[Dec 2007, Volume 4 Quarterly Issue] Pdf File size - The IIPM Think ...

Anjani Sinha
Managing Director & CEO,
National Spot Exchange Limited,
Mumbai
Food Security In India:
Issues And Implications
"annam na nindyat. tadvratam."
(Do not look down upon anna. That is
the inviolable discipline of life for the one
who knows.)
"annam na paricaksita. tadvratam."
(Do not neglect anna. That is the
inviolable discipline of life for the one
who knows.)
"annam bahu kurvita. tadvratam."
(Multiply anna many-fold. Ensure an
abundance of food all around. That is the
inviolable discipline of life for the one
who knows.)
-The Taittiriyopanisad
1. Concept
Food Security refers to the scenario in
which every citizen of the country has access
to sufficient and affordable good
quality food. The concept has evolved
during the last three decades to include
not only food availability, but also economic
access to food and biological absorption
of food in the body. It is considered
in terms of availability of foods, its
quality, its accessibility and affordability
for general mass. Thus we can say that
there are four pillars of food secu
rity - Availability, Affordability, Accessi
bility and Quality of food in terms of
balanced diet.
2. Objectives And Focus
2.1 India’s food security policy has a
laudable objective to ensure availability
of food grains to common mass at an affordable
price. It has enabled the poor to
have access to food where none existed.
When India got Independence, the then
Prime Minister Late Sri Jawaharlal Nehru
said, “Everything else can wait but
not agriculture.”
2.2 Historically, India’s food security
policy has focused essentially on growth
in agriculture production, fixing minimum
support price for procurement and maintaining
buffer stocks of rice and wheat to
ensure food security.
3. Concerns
3.1 As a matter of fact, concern on
food security has always haunted the
scholars and policy makers right from
Malthusian Theory way back in eighteenth
century. This is mainly because of limited
and declining natural resources and ever
increasing population.
3.2 Recently, Government of India
has taken a policy decision to allocate Rs.
48.82 billion for National Food Security
Mission (NFSM). The primary objective
is to raise the production of rice, wheat
and pulses during the 11 th Five-Year Plan
period (2007-12) and ensure food security
in the country. Assuming requirement of
175 kg cereals and 11 kg of pulses per
capita per annum, India needs 265 million
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