Q 1 – How is food security ensured in India?
Ans. Food security of a nation is ensured if all of its citizens have enough nutritious food available, all persons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable quality and there is no barrier to access to food.
Q 2 – Which are the people more prone to food insecurity?
Ans. The people more prone to food insecurity are:
- Landless people with little or no land to depend on.
- Traditional artisans
- Providers of traditional services, petty self-employed workers and destitutes, including beggars
- Urban casual labourers engaged in seasonal activities.
- The SCs, STs and some sections of the OBCs.
- People affected by natural disasters.
Q 3 – Which states are more food insecure in India?
Ans. The states of Uttar Pradesh (eastern and south-eastern parts), Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, parts of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra account for the largest number of food-insecure people in the country.
Q 4 – Do you believe that Green Revolution has made India self-sufficient in food grains? How?
Ans. Green Revolution has made India self-sufficient in food grains. The country has avoided famines even during adverse weather conditions since the advent of the Green Revolution in the early 1970s. A variety of crops being grown all over the country is an outcome of the Green Revolution.
Q 5 – A section of people in India is still without food. Explain.
Ans. A section of the people is insecure during a few months when they remain unemployed because of the seasonal nature of agricultural work. They are engaged in seasonal activities and are paid very low wages that just ensure bare survival. At times it so happens that they have to stay without food.
Q 6 – What happens to the supply of food when there is a disaster or a calamity?
Ans. When there is a disaster or a calamity, the production of food grains decreases in the affected areas. This in turn creates a shortage of food in the area. Due to the food shortages, the prices go up. The raised prices of food affect the capacity of many people to buy the same. When a calamity occurs in a very wide area or is stretched over a long period of time, it may cause a situation of starvation. Massive starvation can take the form of famine.
Q 7 – Differentiate between seasonal hunger and chronic hunger.
Ans. Hunger has chronic and seasonal dimensions.
Chronic Hunger Seasonal Hunger Chronic hunger is a consequence of diets persistently inadequate in terms of quantity and/or quality. Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting. Poor people suffer from chronic hunger because of their very low income and in turn inability to buy food even for survival. This is prevalent in rural areas because of the seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in urban areas because of casual labour.
Q 8 – What has our government done to provide food security to the poor? Discuss any two schemes launched by the government.
Ans. The government has designed the food security system carefully to ens
- Buffer Stock
- Public Distribution System (PDS)
In addition to the above, the government has launched several Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAPs) that comprise a component of food security. Some of these programmes are Mid-day Meals, Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), and Food For Work (FFW).
The two schemes launched by the government in this direction are:
- Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY). This scheme was launched in December 2000. Under this scheme, one crore of the poorer among the BPL families, to be covered by the Public Distribution System, were identified. Twenty-five kilograms of food grains were made available to each of the – eligible families at a highly subsidized rate. After about two years, the quantity was enhanced from twenty-five kg to thirty-five kg. In June 2003 and August 2004, an additional fifty lakh families were added to this scheme twice. In this way, about two crore families have been brought under the AAY.
- Annapurna Scheme (APS). It was launched in 2,000 with a special target group of ‘indigent senior citizens’. The functioning of the scheme was linked with the existing network of the PDS. Under this scheme, 10 kg of food grains were made available to them free of cost.
Q 9 – Why buffer stock is created by the government?
Ans. Buffer stock is created by the government to ensure the availability of food to all the sections of society. It helps to resolve the problem of shortage of food during adverse weather conditions or during periods of calamity.
Q 10 – Write notes on:
(a) Minimum Support Price
(b) Buffer Stock
(c) Issue Price
(d) Fair Price Shops
Ans. (a) Minimum Support Price. This is the pre-announced price at which the government purchases food grains particularly, wheat and rice, from the farmers to create a buffer stock. This price is announced by the government every year before the sowing season as an incentive to the farmers to raise the production of the desired crop. The rising MSPs have raised the maintenance cost of procuring food grains by the government as well as induced farmers to divert land from the production of coarse grains to the production of these crops.
(b) Buffer Stock. It is the stock of food grains, particularly wheat and rice, which the government procures through the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The FCI purchases these cereals directly from the farmers of those states where they are in surplus. The price of these commodities are announced much before the actual sowing season of these crops. The food grains thus purchased by the FCI are kept in big granaries and called ‘Buffer Stock’.
(c) Issue Price. In order to help the poor strata of the society, the government provides them food grains from the buffer stock at a price much lower than the market price. This subsidised price is known as the ‘Issue Price’.
(d) Fair Price Shops. The food grains procured by the government through the Food Corporation of India are distributed among the poorer sections of the society through ration shops. These are called ‘Fair Price Shops’ because food grains are supplied to the poor through these shops at a price lower than the market price, which is often high.
Q 11 – What are the problems with the functioning of ration shops?
Ans. Out of Syllabus.
Q 12 – Write a note on the role of co-operatives in providing food and related items.
Ans. The cooperatives are also playing an important role in food security in India especially in the southern and western parts of the country. The cooperative societies set up shops to sell low priced goods to poor people. For example, out of all fair price shops running in Tamil Nadu, around 94 percent are being run by the cooperatives.
Q 13 – What is food security?
Ans. Food is as essential for living as air is for breathing. Food security means something more than getting two square meals.
Q 14 – Why food security is necessary?
Ans. The poorest, section of the society might be food insecure most of the times while persons above the poverty line might also be food insecure when the country faces a natural disaster like earthquake, drought, flood, tsunami, widespread failure of crops causing famine, etc.
Q 15 – How is food security affected during a calamity?
Ans. Due to a natural calamity, total production of food grains decreases. It creates a shortage of food in the affected areas.
Q 16 – Who are food-insecure?
Ans. Although a large section of people suffers from food and nutrition insecurity in India, the worst affected groups are landless people with little or no land depend upon, traditional artisans, providers of traditional services, petty, self-employed workers and destitute including beggars.
In the urban areas, the food-insecure families are those whose working members are generally employed in ill-paid occupations and casual labour markets.
Q 17 – What is Buffer stock?
Ans. Buffer stock is the stock of food grains, namely wheat and rice procured by the government through Food Corporation of India.
Q 18 – What is minimum support price?
Ans. The FCI purchases wheat and rice. from the farmers in states where there is surplus production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops. This price is called minimum support price.
Q 19 – Why buffer stock is created by the government?
Ans. Buffer stock is created by the government to distribute food-grains in the deficit areas and among the poorer strata of society at a price lower than the market price also known as issue price This also helps resolve the problems of shortage of food during adverse weather conditions or during the periods of calamity.
Q 20 – Give the factors responsible for rising maintenance cost of food grains.
Ans. The rising minimum support prices have raised the maintenance cost of procuring food grains by the government. Rising transportation and storage costs of the FCI ‘ are other contributing factors in this increase.
Q 21 – Write a short note on National Food for Work Programme.
Ans. National Food for Work Programme was launched on November 14, 2004, in 150 most backward districts of the country with the objective of intensifying the generation of supplementary wage employment and desire to do manual unskilled work. It is implemented as a 100 per cent centrally sponsored scheme and the food grains are provided to states free of cost.
The collector is the nodal officer at the district level and has the overall responsibility of planning implementation, coordination, monitoring and supervision. For 2004-05, Rs. 2020 Crore have been allocated for the programme in addition to 20 lakh tonnes of food-grains.v
Q 22 – Write a short note on Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY).
Ans. AntyodayaAnna Yojana was launched in December 2000. Under the scheme, one crore of the poorest among the BPL families covered under the targeted public distribution system were identified by the respective state rural development departments through a below poverty line (BPL) survey. Twenty-five kilograms of food-grains were made available to each eligible family at a highly subsidised rate of Rs. 2 per kilogram for wheat and Rs. 3 per kilogram for rice.
This quantity has been enhanced from 25 to 50 kilograms with effect from April 2002. The scheme has been further expanded twice by additional 50 lakhs BPL families in June 2003 and in August 2004. With this increase, 2 crore families have been covered under the AAY
Q 23 – Give any four drawbacks of public distribution system?
Ans. The four drawbacks of PDS are as follows:
- Deaths due to hunger- Many instances of death due to hunger are prevalent despite overflowing granaries. FCI godowns are overflowing with grains with some rotting. away and some being eaten by rats.
- High carrying costs- The high level of buffer stocks are responsible for high carrying costs. The rising minimum support price has raised the maintenance cost of procuring food grains by the government.
Q 24 – Hunger indicates food insecurity. Explain?
Ans. Hunger is not just an expression of poverty, it brings about poverty. The attainment of food security, therefore, involves eliminating current hunger and reducing the risks of future hunger. Hunger has chronic and seasonal dimensions. Chronic hunger is a consequence of diets persistently inadequate in terms of quantity and/or quality. Poor people suffer from chronic hunger because of their tew income and in turn instability to buy food even for survival.
Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting. This is prevalent in rural areas because of the seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in urban areas because of the casual labour e.g. there is less work for causal construction labour during the rainy season.
This type of hunger exists when a person is unable to get work for the entire year. The percentage of seasonal, as well as chronic hunger, has declined in India. Seasonal hunger has declined to 0.6 in urban areas and 2.6 in rural areas. Chronic hunger is 0.3 in urban areas and 2.7 in rural areas.
Q 25 – Critically examine public distribution system.
Ans.
- Supply of essential commodities to the people by the government through ration shops is called public distribution system. PDS is the most important step taken by the government of India towards ensuring food security. It is the most important instrument, of government policy over the years for stabilizing prices and making food available to consumers affordable prices.
- It has been successful in avoiding widespread hunger and famine by supplying food from surplus regions of the country to the deficit ones. In addition, the prices have been under revision in favour of poor households in general. The system including the minimum support price and procurement has contributed to an increase in food-grain production and provided income security to farmers in certain regions.
- In the beginning, the coverage of PDS was universal with no discrimination between the poor and non-poor. Over the years the policy has been revised to make it more efficient and targeted. In 1992Revamped Public, Distribution was started in 1700 blocks in the country. Its target was to provide the benefits of PDS to remote and backward areas. Then in June 1997, Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) was introduced to adopt the principle of targeting the poor in all areas.
- For the first time, differential price polity was adopted for poor and non-poor. Further in 2000, two special schemes were launched, viz. Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Annapurna Scheme with special target groups of the poorest of the poor and indigent senior citizens. The functioning of the above schemes was linked with the existing network of the PDS.
- Criticism-However; the Public Distribution System has faced severe criticism, on several grounds. Substances of hunger are prevalent despite over-flowing granaries. FCI godowns are overflowing with grains with some rafting away and some being eaten by rats. The storage of massive food stocks has been responsible for high carrying costs, in addition to wastage an,d deterioration in grain quality.
- The average consumption of PDS grain at all Indian levels is only 1 kg. per person per month. This is much lower than the consumption pattern which is 3-4 kgs per month. As a result, the poor have to depend on markets rather than the ration shops for their food needs. PDS dealers are sometimes found resorting to malpractices like diverting the grains to open market to get better margin by selling poor quality grains.