Food security is a condition related to the supply of food, and individuals' access to it.

Concerns over food security

have existed throughout history. There is evidence of granaries being in use over 10,000 years ago, with central
authorities in civilizations including ancient China and ancient Egypt being known to release food from storage in
times of famine. At the 1974 World Food Conference the term "food security" was defined with an emphasis on
supply. Food security, they said, is the "availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs
to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices". [1] Later
definitions added demand and access issues to the definition. The final report of the 1996 World Food Summit states
that food security "exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and
nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life"

Agricultural insurances[edit]
Insurance is a financial instrument, which allows exposed individuals to pool resources to spread their risk. They do
so by contributing premium to an insurance fund, which will indemnify those who suffer insured loss. This
procedure reduces the risk for an individual by spreading his/her risk among the multiple fund contributors.
Insurance can be designed to protect many types of individuals and assets against single or multiple perils and buffer
insured parties against sudden and dramatic income or asset loss.
Crop insurance is purchased by agricultural producers to protect themselves against either the loss of their crops due
to natural disasters. Two type of insurances are available:[158] (1) claim-based insurances, and (2) index-based
insurances. In particular in poor countries facing food security problems, index-based insurances offer some
interesting advantages: 1) indices can be derived from globally available satellite images that correlate well with
what is insured; (2) these indices can be delivered at low cost; and (3) the insurance products open up new markets
that are not served by claim-based insurances.[relevant? – discuss]
An advantage of index-based insurance is that it can potentially be delivered at lower cost. A significant barrier that
hinders uptake of claim-based insurance is the high transaction cost for searching for prospective policyholders,
negotiating and administering contracts, verifying losses and determining payouts. Index insurance eliminates the
loss verification step, thereby mitigating a significant transaction cost. A second advantage of index-based insurance
is that, because it pays an indemnity based on the reading of an index rather than individual losses, it eliminates
much of the fraud, moral hazard and adverse selection, which are common in classical claim-based insurance. A
further advantage of index insurance is that payments based on a standardized and indisputable index also allow for
a fast indemnity payment. The indemnity payment could be automated, further reducing transaction costs. [relevant? – discuss]
Basis risk is a major disadvantage of index-based insurance. It is the situation where an individual experiences a loss
without receiving payment or vice versa. Basis risk is a direct result of the strength of the relation between the index
that estimates the average loss by the insured group and the loss of insured assets by an individual. The weaker this
relation the higher the basis risk. It is obvious that high basis risk undermines the willingness of potential clients to
purchase insurance. It thus challenges insurance companies to design insurances such as to minimize basis risk

Large-scale food stockpiling[edit]

The minimum annual global wheat storage is approximately 2 months. [156] To counteract the severe food security
issues caused by global catastrophic risks, years of food storage has been proposed.[157]Though this could ameliorate
smaller scale problems like regional conflict and drought, it would exacerbate current food insecurity by raising food
prices.

Producing food without agriculture[edit]

David Denkenberger and Joshua Pearce have proposed in Feeding Everyone No Matter What a variety of alternate
foods which convert fossil fuels or biomass into food without sunlight to address sunlight-blocking food security
scenarios.[152] The solution using fossil fuel energy source is natural gas digesting bacteria. [153] One example of a
biomass alternate food is that mushrooms can grow directly on wood without sunlight.[154] Another example is
that cellulosic biofuel production typically already creates sugar as an intermediate product
Food Security, Quality through Bees
Bees and other pollinating insects are currently improving the food production of 2 billion small farmers worldwide,
helping to ensure food security for the world’s population. Research shows that if pollination is managed well on
small diverse farms, with all other factors being equal, crop yields can increase by a significant median of 24 percent

Food Security in India: Definition, Availability of Food Grains and Other Details!
Food Security is the ability to assure, on a long term basis, that the system provides the total
population access to a timely, reliable and nutritionally adequate supply of food.

Food security can be visualized in four stages:

(i) Making an adequate quantity of cereals available to all to ensure survival.

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(ii) Adequate availability of cereals and pulses.

(iii) Food security to include cereals, pulses, milk and milk products.

(iv) Food security to include cereals, pulses, milk and milk products, vegetables and fruits, (fish,
egg and meat in case of non-vegetarians).

India has now reached a stage where the country is no longer exposed to real famines. All the
same there still exist pockets within the country where people have to face acute starvation year
after year.

Availability of Food Grains:

During 1950-51 annual net imports of cereals amounted to 4.1 million tones. This figure was

10.3 million tons during 1965-66. Since then there was a decline and after 1995-96 India became

an exporter of cereals. During the last 50 years, there has been an increase in the per capita
availability of cereals to the extent of 9%.
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However the country has failed to increase the production of pulses consistent with the needs of

the growing population. This is significant since the large number of vegetarians in the country

depend on pulses for their protein requirements. Tenth Plan data indicate that consumption of

milk and meat products as well as vegetables and fruits has increased as a natural outcome of
economic development.

Sources of Food grains Across the Nation:

Rice is grown mainly in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir valley,

Eastern Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Coastal areas
of Maharashtra. Rice is now also being grown in the irrigated areas of Punjab and Haryana.

Rice Production Touched the figure 863.5 lakh tones in 2003-2004.

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Wheat growing areas include Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, parts of Rajasthan, and Bihar.
Wheat production for 2003-2004 was estimated at 727.4 lakh tones.

Millets include jowar, bajra and Ragi. Bajra is a crop of dry and warm regions of Rajasthan. Ragi
is a rain fed crop grown in drier parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Maize is mainly produced in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya
Pradesh.
Pulses are grown both as Rabi and Kharif crops. The Rabi (winter season) crops are, Masoor and

Peas. The Kharif crops (sown around April and harvested in September- October) include Arhar,

Urad and Moong. The major gram producing areas are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Rajasthan. Food grains production touched 229.9 Million tons is 2008-09.

Famines in the Past:

Twelve famines and four major scarcities occurred during the period of the rule of the East India

Company in India (1765-1858).The frequency of famines increased after the transfer of power to

the Crown. In 1943 famine occurred in Bengal and it was a tragedy of unprecedented magnitude.
The death toll due to starvations and diseases was around 1.5 million persons.

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Periods of famines in India have also been the periods of high food, prices and agricultural

unemployment. Famines were caused during the period of British rule due to a variety of
reasons.

(a) The import of machine made goods from Britain forced the Indian artisans out of business.

This increased the pressure of population dependent on land. The landless labourers were the
worst sufferers of famines.

(b) The new land system created a class of land owners who did not till the land and peasants

who worked on lands but had no ownership or even permanent tenancy rights. The process of

agricultural development was retarded since the real peasant had not much left after paying rent
and interest to the moneylenders.

(c) Food grains were exported even during the famine years. The peasantry was burdened by

high taxation. Wages among the rural population were highly depressed due to unlimited
supplies of labour.
Need for Self-Sufficiency:
India suffered two very severe droughts in 1965 and 1966. Food Aid to India was restricted to a

monthly basis by USA under the P.L. 480 programme. India had been a severe critic of the US

policy of intervention and war in Vietnam. This was not liked by the then President Lyndon
Johnson.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had foreseen such a situation and declared, “It is only when we

attain self-sufficiency in food that we can progress and develop ourselves. Otherwise there is the

constant pressure of circumstances, there is trouble and misery and sometimes shame and
humiliation.”

The Green Revolution made a significant change in the scene. India achieved self-sufficiency in

food grains by the year 1976 through the implementation of the seed- water-fertilizer policy
adopted by the Government of India.

Food grain production increased four-fold during 1950-51and2001-2002from 51 million tons to

212 million tones. The country is no longer exposed to real famines. Total lack of purchasing

power however continues to haunt people in some parts of the country. They starve even when
the country’s granaries are overflowing.

Role of Government in Food Security:

The role of the government in providing food security involves:
(i) Promoting domestic production to meet the demands of the growing population.

(ii) Providing minimum support prices for procurement and storage of food grains.

(iii) Operating a Public Distribution System, and

(iv) Maintaining buffer stocks to counteract any pushing up of prices of food grains during
periods of shortages.
Well before the harvest time, the government declares a minimum floor price at which the

government would buy cereals to maintain its own buffer stocks. Minimum support prices ensure

that the growers do not suffer if the traders form syndicates and force low prices on the farmers
for their produce.

Impact of Public Distribution System (PDS):

The main purpose of the Public Distribution System was to act as a price support programme for

the consumer in 1960s. Those were the years of food shortage. The basic items covered were
rice, wheat, sugar, edible oil, and kerosene to be sold at subsidized prices.

The coverage was extended to rural areas by some states during the 1980s. Effort was made to

cover the tribal blocks with a population around 57 million persons in 1985. Central government
expenditure on Food Subsidy was 43,668 crores of Rupees in the year 2008-2009.

There had been a growing feeling that the non-poor were the beneficiaries of the PDS in large

numbers especially in respect of sugar and Kerosene oil. Under the new system, the non-poor
sections have been kept out.

However large quantities of Kerosene oil keep on being diverted from the PDS to adulteration in

diesel and petrol. The Public Distribution System was very well conceived. However it has
remained very ill manned. PDS has remained an expensive and largely untargeted programme.

The very poor are unable to take the benefit of the PDS for a variety of reasons. They do not

have a regular income. They are unable to lift a month or a fortnight’s quota at one time for want
of enough money. In most cases the PDS shops are closed by the time the labourer is back home.

Supplies are irregular and the workers cannot afford to waste a day waiting for the supply to

come and be distributed. The inspecting officials are friendlier to the dealer than to the very poor
consumer for whom the whole system is supposed to work.
PDS and Wage Employment Programmes:
Wage employment programmes are a much better option for helping the poor sections of the

society. Employment Guarantee schemes and the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna create improvements in
agricultural labourers wages and even create some assets.

The non-poor are excluded from such programmes since those who can afford to buy food from
open market would not come to work under these schemes.

It is not that there would be no leakages under wage employment schemes. Cases of fake muster
rolls are not unknown. But these can be checked by better surveillance.

Co-operative Marketing societies need to be encouraged to sell food grains to consumers

directly. This will eliminate the middlemen and also eliminate profiteering and black marketing.

Bigger societies could have their own storage and warehousing facilities. This will go a long way
in reduction storage losses.

The Food Corporation of India should buy food grains from co-operative marketing societies.

Cooperative marketing has made good progress in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The sugarcane marketing societies in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh protect

the interests of the members. Cooperative societies in Maharashtra specialize in the sale of
tobacco, fruits and vegetables.

Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh account for 75% of the total value of the
agricultural produce marketed by cooperatives.

The Amul Story:

Formed in 1946, Amul began the ‘dairy cooperative movement’ in India and formed an apex

cooperative organization, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF).

Today it is jointly owned by some 2.2 million milk producers in Gujarat, India.
Its products, including milk powders, liquid milk, flavoured milk (Amul Kool), Sweetened

Condensed Milk, butter, ghee, cheese, chocolate, ice cream, pizza, paneer, shrikhand, Cream,

Mithaee, Amul Masti Dahi and the Amul shakti & Nutramul brand of Health food drink are

widely used throughout India and abroad and have made Amul the largest food brand in India
today with an annual turnover of some Rs. 30 Billion per annum.

The primary goal of the ‘Milk Cooperative’ has been to build a strong Indian society

economically through an innovative cooperative network, to provide quality service and products
to end-consumers and good returns to the farmer members.

Information Technology (IT) has played a significant role in developing the Amul brand. The

logistics behind co-ordination the collection of some 7 million liters of milk per day from 11,400

separate Village Cooperative Societies throughout Gujarat and then storing, processing and
producing milk products at the respective 12 District Dairy Unions, are awesome.

The installation of 4000 Automatic Milk Collection System Units (AMCUS) at Village Societies

to capture member information, milk fat content, the volume collected and amount payable to

each member has proved invaluable in ensuring fairness and transparency throughout the whole
Amul organisation.

In 1996 Amul was one of the first major organisations in India to have a website. This site has

been used both to develop an intranet of Amul distributors as well as a cyber-store for
consumers, one of the first examples of e-commerce activity in India.

Grass Root Innovations:

One of the members of GCMMF, the Banas dairy, has started a unique initiative called the

Internet Sewa Project in their district called Banaskantha. This is a village-level effort at bridging
the Digital Divide by providing information kiosks at the Village Cooperative level.
Each village has one information kiosk, which is the single point of contact for Internet and other

e-governance activities for the co-op. Official forms, Rural Jobs, Veterinary, Agriculture, and

Matrimonial details, educational applications and local market prices with buy & sell options are

provided at the information kiosk so that people do not have to travel all the way to the district
headquarters for these information.

To address poor connectivity at some sites, the Banas dairy uses a wireless connection to the

Internet. The wireless equipment is cheap since there is only a one-time setup charge and less

recurring charges. To improve the farmer members’ living standards and to facilitate affordable

Internet access services including VOIP Net telephony, the district union has also become a local

Internet Service Provider (ISP) using these Village Information Kiosks. Today the services are
subsidized but the goal is for the kiosks to become self-supporting.

Amul and the Cooperative Movement:

Amul is not just a food company. It is an IT company in the food business. This is why Amul has

embraced the ideas behind cooperatives with such enthusiasm. Not only will the TLD enable

consumers in India to recognize an established brand they can trust online, it will enable Amul to

begin trading competitively throughout the world, reaching markets which have hitherto been
inaccessible.

In case of Amul, Information Technology is the most effective tool in communicating with

members and the millions of consumers who purchase Amul products throughout India every

day. Cooperatives in this way give a vital business advantage with a view to develop the Amul
brand throughout the world.

As a result of this alignment of business purpose and technology, GCMMF (Amul) was named

the winner of the prestigious international CIO 100 Award from IDG’s CIO Magazine (USA) for
resourcefulness in the use of technology. The efforts of the entire cooperative were honored at
the CIO 100 symposium and award ceremony on August 19, 2003 in Colorado Springs.

Long Term Food Security Measures:

Public Distribution System can at best be a Blood Transfusion exercise. It does not act as a

permanent poverty alleviation measure. While it does provide some immediate relief, it fails to

provide enduring food security to the poor. It would be more appropriate to focus on strategies
that reduce poverty and stabilize prices of food grains.

At one time we had 300 million people at various degrees of starvation while there were 64

million tons of food grains rotting in the go-downs of the Food Corporation of India. The rural
poor did not have the purchasing power to buy food grains even at the PDS prices.

Food grains were being transferred to private mills and traders through collusion on the part of

corrupt civil supplies officers. Only the very inferior grains were supplied to the ration card

holders. The minimum buffer stock now required in India has been fixed at around 16-17 million
tons of food grains.