State of Food Insecurity in Rural India

It is an irony of fate that in spite of food grain supplies, in respect of wheat and rice, from domestic production far exceeding the demand over the last more than two decades, India has been witnessing the unmanageably bulging stocks and shortages alternately. All this is due to the irrational export and import policy being followed by the policy makers. At present, this is a major developmental challenge in India. We cannot feel proud of our achievements in different areas until this basic need of each individual is met.

This is what exactly the recently released report, State of Food Insecurity in Rural India states. Released jointly by the UN World Food Programme and MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, the report states that India tops the global hunger chart with 230 million undernourished people who comprise more than a quarter of the world’s undernourished population. It is not merely about food availability, but access to food.

Undernourished People
The new report states that an emerging superpower, India paradoxically tops the global hunger chart with 230 million undernourished people comprising more than 27 per cent of the world’s undernourished population. Indicating that food insecurity is a reality in India the report reveals that while every third adult (aged 15 to 49 years) has a low BMI at less than 18.5, as many as 43 per cent children aged below five are underweight.

The country fares no better vis-à-vis its emerging peers on the food security front as the vast majority of the world’s undernourished people — 907 million — live in developing countries. Of these, 65 per cent live in seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. On a comparative note, some countries in South-East Asia, like Thailand and Vietnam, have made good progress towards achieving the World Food Security target; others in South Asia and Central Asia have suffered setbacks in hunger reduction.But the progress made in these countries has been neutralised by their large populations. Rising global food prices are also to be blamed for such dismal figures. Although food prices have begun to fall around the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in developing countries like India they are not falling so rapidly — or at all. There is an apparent contradiction in India’s description as ‘self-sufficient starved state’, but it cannot be faulted. Deflationary macroeconomic policies, decreasing access to institutional credit, which is becoming prohibitively expensive, and reduction in public investment are the problems facing India. This grim scenario is characterised by a stark reality: There is availability of food, but little or no access to it.

Looking at the market scenario, the contradiction is likely to intensify. During 2008-09, foodgrain harvest is estimated to be a record 228 million tonnes. But mere physical availability of food does not translate into accessibility. A household’s access to adequate food depends on its purchasing power, including the implicit value of its own produce, if any, which further depends on sustainable on-farm or off-farm livelihoods. But even if a livelihood ensures access to food, it does not promise nutrition security. That is why States like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with much lower levels of per head food — and hence calorie — intake, perform much better in terms of nutritional indicators than States like Bihar or Orissa with higher levels of food intake. Notably, the two States have high literacy rates, the report points out. It is not just food that determines the people’s nutrition security. The other factors like safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene play important roles in effective biological utilisation of food.

Sanitation and HygieneThe report reveals that a plausible indicator of the abysmal state of sanitation and hygiene is that 78.08 per cent of households have no access to toilet facilities. In nine States more than 80 per cent of the households do not have access to toilets. The national percentage of households without access to safe drinking water stands at 26.8 per cent. Children who are malnourished tend to come from families with least access to potable water, sanitation and healthcare services. Although the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been able to mitigate the looming crisis, the report does not mince words while discussing its inadequacies.

Public Distribution System

According to the report, the targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) has made matters worse for States that were performing quite well under universal PDS, leading to the exclusion of the ‘eligible poor’ or so-called Above Poverty Line households and decline in off-take of foodgrain from PDS. Using the Indian Council of Medical Research recommended norm, the requirement per person per month will be 11 kg. But the present TPDS restricts the allotment of foodgrain to 10 kg per faimly.

Besides non-accessibility to food, illiteracy and other factors, including lack of social expenditure, have also led to stagnation in the agriculture sector. In such a scenario where malnutrition accounts for nearly 50 per cent of child deaths, more than 1.5 million children are at risk of becoming malnourished because of rising global food prices. Until and unless the right to food becomes a fundamental right and the Constitution is suitably amended, the hungry will have to survive on empty promises. The World Bank’s estimates show that higher food prices have increased the number of undernourished people by as many as 100 million from its pre-spike level of 850 million. Developing countries like India must take it as an opportunity to understand the economics of small-farming and develop agrarian crisis-affected areas into special agriculture zones. The system of universal PDS has to be revived and linked to the ‘capacity to pay’ rather than ‘economic cost’ in the rural areas to reverse the nutritional figures. Meanwhile, the implementation of various welfare schemes should be decentralised through local bodies like panchayats.

Given the economic and physical constraints in transportation and storage of foodgrains across the country, basic food grains should be supplied even to the so-called Above the Poverty Line (APL) families. This will also prove remunerative for PDS dealers as they will lift more quantities of food. The NREGS should be extended to cover every adult, as opposed to some households, and for as many days as required. Considered from the point of view of the food and nutritional needs of its population, India has never been surplus in food grains in the real sense. These surpluses are spurious in nature because a large majority of the people of the country do not have enough purchasing power to access these stocks. It is a situation of only supply exceeding the demand.

Surplus Export of Foodgrains
The country, on several occasions, exported surplus foodgrains at very low prices, incurring huge losses. Just after such exports, there have been crying shortages and foodgrains imported at exorbitant prices. For instance, in 2001, the country had huge foodgrains stocks of around 58 million tonnes. What it lacked was proper storage leading to an unacceptable level of spoilage and wastage. Some lots deteriorated so much that they were not fit for even animal consumption. As a consequence, quite a few of the consignments were rejected by the importing countries.

From the year 2001 to September 2005, the country exported 35 million tonnes of foodgrainss, of which 23 million tonnes was rice and 12 million tonnes wheat. Even in nine months of the year 2005 up to September, India exported over five-million tonnes of rice and 0.72 million tonnes of wheat. A very large portion of these exports was made at below the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) prices. After just about two months, the foodgrains managers of the country started crying shortage.

Now the policy has come full circle. With estimated more than six million tonnes of wheat that would be in stock on April 1, when new rabi food grains start pouring into the domestic market, it is expected that by the end of marketing season of wheat the country will have food grain stocks between 32 to 34 million tonnes. It is said that the Government of India has engaged private consultants on how to mange these stocks. These consultants have recommended exports with export subsidy. It is a foregone conclusion that such consultants would recommend exporter-friendly export policy.

Storage and Management
The system of grain handling in India is such that storage, spoilage, thefts, leakages and exports at loss are costing the nation a fortune and on the other hand large sections of the financially-disadvantaged population cannot have access to two square meals a day to fill their bellies.

The country needs to invest substantially, yet rationally on safe storage and scientific management of food stocks. It makes no sense to keep spending on production, if storage and management is handled indifferently as is being done today. Not to speak of storage in the open that is resorted to at the time of post-harvest marketing season in the surplus producing areas, even plinth storage is not proper storage for food grains.

India needs to create silo-storage capacity of at least 20 million tons, wherein aeration, temperature and humidity are controlled at optimum levels. Although such silos can keep the grains in good condition for five years, yet three years recycling of the grains should be planned so that the stocks are renewed continuously and the grains remain healthy and fit for human consumption These silos should be built mainly in the surplus producing areas from where the consignments can be dispatched to the consuming areas/states as per need. At least three silos should be built at one place to cater to the requirement of the three-year cycle.

There is tremendous scope of reduction in undifferentiated across-the-board input and consumer subsidies. Even if these subsidies are halved, the savings will be enough to create the required capacity of scientific storage in less than five years.

Problem of Populist Politics
Competitive populist politics has spoiled the agriculture credit culture of the country through undifferentiated loan waivers. Unfortunately, the BJP is further promising a complete waiver of farm loans if the party forms a government. This callous approach amounts to playing with the taxpayers’ money.

It will be much more productive, economically justified and socially as well as politically acceptable if the amounts involved in such waivers are used for building modern storage capacity for food grains and related infrastructure in the country. Yet, such economic trade offs and socially justifiable investment of scarce capital resources can be considered only by the mature statesmen, not by the myopic politicians.

After all, a hungry nation cannot become a superpower. No purpose is served if people remain hungry in a food sufficient country. Will policy-makers wake up to this fact?