Food security-The flourishing stream of India that faces a brighter side
Adesh Chaurasia– Food security-The flourishing stream of India that faces a brighter side
India has been a rich and independent country when it comes to food production. Our country is an agrarian one. A vast segment of people earn their livelihood by being involved in the primary sector i.e. agriculture.
The green revolution
The green revolution began in the 1960’s in India. The whole concept was introduced in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana initially, primarily because these three states produced approximately 80% of the food grains that the whole country produced collectively.
Beginning of the green revolution directly meant seeing a predictable boost in the food production quantity and well as the quality. The introduction of a high yielding variety of seeds, high growth inducing fertilizers, modern farm implements, etc. boosted up the crop yields by double the amount.
Since then, there’s no looking back for India producing good quality grains that supported self sufficiency as well as created a space for farmers and huge businessmen to expand the trading niche by selling surplus grains in foreign countries.
Need for food security
The booming food production attracted greater profits for farmers to enjoy and more food for the people to have but it also induced an issue of food security.
Food security is an economic and social phenomenon that deals with the availability and accessibility of food to everyone in equal amounts and also at an equal price.
Handling the instant boom that the green revolution gave the agricultural sector was a bit tedious for producers to manage. In the greed of earning greater profits, the farmers could be trapped easily in inappropriate schemes of big businessmen and entrepreneurs who wanted to keep a greater portion of the produce for export purposes as it would lead them to attain huge profits in comparison to what they would get by selling the produce in our own country. However, the economists and social well-wishers didn’t take long to take note of such wrong activities and tried to curb them instantly.
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While India was self-sufficient in food production, there was a vast portion of the population that was drowning in hunger and poverty, due to which the makers of law had to take care of what all was going wrong that the food of our country couldn’t reach our own people.
Soon after this specific committees and organizations were established that took action against all this. The people who were appointed to be in-charge of these committees had a major duty of keeping a strict check on the drawbacks and obstructions that lead to disturbances in the provision of food to the countrymen.
Many policies and new schemes were launched to maintain a track on the system of food security in India. One of these schemes were the buffer stock scheme, wherein the government regulated the food distribution and storage by keeping a certain amount of food grains safe in their storage houses so that this could be distributed amongst the public in tough times.
Along with such schemes, the public distribution system was also introduced wherein people belonging to the marginalized groups or below poverty line groups can have access to good quality food grains as well as other edible items of daily needs at an affordable price. Under this particular system, fair price shops were established in many areas where a majority of the poor population lived. Such shops still operate and are successful in their approach.
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Conclusion
India is a country that is self-sufficient in the aspect of food. Thankfully, we do not rely on other countries for most of our food requirements such as wheat, rice, spices, oil, fruits, vegetables, etc. We also export a lot of the portion of what we produce in our country. With the advancement in technology, better implements, schemes and methods are expected to support better results in the matter of food security and production.
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Author- Adesh Chaurasia
He is an active learner, author and speaker when it comes to the subject of national development through scientific and relational ways. He presents his knowledge about his line of work in such a simple yet engrossing manner that it reaches out to the people so as to enhance their knowledge and put it to good use.
