Food Security in India : Policies & Challenges

Food security is one of the major components of social security. It consists of ensuring that food is available at all times, that all persons have means of and access to it, that it is nutritionally adequate in terms of quantity, quality and variety, and that it is acceptable within the given culture. There are three elements in this definition, availability, access and suitability. In recent years, nutrition has been considered as part of food security. The National Development Council (NDC) in its 53rd meeting held on May 29, 2007 adopted a resolution to launch a Food Security Mission -- comprising rice, wheat and pulses -- to increase the production of rice by 10 million tons, wheat by 8 million tons and pulses by 2 million tons by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12). Accordingly, a Centrally-sponsored scheme, viz. National Food Security Mission (NFSM) was launched from 2007-08 to operationalise the above mentioned resolution. National Food Security Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 22 December 2011. As per the provisions of the Bill, it is proposed to provide 7 kilograms of foodgrains per person per month belonging to priority households at prices not exceeding 3 per kilogram of rice, 2 per kilogram of wheat, and 1 per kilogram of coarse grains and to general households not less than 3 kilogram of foodgrains per person per month at prices not exceeding 50 percent of the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and coarse grains and derived MSP for rice. The present volume consists of 15 research papers on the subject of food security, contributed by scholars in the field. The issues raised in different papers add constructively to the current debate on this sensitive subject of national importance.