-Ayantika Banerjee

Roll No. 11

Introduction
In India, Food security is one of the most important focus of policy making in the path of development.

Food security was measured in terms of food availability and price stability till the 1970s; recently there has been a shift in focus towards household level security.
Government employed programmes to ensure food security are: PDS (Public Distribution System) and Fair Price Shops Food-for-work and other wage employment schemes Mid-day meal programme for children and supplementary nutrition programme for both children and women

Malnutrition and Shortcoming of Food based interventions

About 20 percent of rural children are severely malnourished and another 30 percent are moderately malnourished. This negatively affects about 3 to 9 percent of the GDP. These grave problems need to be dealt with by increasing the effectiveness of the food security program in question. Food based interventions can be improved as follows: Being more demand driven: the concept of demand-driven services implies making extension more responsive to the needs of all farmers, including women and those who are poor and marginalized. It also implies making extension more accountable to farmers and, as a consequence, more effective Reforming Public Distribution System Release some resources needed by the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services)and MDM (Mid-day Meal Program)

Basic Questions related to Indian Food Policy

1.

Why not dismantle PDS et all? Due to excessive supply, food grain prices have come down below the domestic rates and so food subsidies have become burdensome for the treasury. Despite its attractiveness, the dismantling process is full of hurdles because: Direct grants in the form of cash and food stamps would add on to corruption and exclude many families below the poverty line. Inadequate transportation networks, shortage of storage facilities, credit crunch etc make grain market highly imperfect, leading to unstable food grain prices and result in acute hunger and malnutrition. Monopsony-cum-monopoly power to big traders result in depressed food output level and low incentives for agricultural investment.

2. What should the food policy try to secure? They have been as in the following: To ensure remunerative prices for farmers and affordable prices for consumers To reduce intra as well as inter- year variability of food grain prices Provide security against food shortage due to successive harvest failures along with severe disruptions in international sources of supply To provide subsidies that can permanently raise income of poor producers and the same can be withdrawn within a few years

New trend in Food policy

Globalization can be shaped to benefit poor people. The needed shifts in domestic food and agricultural

policy would go a long way to assuring that smallholders and other rural poor people have a stake in export opportunities, namely assuring them access to infrastructure, inputs, credit, markets, and organizations such as cooperatives that can facilitate their participation in markets and enhance their political voice. unless the developing countries and their allies can also convince the developed countries to reduce their barriers to developing country exports and other trade distorting policies.

These shifts will fall short of achieving what is needed

Conclusion
Agriculture will remain an important source of food and livelihood for large numbers of Indians, either directly or indirectly, for a long time to come, as a majority of the workforce remains engaged in farming and related work. Moreover, most poor Indians live in rural areas, so broad-based agricultural growth must be at the centre of strategies to reduce poverty and achieve food security. In order to achieve this, food and agricultural policy must shift from poorly targeted subsidies to a focus on investment , with an emphasis on human resources, public goods, and meeting the needs of poor people and regions. Key investment targets include less-favoured areas, agricultural research, infrastructure (especially roads and storage), and education, for girls and boys alike.

 Agricultural research must make use of all relevant

tools, including molecular biology, conventional approaches, and better utilization of farmers. own knowledge, to help meet the needs of poor farmers and regions. Alongside these public investments, agriculture should become more market oriented, with better targeted safety nets to assure that the transition from controls and subsidies does not leave poor people worse off.

References:
Indian Economy Since Independence by Dr. Uma

Kapila International Food Policy Research Institute (ifpri.org) Food Corporation of India (fciweb.nic.in)