Achieving food security in India: Need for an integrated approach

Abstract

Food security has been a major concern in India. Despite of the rapid economic growth and improvements in the productivity of major crops, food security for the bottom 30 percent of the population of India is an important challenge. Hunger, malnutrition, under nutrition are the main problems of the country. Food security and nutritional status of Indian population reveal that 7 million people are undernourished in India i.e. 14.5% of the world population, 4% of women in reproductive age between 15 to 49 years are anaemic, 4% of the children aged under five in India are stunted and 21% suffer from wasting. The Global Hunger Index 2016 ranks India at 97 out of 118 countries. India lag far behind in providing food security and in improving the nutritional status of people with low socio-economic status across the regions. One of the major issue in food security is the impact of climate change on agriculture. Crop production, horticulture, livestock, poultry, fisheries are likely to be affected by global warming, heat stress, cold, waves, water availability and monsoon variability. Thus, climate change can increase the prices of major staple crops in some regions of India and thus affecting availability and accessibility of food to people with low income. Changing climatic conditions could also create a vicious cycle of disease and hunger. In order to achieve food security, it is important that the poor have sufficient means to purchase food. About 60% of population depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Creating alternate livelihood options and reducing dependence on agriculture can support them. An integrated approach to meet food security is the need of the hour which should be both horizontal approach i.e. moving side-by-side focusing on promoting sustainability and resilience through management of natural resources-land, water, soils, trees and genetic resources, protection of land degradation, combating natural disasters, bio-diversity conservation along with vertical approach i.e. top-down and bottom-up strategies focusing on government interventions, opportunities for livelihood income generation, food value and supply chain, capacity building, knowledge services and coordination. Besides climate-resilient agricultural technologies, proper policy interventions, improved health of population can bring a change in the food security scenario of India.