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An opportunity to recast India’s food system

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• GS Paper 3 Food Security.
• GS Paper 2, Issues Relating to Poverty & Hunger.
• Tags:#World Food Day 2023.

Why in the news?

Recently the world Food Day was celebrated on 16 October.

Highlights of World Food Day 2023

About

• • It is observed annually to address the problem of global hunger.
  • It emphasizes Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) i.e., Zero Hunger.
  • Theme: “Water is life, Water is food. Leave no one Behind.”

Significance of Theme

• On World Food Day, it is important to note that agriculture alone accounts for 72% of global freshwater withdrawals, underscoring the critical role of water in food production and the significance of its sustainable management
• Freshwater resources per person have declined by 20% in the past decade.
• 4 billion people live in water stressed countries. it is important to understand that around 600 million people who depend, at least partially, on aquatic food systems are suffering effects of pollution, ecosystem degradation, and climate change.

Nutrition, livelihoods, environment security

• On the nutrition front, India faces a double burden of malnutrition. At one end, despite making great progress over the years, a sizable proportion of Indians exhibit nutrient deficiencies.
• As in the National Family Health Survey, 2019-21, 35% of children are stunted, and 57% of women and 25% of men are anaemic.
• At the other end, due to imbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles, 24% of adult women and 23% of adult men are now obese.

On the production side, farm incomes are insufficient to meet the ends of marginal and small farmers.

• According to a report by the Transforming Rural India Foundation, more than 68% of marginal farmers supplement their incomes with non-farm activities.
• Further, depleting natural resources and changing climate are making India’s food production highly vulnerable. As in the 2023 soil health survey, almost half the cultivable land in India has become deficient in organic carbon, which is an essential indicator of soil health.
• Groundwater, the largest source of irrigation, is rapidly declining. In States such as Punjab, more than 75% of the groundwater assessment locations are over-exploited, threatening the resilience of farm incomes.

 Adopt a three-sided approach

To solve these interconnected challenges, we need a triad approach that engages all three sides of the food system:

First

• Consumer demand needs to be shifted towards healthy and sustainable diets. We need to shift to a food plate that is healthier for people and the planet.
• Civil society and the health community could partner with social media influencers who can shape healthier and sustainable consumption for millions.
• Alongside, the public sector, through its innumerable touch points such as the Public Distribution System, mid-day meals, railways catering, urban canteens, and public and institutional procurement, can help improve what at least 70% of Indians are consuming.
• Even religious institutions can shape food choices. For instance, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, which serves nearly 70,000 people daily, has started procuring naturally-farmed produce.

Second

• To ensure resilient incomes, we must support farmers’ transition towards remunerative and regenerative agricultural practices.
• The National Mission on Natural Farming is a step in this direction, but the overall funding for sustainable agriculture is less than 1% of the agricultural budget.
• We need to broaden and scale up such initiatives to various agro-ecological practices such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture, precision farming, and much more.
• Further, agriculture support should move from input subsidies to direct cash support to farmers per hectare of cultivation.
• It would promote efficient use of inputs, while enabling a level playing field for agroecological practices to thrive.
• Agricultural research and extension services should also earmark a proportion of their respective budgets to focus on sustainable agricultural practices.

Third

• Shift farm-to-fork value chains towards more sustainable and inclusive ones. A critical approach to enhance rural (farm) incomes is to enable more value addition of agricultural produce in rural areas.
• Middlemen, such as corporations supplying raw and processed food to consumers, should prioritise direct procurement from farmers, incentivise procurement of sustainably harvested produce, and implement well-established approaches such as fair trade.

Related Indian Initiatives

• The Eat Right India and Fit India Movement along with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Jal Jeevan Mission and other efforts will improve the health of Indians and heal the environment.
• Introduction of 17 new biofortified varieties of crops to overcome the shortcomings of the common variety of crops which lacks important micronutrients. Example: MACS 4028 Wheat, Madhuban Gajar, etc.
• Increased ambitious and effective implementation of the Food Security Act, 2013.
• Amendments to the APMC (agricultural produce market committee) Acts to make them more competitive.
• Steps to ensure that farmers get one and a half times the cost as Minimum Support Price (MSP), which along with the government procurement, is an important part of ensuring the country’s food security.
• Development of a large network of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).
• Amendments in the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 to deal with the issue of grain wastage in India.
• The government is making efforts to make India Trans Fat free by 2022, a year ahead of the World Health Organisation (WHO) target, in synergy with the vision of New India @75 (75 years of India’s independence).
• Trans Fat is a food toxin present in Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (PHVOs) (e.g., vanaspati, shortening, margarine, etc.), baked and fried foods.
• FAO supported India’s proposal to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
• For improving food access, especially for vulnerable populations, the Government of India drives programmes such as the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).

Conclusion

• No country can better understand the challenges of a food system than India, which feeds the largest population in the world. While the primary goal of a food system is to ensure nutrition security for all, it can only be achieved sustainably if the producers producing the food make reasonable economic returns that are resilient over time.
• This resilience, in turn, is intricately linked with the resilience of our natural ecosystem because the largest inputs to agriculture — soil, water and climatic conditions — are all but natural resources. Appreciating this interconnectedness of nutrition security with livelihood and environmental security is essential to making our food system truly sustainable.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question

The real challenge to India’s food security is poor grain management rather than a shortage of grain production. Comment.