Dr Ashwani Mahajan
The Food Security Bill which was pending for a long time has got nod from the Cabinet and it may soon become a law. It is to be noted that the Congress Party who is leading UPA government, promised to make this legislation in the previous election campaign. Opposition is dubbing this move as a ‘stunt’ to impress voters for the 2014 elections. It is true that any law which ensures food security for the common people cannot be opposed principally. It means that there is a great possibility of the smooth passage of this Bill.
The question is that making this law is fine but does the government have the capability to enforce this law? This question mark has not been put by the opposition but the ministers of the government itself. There are a number of obstacles in the enforcement of this proposed law.
What is the proposed law
In the proposed law, the poor people will be given the right to acquire food items at cheap rates. 75 percent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population will be made beneficiary of this law. This way, 63.5 per cent of the population of the country will get this benefit. For this, population has been divided into two parts.
In one part, priority households have been included which will be provided 7 kg food grains per person at a very low price, i.e., wheat at Rs. 3 per kg, rice at Rs. 2 per kg and millet at Rs. 1 per kg. On the other hand, there will be general houseleholds which will be provided 3 kg. food grains per person at 50 per cent of the agreed price. Apart from this, pregnant women and children less than six months old will get free food from the local Anganwaadi. In this law, there is a provision of providing free food to children in the age group of 6-14 years.
Question marks on the proposed law
There are two things which are important to implement the proposed law; required financial resoures and availability of food. Our Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is of the opinion that it will be difficult to arrange the required money for it. It is to be noted that the food subsidy of Rs. 90 thousand crores has been provided in the budget in the year 2013-14, whereas the Food Security Law requires Rs. 1.25 lakh crore for its enforcement. Where will extra money come from? The government may have no option but to reduce the developmental expenditure. The economy which is already going through recession will get affected by this to a large extent.
A lot of food grains will be required to provide 7 kg food grains per person to priority household and 3 kg food grains per person to general households. For this, the government would require sufficient food stock. For the enforcement of the law and to provide food, 612.3 lakh tonnes of food grains will be required. It is to be noted that for the last two years, government food stocks have been able to provide only 50 lakh tonnes food grains (wheat and rice). It is true that in the last few years, there has been a rapid increase in the purchase of food grains by the government, however, due to lack of storage capacity of the governmental godowns, we hear a number of incidents of rottening of food grains. It is considered that availability of food grains for the enforcement of Food Security Law is beyond the reach of the government. This is said not by a commoner or opposition, but by our Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar himself and that too a number of times.
Dependence on foreign countries and its dangers
Even if the government is able to manage the required financial resources somehow, it will still be difficult for the government to ensure the supply of sufficient food grains in the market. It is because, generally the farmers store sufficient food grains for their own household consumption and then they bring the rest of the food grains in the market. We should remember that in the last 20-22 years, the increase in food production has been less than the increase in population due to the neglect of agricultural sector. Consequently, per capita food grain availability has gone down from 510 grams per day to 436 grams per day at present and is continually decreasing. In such a scenario, the government will be responsible for providing food security to the targeted population after the enforcement of the Food Security Law. This would necessitate food imports.
The country is still facing the problems arising out of imports of food grains at earlier occasions. If we look at the history, under PL-480, when red wheat was imported from USA, it was not only a big blow to the dignity of the nation. , the nation is still suffering from the weed named ‘congress grass’ that entered the country with the wheat. Even if we do not go too far, in the recent years, i.e., in 2008-09 due to the shortage of food grains, when the government decided to import 50 lakh tones of wheat, the international price of wheat increased two fold. On one hand, whereas wheat was bought at Rs. 800 per quintal from the farmer, the country had to pay more than Rs. 1600 per quintal in foreign currency. Not only this, the government had to lower the standard of imported wheat due to allow imports from USA. The most important thing is that the wheat could not be used much due to its poor quality. Today, the country is going through a tough time due to worst Curren Account Dedicit in Balance of Payment. The value of the Indian rupee is falling continually. In this scenario, implementation of the Food Security Law will push the country to much serious foreign exchange crisis, weekening of rupee and a thus a fresh spell of inflation.
How can we Ensure Food Security
The main reason behind the fall in the food grain availability per person is the insufficient increase in the production of food grains.
Though per hectare wheat production has increased from 22.8 quintal in 1990-91 to 31.4 quintal in 2011-12 and the production of rice has increased from 17.4 quintal to 23.7 quintal, yet the production of food items has remained insufficient. According to the cabinet committee on Special Economic Zones (SEZ), the area under cultivation has gone down from 1850 lakh hectare in 1980 to 1830 lakh hectares in 2003. Amidst this, per capita agricultural land has gone down from 0.27 hectare to 0.18 hectare. Every year, around 2.25 lakh hectare agricultural land starts is diverted for non-agricultural usage. According to the pictures taken from satellite, green land is decreasing continually. After the passage of SEZ Act 2005, this problem has further increased. In such a scenario, food problem can intensify. These conditions are not going to improve through food security legislation. We need to understand that food security of a country with the population of 123 crores, that is one sixth of the mankind, can not be left on food imports from foreign countries. A policy shift of the government is the need of the hour, putting an end to the neglect of agriculture and not allowing diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes under any situation.
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