Food security in India


Food security entails ensuring adequate food supply to people, especially those who are deprived of basic nutrition. Food security has been a major concern in India. According to UN-India, there are nearly 195 million undernourished people in India, which is a quarter of the world's hunger burden. Also roughly 43% children in India are chronically undernourished. India ranks 74 out of 113 major countries in terms of food security index. Though the available nutritional standard is 100% of the requirement, India lags far behind in terms of quality protein intake at 20% which needs to be tackled by making available protein rich food products such as eggs, meat, fish, chicken, etc. at affordable prices

Laws

In order to provide the Right to food to every citizen of the country, the Parliament of India, enacted a legislation in 2013 known as the National Food Security Act, 2013. Also called as the Right to Food Act, this Act seeks to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of India's 1.33 billion population. It was signed into law on 12 September 2013, retroactive to 5 July 2013.

Schemes by government

Central Initiatives

  • The National Food Security Act,2013 converts into legal entitlements for existing food security programmes of the Government of India. It includes the Midday Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services scheme and the Public Distribution System. In 2017-18, over Rs 1500 billion have been allocated to provide food subsidies under the Targeted Public Distribution System.
  • The NFSA 2013 also recognizes maternity entitlements. Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free cereals.

    State Initiatives

  • Karnataka has launched 'Indira Canteen', which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner at a very low price. This scheme was brought by Congress govt led by Siddaramaiah as CM so that no-one in the state should would go hungry and everyone gets healthy food.
  • Tamil Nadu has launched 'Amma Unavagam', or more commonly known as Amma canteen.. The genesis of this program could be traced to the scheme proposed by Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute in 2012.
  • The State of UP in 2013 passed a food bill. Food that is going to be wasted from parties will be preserved and distributed to poor and needy people.
  • The Chhattisgarh Food Security Act, 2012 law was enacted by the Chhattisgarh government. It was passed on 21 December 2012, by the State Assembly unopposed to ensure "access to adequate quantity of food and other requirements of good nutrition to the people of the State, at affordable prices, at all times to live a life of dignity.’’
In the country of India, food availability is not that reliable. Their population right now is 1.3 billion and by 2030, it is estimated that their population will increase to 1.5 billion. The challenge to produce more and more for the growing population is becoming increasingly hard for a country of its size and economic growth. Since the land in India is a shrinking resource for agriculture, the production rate for agriculture needs to be higher per unit of land and irrigation water. Over 60% of the Indian population depend on the agriculture for their daily meals. India produces around 100 million tonnes of rice every year. To access food in India can be considered as not as easy as Australia. It is really hard to get hands on fresh fruit and vegetables. While there might be enough food for the whole population of India, many families and especially children in India don't have access to food because of financial problems. Thus, this is the cause of millions of malnourished children around India. The cultural knowledge in India allows them to have a very nutritional and balanced diet. Nearly the whole of the Indian population have rice at least once a day which allows them to have carbohydrates in their system. Since India is most commonly known for producing and exporting rice to other countries, their lifestyle will be mainly dominated by rice.

Technological solutions

India needs to concentrate on methods to improve the availability and affordability of protein rich food products using the latest environmental friendly technology without the need of additional land and water. Biogas or natural gas or methane produced from farm/agro/crop/domestic waste can also be used in addition to mined natural gas for producing protein rich cattle/fish/poultry/pet animal feed economically by cultivating Methylococcus capsulatus bacteria culture in a decentralized manner near to the rural / consumption areas with tiny land and water foot print.