Food-for-all calls for renewed farm policies

Suresh Kumar

Suresh Kumar
Chief principal secretary to Punjab CM

Food for all has been the core premise of India’s food policy. Though successful in achieving self-sufficiency in foodgrains, the policy journey of the last 75 years has not been easy. Most of the challenges encountered by the country en route have been faced with determination, without letting the national integrity and sovereignty to get compromised.

Over 1.5 million starvation deaths in the Bengal Famine of 1943 had shaken the then quiescent Government of India that constituted a committee headed by Sir George Gregory, Economic Adviser, to suggest measures to remedy the situation. After Independence, new systems, structures and processes were evolved to prevent the repetition of the devastation of 1943. Comprehensive efforts made over the last seven decades fully reflect upon the country’s inviolable Ann Surakhsha Chakra which prevented starvation deaths, even if the country had to import foodgrains worth $4 billion under PL-480.

The Green Revolution was articulated as a major move forward by the national policy planners, researchers, scientists and agriculturists to increase foodgrain production and productivity by introducing new agricultural practices and technologies like the high-yielding variety (HYV) of seeds. Punjab, including the present Haryana and Himachal, was the first state selected for the Green Revolution in 1961 because of the availability of quality soil, water, and of course, its dynamic farmers.

Efforts to stimulate the Green Revolution and reach its benefits to the deserving populations comprised higher input subsidies; the establishment of institutions such as the FCI, Seed Corporations, Commodity Boards, and APMCs; government procurement of foodgrains at MSP; building buffer stocks; formulation and reformulation of PDS, TPDS, RPDS and enactment of laws such as the Essential Commodities Act, the Prevention of Hoarding and Black Marketing Act and the NFSA, 2013. A number of schemes aimed at food security were also introduced across the states with varying degrees of success. Some of these are the Midday Meal, Antyodaya, Annapurna and the recent Poshan Abhiyaan.

Food policy reforms attempted through repeated reiterations and updations to suit contextual requirements across the nation have yielded positive outcomes. The production of foodgrains increased: wheat — from 6.46 million tonnes in 1947 to 99.70 million tonnes in 2017; and rice — from 20.58 million tonnes in 1947 to 112.91 million tonnes in 2017. The agricultural productivity also increased during this period: wheat — 663 kg/hectare (1951) to 3,216 kg/hectare (2017); rice — 668 kg/hectare (1951) to 2,550 kg/hectare (2017). These achievements enabled the country to maintain comfortable buffer stocks of foodgrains with a substantial decrease in imports, ensuring a high degree of self-sufficiency and nearly affordable food prices. The per capita availability of food also increased: wheat — from 65.7 grams to 182.7 gm (1947-2017); and rice — from 158.9 gm to 183 gm (1947-2017).

There are, however, apprehensions that food security as obtaining today is not sustainable. And poverty still remains a key aspect of it. Accelerated climate change is also threatening the present agricultural practices and operations. The Green Revolution, though successful, has not been fully inclusive. Despite the rise in food production, many regions and vulnerable populations of the country still remain food deficit and poor with lower growth and primitive agriculture. Only six per cent of agricultural assets in Punjab, including land, are owned by the Dalits (32%) and the participation of women (45%), both in asset ownership and labour force, is about 20 per cent.

Rising food subsidies are not sustainable. The food subsidy increased from Rs 6,066 crore in 1997 to Rs 1,35,172.96 crore in 2017 and the fertiliser subsidy was Rs 79,996 crore in the Union Budget for 2019-20. The water and energy subsidies vary from state to state. In Punjab alone, they are over Rs 6,000 crore per annum.

Poverty continues to be a key aspect of food security and it refuses to relent. There are about 360 million poor in the country. However, as per the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the number of poor is 645 million, about 55 per cent of the total population. Poverty levels are the highest among India’s tribal population (81.4 per cent), followed by Dalits (65.8 per cent) and Other Backward Classes (58.3 per cent). The poverty level among the rest of the population is 33.3 per cent.

Reduced crop and biodiversity in the post-Green Revolution era is threatening the country’s nutrition security. A substantial segment of our population is susceptible to many serious ailments with increased carbohydrates and reduced proteins in their daily diet. Of the 360 million poor in the country, over 300 million are malnourished. The problem is further accentuated with the adverse ecological impact of the present agricultural operations. Increased greenhouse gas emissions and depletion of natural resources — soil and water — are clearly discernible and these cannot be ignored any more.

The farm prosperity achieved through the green revolution is being negated by debt stress and impaired financial remuneration. As per the All-India Rural Debt and Investment Survey, 1961-62, the average debt per cultivator in Punjab and India was Rs 1,288 and Rs 719. As per the 70th round of the National Sample Survey Office, the average debt per cultivator in 2012 was Rs 21,6524 for Punjab and Rs 1,53,640 for India.

The positive outcome of the policies so far cannot be undermined. However, the negative effects are more pronounced now, with miseries of the farmers rising. The policies, processes, and structures thus need to be reformulated and updated to mitigate the negative impact and improve the quality of food security to make it more sustainable before the Ann Chakra becomes vicious and violable.

In this endeavour, the food policy narrative should first be changed from aggregate production to more diversified high-value quality crops through climate-resilient methodologies and practices for better remunerative prices and farm incomes. The policy should aim at market and trade reforms, agricultural practices that are cost-effective, use less chemical and pesticide, and are more inclusive in terms of women and youth farmers, small farmers and rainfed areas. Intense interaction between food policy and other non-agricultural macro policies impacting factors like the economy, urbanisation, investments and climate change is a sine qua non to execute and achieve the new ways of agriculture.

Such transformation in agriculture can be targeted with renewed measures like repurposing of subsidies from inputs to livelihood improvement, direct income support and carbon credits; structural reforms in institutions of governance and those impacting agricultural market; diversification of agriculture from being cereal based to non-cereals and high-value crops besides development of allied and subsidiary occupations; value addition and development of a supply chain comprising farming, wholesaling, warehousing, logistics, processing and retailing (farmer producer organisations, cooperatives); improved regulation and targeting of food distribution for the vulnerable populations; deregulation and promotion of private trading and marketing in agriculture and mitigation of the impact of accelerated climate change by enhancing capital investment in water conservation and intelligent irrigation systems, and research and development. Naturalisation of agriculture surely deserves greater attention.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation has emphasised the need to enhance the technical capacity of farmers to enable them to adapt to climate smart conservation agriculture. Risk mitigation of farmers and investors in food processing and development supply chain should also be catered through innovative farm-based crop insurance; price deficiency support; and investment protection even through the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency of the World Bank.

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