Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it.

A household is considered food-

secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World
Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past
several decades.[1] In 2006, MSNBC reported that globally, the number of people who are
overweight has surpassed the number who are undernourished - the world had more than one
billion people who were overweight, and an estimated 800 million who were undernourished.[2]
According to a 2004 article from the BBC, China, the world's most populous country, is suffering from
an obesity epidemic.[3] In India, the second-most populous country in the world, 30 million people
have been added to the ranks of the hungry since the mid-1990s and 46% of children are
underweight.[4]

Worldwide around 852 million people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty, while up to 2
billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty (source: FAO,
2003). Six million children die of hunger every year - 17,000 every day.[5] As of late 2007, export
restrictions and panic buying, US Dollar Depreciation,[6] increased farming for use in biofuels,[7]
world oil prices at more than $100 a barrel,[8] global population growth,[9] climate change,[10] loss
of agricultural land to residential and industrial development,[11][12] and growing consumer
demand in China and India[13] are claimed to have pushed up the price of grain.[14][15] However,
the role of some of these factors is under debate. Some argue the role of biofuel has been
overplayed[16] as grain prices have come down to the levels of 2006. Nonetheless, food riots have
recently taken place in many countries across the world.[17][18][19]

It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain food security in a world beset by a confluence of

"peak" phenomena, namely peak oil, peak water, peak phosphorus, peak grain and peak fish. More
than half of the planet's population, numbering approximately 3.3 billion people, live in urban areas
as of November 2007. Any disruption to farm supplies may precipitate a uniquely urban food crisis in
a relatively short time.[20] The ongoing global credit crisis has affected farm credits, despite a boom
in commodity prices.[21] Food security is a complex topic, standing at the intersection of many
disciplines.

A new peer-reviewed journal of Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food
Production and Access to Food began publishing in 2009.[22] In developing countries, often 70% or
more of the population lives in rural areas. In that context, agricultural development among
smallholder farmers and landless people provides a livelihood for people allowing them the
opportunity to stay in their communities. In many areas of the world, land ownership is not
available, thus, people who want or need to farm to make a living have little incentive to improve
the land.

In the US, there are approximately 2,000,000 farmers, less than 1% of the population. A direct
relationship exists between food consumption levels and poverty. Families with the financial
resources to escape extreme poverty rarely suffer from chronic hunger; while poor families not only
suffer the most from chronic hunger, but are also the segment of the population most at risk during
food shortages and famines.

Two commonly used definitions of food security come from the UN's Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA):
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social[23] and economic access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active
and healthy life.[24]

Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active,
healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate
and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways
(that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping
strategies). (USDA)[25]

The stages of food insecurity range from food secure situations to full-scale famine. "Famine and
hunger are both rooted in food insecurity. Food insecurity can be categorized as either chronic or
transitory. Chronic food insecurity translates into a high degree of vulnerability to famine and
hunger; ensuring food security presupposes elimination of that vulnerability. [Chronic] hunger is not
famine. It is similar to undernourishment and is related to poverty, existing mainly in poor
countries."[26]

Food security in india

Food security has been a major developmental objective in India since the beginning of planning.
India achieved self-sufficiency in food grains in the 1970’s and has sustained it since then. But the
achievement of food grain security at the national level did not percolate down to households and
the level of chronic food insecurity is still high. Over 225 million Indians remain chronically under
nourished. In 2000-01, about half of the rural children below five years of age suffered from
malnutrition and 40% of adults suffered from chronic energy deficiency. Such a high level of wasting
away of human resources should be a cause for concern.

In recent years, there has been a shift in policy focus towards household level food security and per
capita food energy intake is taken as a measure of food security. The government has been
implementing a wide range of nutrition intervention programmes for achieving food security at the
household and individual levels. The Public Distribution System (PDS) supplies food items, such as
food grains and sugar, at administered prices through fair price shops. There have been a range of
food-for-work and other wage employment programmes. Another approach adopted by the
government is to target women and children directly; this includes mid-day meal programme for
school going children and supplementary nutrition programme for children and women.

According to NSS, per capita cereal consumption has been declining since the early 1970’s despite a
significant rise in per capita cereal production. This can be attributed to changes in consumer tastes,
from food to non-food items and, within food group, from coarse to fine cereals. The decline in
cereal consumption has been greater in rural areas, where the improvement in rural infrastructure
has made other food and non-food items available to rural households.

The reality is that the bottom 30% of the population has not shown any improvement in cereal and
calorie intake in the rural and urban areas despite a significant improvement in their real per capita
expenditure. Their per capita calorie intake (1600 to 1700) falls short of the required norm. Intra-
family food distribution is also inequitable in the rural households and the pre-school children get
much less than their physiological needs as compared to adult males and females. Micronutrient
deficiency is common among people. Diets of about 80% of the rural population contain less than
half of the normal requirement of vitamin-A. This deficiency leads to preventable blindness. Iron
deficiency is widely prevalent among pregnant women. This results in a high incidence of low birth
weight children, which in turn contributes to malnutrition.

The most important challenge is to increase the energy intake of the bottom 30% of the population
and at the same time facilitate diet diversification to meet micronutrient deficiency. The food gap
can be met from the existing foodgrain stocks in the medium term and by increasing their
purchasing power in the long run through increasing job opportunities. The micronutrient deficiency
can be rectified through supplementary nutrition and supply of fortified food. There is also a need to
improve the efficiency of the various food schemes initiated by the government and make it more
available and free of corruption and urban bias.

Food security in India leaves much to be desired

Manasi Singh, OneWorld South Asia

24 February 2009

India's malnutrition figures are not coming down despite a number of government programmes,
says a new report released by World Food Programme. The research points out the need for a
revamped public distribution system and greater public investment to address the wants of rural
population.

New Delhi, India: High economic growth rates have failed to improve food security in India leaving
the country facing a crisis in its rural economy, warns the latest report released by the World Food
Programme and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF).

A hunger-free India/ Photo credit: Rein Skullerud/ WFP

Launched in the Indian capital on February 20, 2009, State of Food Insecurity in Rural India tries to
give a broad indicative picture of the level of food insecurity in different states of the country and
the operation of the nutrition safety net programmes.
The report says that the number of undernourished people is rising, reversing gains made in the
1990s. Slowing growth in food production, rising unemployment and declining purchasing power of
the poor in India are combining to weaken the rural economy.

Strengthening rural interventions

“The report suggests priority areas of action to help achieve the national and Millennium
Development Goal of reducing hunger and malnutrition,” said Mihoko Tamamura, WFP
Representative and Country Director for India.

It also examines the effectiveness of some of the important food-based interventions like the Public
Distribution System (PDS), the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and the Mid Day Meal
Scheme (MDMS), and recommends measures for improved performance.

“There is a need to create a universal PDS with uniform prices affordable to the poor and the
allocation should be based on the number of consumption units in the household,” remarked
Professor Venkatesh Athreya who coordinated this research.

He pointed out that many of the social safety net and agriculture production programmes can
ensure the availability and access to food.

Food security has three components: availability of food in the market, access to food through
adequate purchasing power, and absorption of food in the body.

“However, even if the required quantities of macro and micro nutrients are met, a serious handicap
in achieving nutrition security arises from poor sanitation and environmental hygiene and lack of
clean drinking water,” added Athreya.

The study also highlights larger challenges of climate change and global food price rise.

Hunger hotspots

At the global level, the South Asian region is home to more chronically food insecure people than
any other region in the world and India ranks 94th in the Global Hunger Index of 119 countries.
While famines and starvation deaths remain the popular representation of the contemporary
problem of hunger, one of the most significant yet understated and perhaps less visible area of
concern today is that of chronic or persistent food and nutrition insecurity.

This is a situation where people regularly subsist on a very minimal diet that has poor nutrient and
calorific content as compared to medically prescribed norms.

This report uses seven indicators, which directly or indirectly affect the food security and nutritional
status of a person. These are based on amount of calories consumed, access to safe drinking water
and toilets, women and children who are anaemic.

On the composite index of food insecurity of rural India, states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are
found in the 'very high' level of food insecurity, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat.

The better performers include Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Andhra
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Orissa and Maharashtra perform poorly.

Even economically developed states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka find
themselves in the category of high food insecurity - a reflection perhaps of the manifestation of the
agrarian crisis in the states and its consequent negative impact on the health and well-being of the
rural population.

“Nutrition security involving physical, economic and social access to balanced diet, clean drinking
water, sanitation and primary health care for every child, woman and man is fundamental to giving
all our citizens an opportunity for a healthy and productive life,” said Professor MS Swaminathan,
Chairman, MSSRF.

Unless this aspect of food security is attended to with the involvement of local bodies, the food
security situation in India will not show the desired improvement.

To address availability, access and sustainability concerns, the report calls for reorienting India’s
economic policies to provide adequate support for agriculture and its vast rural population. Also,
appropriate attention should be paid to conservation of common property and biodiversity
resources and rehabilitation of wastelands.

“We must explore a horticulture remedy to tide over this nutritional malady,” noted Prof.
Swaminathan.