Consumer and farmer interests require careful balancing

Ashok B Sharma

India faces the major challenge of ensuring household food and nutritional security to its people. This is notwithstanding the fact that the country has made giant strides in increasing foodgrains output and stocks in the central pool are burgeoning.

Faulty policies being pursued by successive governments in the Centre have been blamed for such a paradoxical situation. Strangely, no political will is visible so far to remedy the situation. The policy so far has been to serve the interests of farmers by giving them higher remunerative prices for their produces. But there is a need to strike a balance between the interests of farmers and consumers.

The Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India prepared by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation has stated that people’s access to food is very critical in Bihar and Jharkhand, whilst in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal there are growing problems related to access to food. The situation is moderate in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh. In Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Assam the problems are at a low key whilst in Himachal Pradesh it is minimal.

The factors associated with access to food have been identified as security of livelihood and income, on-farm and non-farm employment, purchasing power, operation of the public distribution system, safety nets, presence of local- level grain banks and literacy. The Atlas states: “Where there is work, there is money; where there is money, there is food.”

It has defined Bihar and Jharkhand as areas of extreme food insecurity. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal have been stated to have high food insecurity. Moderate problems exist in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Haryana. Whereas Kerala and Tamil Nadu have reported moderate problems, there are very low problems in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

In estimating food availability in different states across the country, the Atlas states there are extreme problems in Gujarat, and high problems in Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand. The problems in Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal are moderate, whereas Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh are in the low category. Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Kerala have very low problems.

The factors responsible for food availability in these states are home production, imports, marketing and distribution, post-harvest infrastructure, implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures and Codex standards for food safety. In this case the Atlas suggests a massive effort for launching a productivity revolution.

Regarding environmental sustainability for food production, the Atlas sees extreme problems in Punjab and Haryana followed by high problems in West Bengal and Rajasthan, and moderate problems in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The problems in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Assam are at a low key and in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh these problems are at a very low key.

Factors and issues concerning environmental sustainability of food production have been identified as conservation and enhancement of prime farmland, rain and surface water and biodiversity, integrated natural resources management, eco-technologies for an evergreen farm revolution, promotion of renewable energy and disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies. The Atlas advocated more production in a manner that today’s progress should not be at the expense of tomorrow’s prospects.

Regarding absorption of food and its utilisation by the people, it has identified extreme problems in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh and high problems in Orissa, Assam Rajasthan and Gujarat. There are moderate problems in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. There are low problems in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and very low problems in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab.

The factors and issues responsible for absorption and utilisation of food by the people are balanced food intake, clean drinking water, environmental sanitation, primary health care, reduction in infant mortality, nutrition and health education and education of women. The Atlas suggests that everyone should have access to clean drinking water and primary healthcare.

To remedy the overall situation, it suggests identification of the ultra poor, information empowerment on entitlements, elimination of protein energy under-nutrition, elimination of micronutrient deficiencies, improving utilisation and biological absorption of food, strengthening rural livelihood through on-farm and non-farm employment, special attention to women and children, strengthening food-based safety nets, linking disaster mitigation to development and urged the industrialised countries to provide greater market access to farm products of developing countries.

Summing up the findings of the Atlas, it can be said that the policies of the government have so far centred around boosting foodgrains production only in certain specific regions of the country. With this strategy, the foodgrains production has been able to touch the level of over 200 million tonnes from the level of only about 50 million tonnes in the era before the launch of Green Revolution.

But the policies pursued so far have not been comprehensive enough to take care of consumers. For certain political reasons, policies so far have tilted towards the interests of the producers, the farmers, by giving them higher remunerative prices for purchase of their produce. There is now a need to balance the policy in the interests of the consumers.