:-

Swetanta Lahiri
Titash Rakshit Roy
Prasenjit Chakraborty

MMA, 3
rd
Sem (Retail & 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 1
st
stage we may think of food
security as adequate qty. of cereals available to all.

STAGE 2:- In the 2
nd
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 (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.


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.