Food Security

Dr Vishiesh Verma
World celebrates Food day on 16th October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. Indian Parliament passed National Security Act (NFSA) in 2013. NFSA is an outcome of remarkable public and judicial action battle of over decades to secure freedom from hunger for millions who had not gained from India’s emergence as a major economy. Since jurisprudence on the right to food flows from Article 21 of the constitution, on the right to life and liberty, the right to food should be available to all persons.
With all its inadequacies the Act is still seen by many as a final assault on the unconscionable hunger that has stalked the countryside and urban slums. Over two thirds or more than 820 million Indians came under its ambit.
The agriculture policy of the country has been such that it benefits only rich farmers and the so called trickle down effect has not happened to the poor farmers. One third of the farmers are still landless and another one third small and marginal farmers. Weather also plays an important role for their livelihood. The so called price stabilization mechanism like minimum support price, largely benefits big farmers even though it is meant to help poor farmers. To cite an example, 65% of marketable surplus in food grains in the country is produced by top 10% of the farmers. As a result higher MSP for Wheat and rice benefits only the rich and not the poor farmers. Also it leads to food inflation adding to the woes of marginal and landless farmers. This is why 99% of Indian farmers live in desperate poverty. The truth is that there are no jobs left available for the villagers and this is why millions of small farmers migrate to cities every year in search of work. MNREGA was meant to have stopped this but unfortunately it has not.
Newspaper Hindu reported on 06/05/2015 that Rs 2800 crores was granted to Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) since its launch in 2007 to be spent to generate growth in agriculture and allied sectors. The amount remained unspent upto 2013. This shows the absolute negligence of agriculture. During 1995-2010, over 2, 50,000 poor farmers in India committed suicide.
According to the FAO more than 20,000 children under the age of five die from hunger everyday. Shocking as it may seem, one in every seven people in the world go to bed hungry. In our own country where lakhs of people lack adequate nutrition and face starvation, it is a crying shame that food grains, vegetables and fruits go waste costing Rs 44,000 crores annually for want of proper infrastructure of storage.
There are no two opinions about the importance of food for an individual. It is the basic necessity of Life. Indian Philosophical thought says, ‘Annam Brahamma’ for an individual it is as important as God which is a  Life saving mantra. So one needs to think before eating what to eat and how much it is to be eaten. Fresh, locally produced according to body requirements, health needs food can contribute maximum benefits to human beings. That is why, it is said, ‘Think, eat and save’. It is a campaign that is against food waste and food loss and encourages billions around the globe to reduce their food print.
Let there be no time gap between purchasing and consumption. The fresh fruits and vegetables have more food value than the stale ones.
The Universal Declaration on the eradication of hunger and malnutrition of 1974 was the grave food crisis that is afflicting the peoples of the developing countries where most of the world’s hungry and ill nourished live and where more than two thirds of the world’s population produce about one third of the world’s food, an imbalance which threatens to increase in the coming years and it is fraught with grave consequences.
The declaration further stated that efforts to increase food production should be complemented by every endeavour to prevent wastage of food in all its forms. The FAO has estimated that nearly 30% of the population suffer from some kind of malnutrition and forced to eat the stale food just for the sake of survival. Let there be no wastage of food. Efforts to increase food production should be complemented by Endeavour to prevent wastage of food in all its forms.
The Food and Agricultural organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that 32% of all food produced in the world was lost or wasted in 2009. When converted into calories, global food loss and waste amounts to 24% of all food produced.
Economically, food loss is investment wasted that can reduce farmers income and increase consumer’s expenses. It also means inefficiently used water and land which can lead to diminished natural eco systems. In India, wheat worth Rs 5 crore and rice worth 40 crore lost a year. 17,546 tones of food grain in ware houses owned by the food corporation of India (FCI) were damaged between 2009 and 2012.
Food Wastage takes place at several levels in several forms before it reaches its final product stage:
Wastage during harvesting, Wastage during storage (every year food grains are stored in the open by Food Corporation of India), Wastage during preparation, Wastage while serving. Plenty of food is wasted in Hotels, Weddings, and Railways etc.
Our religious and social functions also encourage surplus preparation and surplus consumption. One is doing a disservice to his own body by consuming more food than necessary.
Gandhi Ji said,”The earth has enough to satisfy every one’s need but not enough to satisfy greed. Avoiding all forms of wastage of food is an imperative for food security.”
(The writer is a former Reader Coordinator of University of Jammu.)
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