Article
From a net importer of food in 1950s, India has transformed itself in the production of food grains (mainly rice, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses) during the last few decades. From a mere 50 million tons (mt) of annual food grain production in 1950s, India this year (2011-12) has produced a record 252 mt of food grains, mainly attributed to the significant jump in rice and wheat output. The introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds and the increased use of fertilizers and irrigation under the 'Green Revolution' initiative in late 1960s resulted in rapid expansion of agricultural land and boost in agricultural production. Amidst this euphoria about self-sufficiency, India continues to be the home largest number of the poor families in the world. Despite running the world's biggest Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), which provides highly subsidized food grains to 200 million poor families, India has failed to remove nutritional deficiency amongst large chunks of economically vulnerable population.
Due to bumper wheat and rice production during last few years, the godowns of Food Corporation of India (FCI), which allocated grains under TPDS, have been full to the capacities. While FCI has food grains storage capacities of around 61 million tonne, at present it has to keep food grains stocks in excess of 71 million tonne resulting in huge storage losses. This is an alarming proposition when large chunk of population is yet to get subsidized food grains because of huge inefficiency in the implementation of TPDS.
This overflowing granaries comes at a time when the government is all set to expand the coverage of TPDS through legal entitlements. The National Food Security Bill 2011 (now with a parliamentary standing committee or panel) envisages providing legal entitlement over subsidized grains to 63.5% of the country’s population. This will expand the base of TPDS to around 600 million population which is expected to put enormous pressure on the government's existing and inefficient food grains delivery system.
This paper provides an insight into India's food economy. It does an analysis on the food grains production trend during the last few decades, linking it up with the lack of modernization of TPDS. The existing dichotomy of excess food grains stocks and the lacunae in food grains delivery or accessibility by vulnerable section is explored in this article.
Click here to read Agricultural Production and Food Distribution to Vulnerable Families in India Today. (pages 8, 567KB)
*ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sandip Das works with The Financial Express, a leading financial daily. He is based in Delhi, travels extensively and writes on issues concerning food and agriculture. He has worked with leading media organizations such as the Press Trust of India (PTI), Business Standard and for the environment magazine Down to Earth. He holds a Master Degree in political science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Sandip could be contacted at sandipdas2005@gmail.com.