WORLD FOOD DAY
Dr. Vishiesh Verma
In 2013, India is finally set to provide a large majority of its people, the deprived and the disadvantaged, a legal right to demand food from the state. And it has taken upon itself to be legally obliged to provide food grains at the fixed rates of ` 3.2 and 1, to at least three quarters of India population, comprising 90% of the rural public and 50% of the Urban population. Agriculture minister Mr.Sharad Pawar speaking at the state food ministers Conference recently said, ” The Government anticipates more than `1Lakh crore subsidy on food , which is almost `1,000 per person per year “.
On the other hand, the year 2013 marks the 70th anniversary of the Bengal Famine which resulted in the death of an estimated 1.5 to 3 million children, women and men during 1942-43. Famines were frequent in Colonial India and some estimates indicate that 30 to 40 million died out of starvation in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Bengal during the later half of the 19th Century.
There is a historic transition from the Bengal Famine to National Food Security Right with home grown food, which is world’s largest social protection measure against hunger.
How did this transition come about?
In India, Revolution in agriculture was brought about by the group of scientists in the field of agriculture under the leadership of Dr. Swaminathan. Nehru era marked the development of the scientific infrastructure essential for improving farm productivity such as major and minor irrigation projects, fertilizer factories, agricultural Universities, farm extension services and marketing facilities.
For research Dr. Swaminathan sought the help from Dr.Orville Vogel of the US and Dr.Norman Borlaug of Mexico. Possibilities for further research were explored from the experiments conducted at Taiwan and the Philippines. The strong public policy support was extended by C.Subremanian, Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi. All the leaders were encouraging scientist to make India self sufficient in food. So the target was achieved. Indira Gandhi released a special stamp titled “The Wheat Revolution” in July 1968 to mark this event. A small Government programme titled “High yielding varieties programme” became a mass movement owing to the enthusiasm generated among farm families both by the yield revolution and the opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing. Wheat production has continued to rise since 1968 and has now reached a level of 92 million tonnes. It is the result of combined efforts of scientific know-how, political do-how and farmers. Our agricultural sector was stagnating at 0.3% prior to 1950; we became not only self sufficient but also started exporting grains after the green revolution. After this achievement there was a requirement to move to the next level by introducing another wave of economic reforms. But this has not been done and whatever policy changes have been carried out, were in piecemeal.
Presently, it is the source of livelihood for majority of Indian population. 58% of our citizens are dependent on agriculture for employment. Many other sectors like manufacturing, food processing, export, banking, transportation etc. have also developed and grown as the agriculture sector grew. Overall the contribution of this sector to GDP of India is about 22%. Agriculture has an average share of more than 10% in the total export of the country, while it is around 3% only as far as imports are concerned.
The Planet today hosts seven billion people. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), more than 870 million people were chronically under- nourished in 2012, with almost 250 million of the world’s hungry living in India. On the other hand, the performance of global agriculture in the year 2012 has been quite satisfactory despite the drought in the US and Australia, where wheat production was anticipated to fall by 40%, the US department of Agriculture still harvested 2239.4 million metric tonnes, enough to feed 13 billion people. In other words, the food being globally produced today can feed twice the existing population of the planet. So where is the crisis on the food production front? The crisis is in food mis-management which surprisingly is being ignored.
In the US, Canada and Europe, 40% food is wasted: – Americans waste 165 billion worth of food every year which could very well meet the requirement of sub Saharan Africa. Food wasted in Italy, if saved, can feed the entire population of the hungry in Ethiopia. Studies show that 50% of fruits and vegetables stocked by supermarkets in US actually rot. If all the food wastage was to be appreciably reduced, hunger and malnutrition can easily become history. In India too, it is not a crisis in food production. On Jan1st, India had 66 million tonnes of food stocks. That is the quantity of food rotting in the godowns are fresh in memory, the government has been merrily exporting the surplus rather than feeding its hungry millions. In 2011-12, 9.5 million tonnes of wheat and 9 million tonnes of rice were exported. International agencies are warning of high food prices on a global scale in 2013 if urgent action is not taken. But our Govt. shows little concern. The FAO warns that despite decline in international food prices in the later quarter of 2012, they remain close to all time highs. Among the reasons are the diversion of land from food grains to produce crops for the bio-fuel industry in the US, Europe and there is this growing trend of companies is to buy land in developing countries like Africa for growing such crops, which will lead to “increasing hunger world wide”. By subsiding corn production for bio-fuels, the US pulls out corn from food supply, raising prices. Cars and fuel it would seem are more important than people and food. Mimicking the US, India is ignoring the lessons of global crisis. Large tracts of agricultural land are being handed over to the private corporate sector for real estate. This is in addition to the ongoing policy of incentivizing production of export driven cash crops instead of food grains.
Food is the basic necessity of human beings. The Indian scriptures declare “Annam Brahma” i.e “Food is God”. FAO has estimated that nearly 30% of the Indian population suffer from some kind of malnutrition and are forced to eat the wrong foods for the sake of survival. Food wastage takes place at several levels in several forms. There is wastage during storage, preparation, while serving and over consumption etc. There is no end of food wastage in Indian wedding. Social customs also encourage wastage. Hotels and houses are also required to check wastage. Avoiding all forms of wastage of food is an imperative for food security. In-equalities in food consumption should be removed. Ensure the health of an individual. A healthy individual is a nation’s greatest asset.
( The writer is a former reader Coordinator of University of Jammu)
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