development and underlined the need for much higher investments for food security, nutrition, sustainable food systems and territorial development.
As G20 president, India has the opportunity to fast track commitments in the declaration which in part requires adaptation of agriculture and food systems to climate change as increased climate variability and extreme weather events impact agricultural output and in turn drive global hunger. The onus is now on India to lead the world towards resilient and sustainable food systems.
About the Author …..
I am Gahana Thorat, first year student of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, pursuing Journalism Honours. Also a part of LSR-MUN as a core team member in Communications Team.
I have always been in love with reading and recently have developed an interest in writing too, as it helps me broadening my knowledge base.
I always try to look at things with a positive outlook and believe in action rather than pondering over things.
Night skies and stars are my peace providers.
I really appreciate the fact that you have provided us with this informative blog post.