A GROUP PRESENTATION BY: Swetanta Lahiri Titash Rakshit Roy Prasenjit Chakraborty MMA, 3rd Sem (Retail &

p; Agriculture)

INTRODUCTION:What is food security?

According to World Development Report (1986) , it is defined as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life. According to Food and Agriculture Organisations (FAO, 1983) , food security is defined as ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to basic food they need.

BASIC CONCEPTS IN FOOD SECURITY:1. Physical AVAILABILITY of food. 2. Economic and physical ACCESS to food.

3. Proper ULTILIZATION of food.

4. STABILITY of the other three dimensions over time.

KEY POINTS FROM FOOD SECURITY: Food Security involves physical availability of food to the entire population in a country. People have enough purchasing power so that they can acquire the food they need. The food available should be adequate in quality as well as quantity.

A nation must be self-sufficient in food at any given point of time.

MAIN STAGES OF FOOD SECURITY:STAGE 1:- In the 1st stage we may think of food
security as adequate qty. of cereals available to all.

STAGE 2:- In the 2nd stage we may think of availability

of cereals and pulses.

STAGE 3:- In the 3rd stage food security includes

cereals, pulses, milk and milk products.

STAGE 4:- In the 3rd stage it includes cereals, pulses,

milk, milk products, vegetables, fruits, eggs and meat.

FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY: Its the benchmark for a country to produce the food in such an amount so as to feed each and every individual of its population sufficiently and attain Food Self-Sufficiency . If a country is self-sufficient in food production, it does not have to be dependent on other countries and can also export to other countries. The Indian planners, right from the begening realised the need to attain food self-sufficiency as one of the important goals of planning. The Govt. realised that food surplus countries used their food surplus as a weapon to force deficit countries to submit their dictates.

 India achieved self-sufficiency in food, produced a record 131 million tones of food grains in 1978-79, and became a net exporter of agricultural produce.
The Govt. of India under Ex-PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi went in for Seed-Water-Fertilizer policy, popularly known as GREEN REVOLUTION. Among the visible results of Green Revolution were increase in agricultural land under high-yield variety seeds (HYV) and a jump of over 30% in the yield per unit of farmland. However, the latest findings by Credit Suisse in its report Asian Food and Rural Income warns that India today stands on the brink of losing its much cherished self-sufficiency in food. Demand for food is likely to grow at a rate of 3-3.5% p.a. over the coming years, driven by population growth. The increase in the domestic food supply is at a much lower rate that leaves India open to the need to import food to meet its domestic demand.

FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL: Development strategies and macro-economic policies that would create conditions for growth with equity. Accelerating growth in food and agricultural sector which will provide direct source for food and income. Promoting rural development and focussing on the poor. Improving access to land and other natural resources.

 Providing cheap credit for poor households.

Increasing employment opportunities. Introducing income transfer scheme, including provisions for PDS of subsidised cheap food. Stabilizing food supply and food prices. Improving emergency preparedness planning for providing food aid during natural disasters like flood, drought, earthquake etc.

Production of different types of crops in INDIA:-

PUBLIC
DISTRIBUTION

SYSTEM

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (PDS): Public Distribution System (PDS) is an Indian food security system. Established by the Govt. of India under Ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution and managed jointly with State Governments in India. It aims at providing basic hygienic food and nutrition to the poor people, who cannot afford to purchase food at normal retail rates. Through the PDS, poor people have an access to four basic food and commodities namely wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene at concessional and affordable rates, which are available at fair price shops (FPS).

With a network of more than 4 lakh Fair Price Shops claiming to distribute annually, commodities worth more than Rs 15,000 crore to about 16 crore families, the PDS in India is perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world.

Failure of PDS in India gave way to TPDS (Targeted Public Distribution System). The coverage of TPDS and food subsidy should be restricted to BPL population. It clearly distinguishes between the rates at which a BPL is getting the food compared to that of an APL.

FALLOUTS OF PDS: Generally, the consumers get inferior food grains in ration shops.

Deceitful dealers replace good supplies received from the F.C.I (Food Corporation of India) with inferior stock.
Many retail shopkeepers have large number of bogus cards to sell food grains in the open market. Many FPS dealers resort to malpractices since they acquire less salary. Despite the PDS, India accounts for over 400 million poor and hungry people. Numerous malpractices make safe and nutritious food inaccessible and unaffordable to many poor.

In aggregate, only about 42% of subsidised grains issued by the central pool reach the target group, according to a Planning Commission study released in March 2008.

MEASURES TAKEN FOR THE RESURRECTION OF PDS: Vigilance squad should be strengthened to detect corruption, which is an added expenditure for taxpayers. Personnel-in-charge of the department should be chosen locally. F.C.I. and other prominent agencies should provide quality food grains for distribution, which is a tall order for an agency that has no real incentive to do so. Frequent checks & raids should be conducted to eliminate bogus and duplicate cards, which is again an added expenditure and not fool proof. The Civil supplies Corporation should open more Fair Price shops in rural areas. The Fair Price dealers seldom display rate chart and quantity available in the block-boards in front of the shop. This should be enforced.

CAL2CAL: A Case Study on PDS

Several problems have been identified in the management and administration of the TPDS system in its current form, including: Identification of targeted beneficiaries and correct classification. Identification of beneficiaries at point of distribution. Leakages and diversion of commodities at various points of the supply chain. Escalating cost of managing and administering the TPDS.

FINDING A SOLUTION:The Government of India is evaluating various alternatives to address these issues. The Feasibility Study for Introduction of Smart Cards for PDS Pilot, undertaken by CAL2CAL, was a Government of India, Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) project and was sponsored by The World Bank, to evaluate the feasibility of introducing Smart Cards as a technology-based tool that will assist the TPDS administration to Identify and authenticate beneficiaries. Record, maintain and report on benefit utilization.

Minimize or eliminate the leakages in the supply chain. Enhance accountability. Streamline the distribution process.

CAL2CAL conducted several one-on-one meetings with key stake holders in the PDS chain and conducted on-site Focus Group meetings with government officials and providers to establish the project baseline. The project was conducted in selected areas of Thane and Anand.

An FPS (Fair Price Shop), popularly known as Ration shop in a rural locality.

WITH SINCERE THANKS TO

Mr. RANJAN BHARADWAJ

THE END