Food Security in India

 Food Security

As we know that food is a basic requirement and every one of the world should have access to food which provides minimum required nutritional level. If any portion of our population does not have food access, that portion suffers from lack of food security. The number of citizen who do not have food security is disproportionately large in some parts of our country, particularly in financially less developed states with higher incidence of poverty. The remote areas of the country are more prone to natural disasters and uncertain food supply. 

Dimensions of Food Security

Food security has following dimensions

1.  Availability of food: 

       Availability of food means food production within the country, food imports and the previous years stock stored in government granaries.

2. Accessibility of Food: 

       Accessibility of food  means food is within reach of every person.

3. Affordability of Food: 

    Affordability implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet one's dietary needs.

Thus, food security is ensured in a country only if (1) enough food is available for all the persons (2) all persons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable quality and (3) there is no barrier on access to food.

In order to ensure availability of food to all sections of society our government carefully designed a national food security system. It consists of two components (a) buffer stock and (b) public distribution system (PDS).

Buffer Stock

It is a storehouse of food grains, especially wheat and rice, which the government procures through the Food Corporation of India (FCI). FCI procures these grains directly from farmers in the states where they are in surplus. The price of these commodities is much before the actual sowing season of these crops. Thus the food grains procured by FCI are kept in large granaries and are called buffer stock. Maintaining buffer stock is a step taken by the government to ensure food security in the country.

Public Distribution System (PDS):

• The state and the central governments work together to provide food grains and other essential items at low prices for communities that are under and just above the poverty line.

• What started as a regimen for management scarcity evolved to become an equitable system to sustain the poorer sections and control the price risk to them.

• The Central Government takes the responsibility to procure, preserve, transport and allocate the resources. The State Government ensures the setting up of a network of recognition and availability of these rations via cards and shops.

• Items like wheat, rice, sugar, kerosene, spices and salt, pulses and oils etc. are channeled through this network. The parties and agencies that aid in the process are always associated and are the responsibility of the Food Commission of India.