Role of India in Global Food Security
Blogs Home
- 15 Nov 2023
Global food security, as defined by the United Nations, means ensuring that all people have access to sufficient and nutritious food for a healthy life. India plays a crucial role in this domain. It involves producing enough high-quality, safe food and ensuring its constant availability. This requires effective agricultural support, transportation, distribution systems, and resource stability. Sustainable practices are essential to protect the environment.
Global food security is a complex issue, encompassing the entire food cycle, from planting seeds to consumption. It faces challenges like climate change, domestic inflation, water scarcity, land degradation, and political and economic instability.
Organisations, governments, and societies are working to maintain and enhance food security, aligned with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 2 to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and ensure sustainable food production systems by 2030. India's significant contributions in terms of agricultural support are pivotal in achieving global food security.
Also, World Food Day, observed on October 16th annually, aims to raise awareness about global hunger and promote efforts to ensure food security for all. The day emphasizes the need for sustainable agriculture and equitable access to nutritious food. It provides a platform for governments, organizations, and individuals to address and find solutions to issues related to food production, distribution, and consumption. The overarching goal is to eliminate hunger and malnutrition worldwide. World Food Day serves as a reminder of the collective responsibility to work towards a world where everyone has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food.
India’s Role
India is vital for its position in food security worldwide. It not only contributes a significant amount of nutrition to the world but also aids in sharing research about sustainable efforts made to combat challenges like climate change. Some relevant mentions of India’s role in Global Food Security are:
- Agricultural production
Being one of the largest producers of agricultural commodities, India’s climatic zones help cultivate the land for a widespread range of crops. From rice to vegetables, wheat to dairy products, India adds to the availability of food on a global scale.
India has significantly expanded its food production, with a six-fold increase in food grain production from 50 million tonnes in 1950-51 to nearly 300 million tonnes in 2019-20. This growth has helped India transition from being a food-deficit nation to a self-sufficient food-producing country.
- Cost-effective strategies in research and development
India is one of the countries that invests in agricultural research and development. It experiments and develops methods to ensure high-yielding crop supply. It also dabbles in cost-effective strategies in farming.
- Food exports
India has diversified its food production and has become the world's largest producer of milk, pulses, horticulture, and livestock, as well as the top exporter of shrimp and spices globally. This has not only contributed to India's economy but also to global food security by providing a stable supply of food products.
- Buffer stock management
A grain reserve is strategically used to store food in the country. It ensures there is food during shortages or price fluctuations. Moreover, it helps to stabilise food prices worldwide and gives India the option to release stocks as and when necessary to curb shortage issues.
India's combination of laissez-faire and food-security-focused stockpile management minimizes the country's reliance on expensive grain imports and helps maintain stable food prices. This approach has been effective in ensuring food security within the country and can serve as a model for other nations.
A continuous participant in international forums on food security, India also engages in talks with the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the World Food Programme to facilitate in improving the global food security and engage in sustainable agricultural practices. Through these forums, India ensures it shares knowledge in fields of agriculture and productivity in food sectors. These knowledge systems help build structures that last longer.
Challenges to Global Food Security in India
India confronts several challenges to global food security:
- Population Growth: The burgeoning population in India has surged the demand for food. Bans on grain exports, like wheat and rice, have been imposed to ensure adequate domestic food supply.
- Climate Impact: Global warming has adversely affected land and biodiversity, crucial for food production. It has led to changes in pests, diseases, and crop-damaging disasters.
- Economic Shocks: Economic shocks have disrupted food supply and demand, driving people to sell lower-quality, expensive essentials. This is a leading cause of acute food insecurity in 22 countries, affecting up to 153.3 million people as per EU Science Hub report in 2023.
- Unemployment: Economic crises have led to job losses in the agricultural sector, undermining essential health and social services.
- Distribution Challenges: Natural and man-made calamities can disrupt food distribution. Landslides and limited access to remote areas lead to shortages, while wars cause price spikes and hinder crop growth.
These challenges, faced not only by India but many other countries, are integral to global food security. Despite the complexities, India is striving to address them, demonstrating its commitment to crisis management.
Government Initiatives for Ensuring Food Security
The Indian Government has taken steps in the right direction and embarked on necessary steps to ensure food security. Numerous initiatives are being taken like the National Food Security Act, 2013 and the National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) in 2011 to ensure utmost care and nutrition to its people.
Some of these initiatives are:
- Eat Right India Movement
The Food Standards and Security Act took it upon itself to transform the food system in India. The Eat Right Movement ensures safe, healthy and sustainable food for all with its tagline ‘Sahi bhojan, behtar jeevan.’ It adopts a “judicious mix of regulatory, capacity building, collaborative and empowerment approaches” to ensure it is sustainable for the planet and suitable for the people.
Eat Right Awards are instituted to recognise the contribution of the food industry to empower citizens to choose safer and healthier options. The FSSAI also encourages people to attend the Eat Right Mela which is an outreach activity for all citizens to remind them to eat right.
- POSHAN Abhiyan
The POSHAN Abhiyaan, initiated on March 8, 2018, strives to enhance the nutritional well-being of Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women, and Lactating Mothers within a specified timeframe. This is to be accomplished through a coordinated and outcome-focused strategy. Its primary focus is to decrease the stunting rate from 38.4% to 25% by 2022. - Food Fortification
To address issues of malnutrition and nutrient deficiency, the FSSAI recommends food fortification. It is declared as a scientifically proven and cost-effective way of ensuring that every food item has all the nutrients that matter. In 2016, the Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations were operationalised to reduce micronutrient malnutrition in India.
- National Food Security Act
In 2013, the Indian Parliament enacted the National Food Security Act with the aim of guaranteeing food and nutritional security throughout the various stages of human life. The primary goal is to make sure that individuals have affordable access to a sufficient quantity of high-quality food so that they can maintain a life of dignity. This legislation provides subsidised food grains through the Targeted Public Distribution System and ensures that each household receives adequate nutritional value.
These are just a few among many initiatives that the Government has taken to ensure food security. Moreover, with the rise of innovations in agricultural sectors in India, we are bound to make easier and more cost-effective methods soon.
India's Role in Assisting Other Nations During Crises
India is currently helping the people of Afghanistan with its humanitarian food assistance through the United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP). As per its commitment, it is sending approximately 50,000 MT of wheat to Afghanistan through Pakistan to help them tide over their crisis.
In the last few years, India has also assisted several other countries in Africa and the Middle East in times of natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic that brought doom upon many.
India has expanded food production and built up adequate safety stocks of food grains. India is now a net food exporter and stands ninth in being the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world.
With this unexpected boom in gains, India has transitioned from being a nutrient-deficit nation to one that is self-sufficient and can afford to export surplus products in just 30 years, much to the inspiration of many developing countries.
References:
- The Global Food Security Index. (n.d.). UNCCD. https://www.unccd.int/resources/knowledge-sharing-system/global-food-security-index#:~:text=About%20the%20Global%20Food%20Security
- Acharya, S. (2009). Food Security and Indian Agriculture: Policies, Production Performance and Marketing Environment* §. Agricultural Economics Research Review, 22(January - June). https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6689669.pdf
- India’s Role in Food Security. (2023, September 4). Drishti IAS. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/india-s-role-in-food-security
- National Food Security Act (NFSA). (n.d.). Dfpd.gov.in. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://dfpd.gov.in/nfsa.htm#:~:text=As%20passed%20by%20the%20Parliament
- FSSAI. (n.d.). Fssai.gov.in. https://fssai.gov.in/cms/fortified-food.php
- Nutrition and Food Security | United Nations in India. (n.d.). India.un.org. https://india.un.org/en/171969-nutrition-and-food-security
- https://www.financialexpress.com/policy/economy-india-key-in-paving-way-for-global-food-security-food-production-distribution-schemes-framework-exemplary-2790672/
- https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/09/03/craving-indias-food-security-success/
- https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/34885/Humanitarian_Assistance_to_Afghanistan
