India’s long way to food security

According to the latest Global Hunger Report, India continues to be a nation where hunger is “alarming”. It is most disappointing that despite high growth, the hunger index in India between 1996 and 2011 increased from 22.9 to 23.7. National Sample Survey Organisation data reveal that the average per capita food expenditure grew by only 0.2 per cent annually in rural India from 1993 to 2010 and fell slightly by 0.1 per cent per annum in the urban areas. At any given point in time, cereal intake of the bottom 20 per cent in rural India, who are engaged more in manual work, continues to be at least 20 per cent less than the cereal intake of the top tenth of the population, despite the rich enjoying better access to fruit, vegetables and meat products.

The national food security programme

Per capita availability, let alone consumption of food grains and other essential food products in India, is below the world average and significantly lower than in developed countries. Acknowledging the fact that the food is unaffordable for a large number of the poor in India, Parliament has approved the ordinance to implement the National Food Security (NFS) Act, which mandates to provide each person, including pregnant women, children and the poorest households, per month five kg of coarse cereals or wheat or rice at one, two and three Rupees (Rs) a kilogram respectively. The NFS Program would benefit an estimated 81 crore to 84 crore people (1 crore = 10 million). Around 62 million tons of food grains is expected to be distributed under the NFS Program via the country’s inefficient but massive network of about 500,000 ration shops under the existing Public Distribution System. The food subsidy under the NFS Program will cost the nation about Rs.131,000 crore a year, including Rs. 8,000 crore for incidentals like setting up food commissions at the Central and State levels and in setting up grievance redress mechanisms. Under the proposed legislation for food security, the Expert Committee has estimated procurement and distribution of not less than 63.98 million tons of food, rising to 73.98 million tons by 2016–17 against the likely procurement of 57.61 million tons in 2013–14. Against this background, it is obvious that agricultural productivity must be raised and food management efficiency be strengthened. But where are the key action areas?

What the second Green Revolution should look like

Integration of agricultural research, education and extension system to enhance the productivity and profitability per unit of resources deployed and money invested is considered a sine qua non. The emphasis has to be on productivity improvement (without impairing soil heath), the scope of which is vast since average yield for most crops in India is quite low compared to their potentials. Planned efforts are needed including adequate financial investment to develop high-yielding food-crop varieties that resist drought, floods and salinity.

While the first Green Revolution had its genesis in the seed-fertiliser-irrigation technology, the second Green Revolution should originate from radiation-induced mutation technique and biotechnology along with integrated nutrient, pest & water management technology. The International Atomic Energy Agency has called for increased investments in radiation-induced mutation techniques that help produce crop varieties with high yields and disease resistance that can grow in stressful conditions such as drought, flood and salinity. Such techniques have been in use since the 1920s, and more than 3,000 varieties of 170 different plant species have been released for cultivation.

Similarly, in recent years, biotechnology has created unprecedented opportunities and revolutionised research activities in the area of agriculture, e.g. plant tissue culture and genetic engineering, leading to transgenic plants carrying desirable traits like insect and herbicide resistance or an enhanced nitrogen fixing ability. India should, therefore, concentrate on inventing new seeds and planting material of various field crops through the application of new technologies.

Research institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and State Agricultural Universities should concentrate on developing agro-ecological, region-wise packages of improved practices for different crops which are yield-enhancing, cost-minimising, environment-friendly and economically viable (higher return on investment) and should demonstrate these proven advantages on farmers’ fields. For this purpose, State Agricultural Universities and the ICAR system can develop successful public-private-partnership models involving easy accessibility to production inputs (seeds, planting materials, fertilisers, pesticides) and farm equipment of approved quality on time and at reasonable price, scientific methods of cultivation, institutional credit and domestic and export markets. These successful models can later be replicated by the public and private system. Research should focus on food crops, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, milk, fish, eggs, broilers and meat, so that people can access nutritional and balanced food.

Innovative extension models needed

Agricultural extension has to be adequately strengthened organisationally and financially to support the chain of transfer of technology from the research institutions to farmers’ fields in a most cost-efficient manner. This calls for innovations in extension models. During the Twelfth Plan, Public Sector Broadcasting has a unique role to play in accelerating agricultural growth in India. Government’s past initiatives, e.g. successful pilot projects on Radio Farm Forum or the involvement of State Agricultural Universities in the dissemination of agricultural technology, should be reviewed, redesigned and expanded countrywide. Additionally, the Government’s policy and programmes must inform, educate and motivate farmers in geographically remote rural areas and widen and deepen the outreach of Public Sector Broadcasting.

Providing farmers with capital

Capital formation plays a profound role in building the production capacity of agriculture, although most projects supported by capital investment take years to express their potential. More importantly, public investment in critical areas stimulates private sector investment and accelerates the flow, efficiency and productivity of bank credit. To accelerate the process of agricultural growth and the agricultural growth rate, which significantly influences the country’s GDP and reduces poverty, substantial capital formation in agriculture supported by public and private sectors is a sine qua non in areas such as the development of irrigation, or warehousing.

Making more efficient use of public funds

As decentralisation efforts are pushed and local bodies are given more prominence in basic service delivery, the establishment of accountability mechanisms becomes critical. Capacity of local bodies to identify local priorities through participatory budgeting and planning needs to be strengthened. This, in turn, would improve the rural investment climate, facilitating the involvement of the private sector and creating employment opportunities and linkages between farm and non-farm sectors.
Despite large expenditure in agricultural and rural development, a highly centralised bureaucracy with low accountability and inefficient use of public funds limits their impact on agricultural development and poverty alleviation. In 1992, India amended its Constitution to create three tiers of democratically elected Panchyati Rai Institutions (PRIs), bringing governance down to the villages. However, the transfer of authority, funds and functionaries to these local bodies is progressing slowly for various reasons. The local level PRIs must be empowered to contribute to shaping public programmes and make them accountable.

Appropriate legal framework and independent authorities

Since land, water and energy are limited, scarce, costly and in demand for both urbanisation, industrialisation and meeting farming needs, appointing an independent, professionally run Regulatory and Development Authority to oversee these resources in totality and developing an appropriate legal framework, mechanism and procedure to deal with existing and emerging issues is becoming increasingly important. Farm productivity improvement depends significantly upon the use of inputs such as seed, fertiliser, and machinery which have necessarily to be of standard quality, available on time and at a reasonable price. Here, a Regulatory and Development Authority is needed to consider the legal framework, mechanism and procedure to ensure that farmers are guaranteed to receive such farm inputs.
State Government initiatives to computerise land records have reduced transaction costs and increased transparency. While all States need to strengthen and streamline the land records system through computerisation in a planned manner during the Twelfth Plan, institutional weaknesses revealed in the computerised system must be addressed.

More efficient food management

Past experiences reveal that the cost of food production, procurement, transport, storage and distribution has significantly increased, and an inefficient food management system has resulted in huge wastage, pilferages and very poor food quality. In particular, the problem of persistent inadequate storage facilities leading to huge wastage of precious food accompanied by the corrupt public distribution system encouraging black-marketing and food inflation has to be seriously addressed by policy-makers, emphasising policy-implementation with total commitment, good governance, accountability and a grievance redress mechanism.
According to one expert grains trade analyst, grains procured at Rs. 13.50 /kg would ultimately cost Rs. 39.50/kg since additional costs would be incurred towards procurement incidentals, e.g. local taxes, bagging or transport to local warehouses. Thus, the subsidy amount just doubles to 192 per cent. So it is necessary to develop effective systems, methods and procedures through policy intervention and programmes that can produce a sufficient annual amount of food grains, also under frequent drought and floods in some parts of the country, facilitate the estimated level of procurement and safe storage in each State, create additional facilities for quick and cost-efficient transport, processing and storage and redesign the public distribution system and transparent grievance redress mechanism.

The long-term perspective

The issue of national food security would have to be addressed in light of the continuous growth of population, gradual depletion and degradation of natural resources, diversion of land and water to non-agricultural uses, production of biofuels from grains, emergence of second generation problems, market fluctuations, a changing agricultural trade regime, farmers’ income etc. having brought concerns of agricultural sustainability centre stage. Two decades of stagnant public capital formation has significantly weakened the foundation of public infrastructure necessary for sustainable agriculture. Compared to the 1960s, today’s agricultural producers are faced with a more or less open trade regime and far greater international competition. And the natural resource base is shrinking due to declining farm-size and environmental degradation because of prioritising and concentrating on accelerated farm production.

The task now is not merely to achieve a satisfactory growth rate in agriculture but also to impart greater stability to production through constant improvements in productivity and profitability, developing post-harvest technology and its management and creating processing and safe storage facilities, and equitable distribution, focusing sharply on food and livelihood security. The country’s growth processes have above all put huge pressure on its natural resources. The Government’s policy should, therefore, focus on developing sustainable technologies that can produce more from less, particularly given the new challenges of global warming and climate change. Ecological and agricultural sustainability should go hand in hand. In this process, fundamental principles of sustainable agriculture such as a live soil, protection of biodiversity, and precision farming and the nutrient cycle must be acknowledged.

Dr Amrit Patel
New York/USA
dramritpatel(at)yahoo.com

About the author: Dr Amrit Pratel works as international consultant on “Rural Credit & Micro-finance” in India, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh and Uganda, with projects funded by World Bank, Asian Development Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development. He previously worked as research officer with the Department of Agriculture and as Assistant Professor with Gujarat Agricultural University. He also served the international Commercial Bank of Baroda for 25 years and retired as Deputy General Manager (Rural Banking & Credit).