The Monthly Journal

Kurukshetra
MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Vol. 62 No. 1 Pages 52
November 2013

CHIEF EDITOR
Rajesh K. Jha
CONTENTS
Senior Editor
KAPIL KUMAR
Editor Supply-Side Challenges of
Maruf Alam The National Food Security Bill S. P. Singh 3
Joint Director
Vinod Kumar Meena
Food Security Vs Farmer Security Dr. Parveen Kumar 9
COVER DESIGN
ASHA SAXENA Hurdles in implementing Food Security Bill Dr. Arabi. U, Ramya H.D 12
EDITORIAL OFFICE
ROOM NO. 661, NIRMAN BHAVAN Food Security A Remedy for malnutrition K.N. Tiwari 19
A-WING (GATE NO.5),
MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT,
NEW DELHI-110011 Worlds Largest Experiment to Feed Millions Dr. Archana Sinha 24
TEL. : 23061014, 23061952
FAX : 011-23061014 Food Security in India - Issues and Concerns Santhosh Kumar.H 28
E-MAIL : kurupage@yahoo.co.in
FOR SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES,
RENEWALS AND AGENCY Making Food Security Work Anumpam Sarma 30
INFORMATION
PLEASE CONTACT: Gene Revolution-Solution for Food Crisis Dr B.K Mohanty 33
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EAST BLOCK-IV, LEVEL-VII, R.K. PURAM, Water Management and food Security Dasharath Prasad
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TEL. : 26100207 Rakesh Kumar 38
FAX : 26175516
E-MAIL : pdjucir@gmail.com
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for livelihood security Yerasu Suresh Reddy
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 Inside
I
ndia has joined the league of countries who guarantee majority of its population
food grains. The government has passed the much awaited National Food Security
Bill which will ensure legal food entitlement to 75 per cent of the rural population
and 50 per cent of the urban population, across the country, at reasonably cheaper
price.
The scheme provides for distribution of rice at Rs. 3 per kilogram, wheat at Rs. 2 and
coarse grains at Re. 1, per person.

The Food Security programme, the largest in the world, guarantees the countrys
810 million poor, coarse grains, such as sorghum, pearl millet or bajra, and finger millet
or ragi, at 1 per kg. These coarse cereals are rich in minerals, especially, micronutrients
It is estimated that around 62 million tones of food grains will be needed each
year to implement the programme at a cost of over One lakh crore Rupees.
The implementation of such a programme has its own problems- relating to
both supply and distribution and the ability of Indias agriculture to cope with the
demands. We discuss the supply side of the Food Security programme and other
issues including the hurdles which the government could face to implement the
ambitious programme.
The success of the Food Security programme would also be measured by the
proportion of eligible households that actually benefit from the bill, especially in states
with a large Below Poverty Line (BPL) population.
While the programme would be affordable in the current financial year,
concern has been raised by some on the fiscal pressure the spending could have
on Indias budget, in the years ahead.
It has also been argued by some analysts that growing subsidies could restrict
investment opportunities, including those in the agriculture sector.
However, there is unanimous opinion amongst policy planners and analysts that
the Food Security programme is needed, whatever the cost.
Ideally, the bill will be able to protect everyone from hunger and can make a
significant contribution to the elimination of under nutrition in the country.
The Food Security Bill has provision of free nutritious meals to children and
pregnant and lactating women which gives a paradigm shift in imparting nutrition
security. 

2 Kurukshetra November 2013

 Supply-side Challenges of the National Food
Security Bill
S. P. Singh
R emoval of malnutrition and hunger from the
country is not only socially desirable but also
necessary for improving overall economic
development, as healthy people contribute more
to the economy with their relatively higher level of
productivity and efficiency. Hunger and malnutrition
put enormous cost burden on the society. A World
Bank Report states that malnutrition brings down
three percent of countrys GDP annually. Various
survey reports indicate that in spite of relatively
higher GDP growth achieved during the neo-liberal
policy regime, hunger and malnutrition among a
majority of Indian population still persists. National
Family Health Survey (2005-06) reveals that the
percentage of aneamic ever-married women in the
age group 15-49 has increased from 53.9 in 1998-99
to 58.2 in 2005-06 in rural areas and from 45.7 to
51.5 in urban area.
Similarly, percentage of aneamic children
has also increased from 75.3 to 81.2 in rural areas
and 70.8 to 72.7 in urban area between the same
periods. The International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI) report on hunger ranks India at 67
Kurukshetra November 2013
out of 81 countries, slightly above Bangladesh and
below all other South Asian countries. In Global Food
Security Index, India ranks 66 out of 105 countries.
It is in this context that the National Food Security
Bill (NFSB) assumes significance as it gives legal right
to subsidised food grain to 67% of Indias population
(75% of rural and 50% of urban households) and also
makes provision for nutritious meal to pregnant and
lactating mothers and children. Assuming no leakages
in the distribution system, we can argue that the
demand-side constraints in the food accessibility of
the intended beneficiaries would largely be removed
after the execution of the NFSB. However, supply-
side constraints may have serious implications for
maintaining the food security. This paper, therefore,
focuses on the supply-side challenges of the NFSB.
An Overview of NFSB
In recent years, the Government of India has
taken several initiatives towards ensuring rights and
entitlements of citizens of the country. The NFSB is
one of them. Its objective is to provide for food and
nutritional security in human life cycle approach,
3
3
by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality
food at affordable prices to people to live a life with
dignity.
It provides legal guarantee to 75% of rural and
50% of the urban population to get five kg food
grains per month at Rs.3, Rs.2, Re1 per kg for rice,
wheat and coarse grains, respectively. The poorest
of the poor continue to be covered under Antyodaya
Anna Yajana (AAY) and get 35 kgs food grains per
month. It also makes provision for pregnant women
and lactating mothers to get nutritious meals and
maternity benefit of at least Rs.6000 for six months.
As per the NSSO survey 2009-10, monthly per capita
consumption of cereals was about 11.35 kgs in rural
and 9.37 kgs in urban areas. Thus, the NFSB meets
approximately 50 percent of cereal requirement of
eligible households. `The bill also empowers women
as it considers the eldest woman in the household (18
years or above) as the head of the household for the
issue of the ration card. The state and district level
redress mechanisms will also be put in place and
provision of social audit and vigilance committees
will be made to ensure accountability, transparency
and quick redressal of grievances. The State Food
Commission will also be set up. The Bill also stresses
on revitalization of agriculture and food production
and universal access to safe drinking water and
sanitation.
The Planning Commission of India has estimated
state-wise coverage of rural and urban households
under the NFSB. The percentage of eligible households
varies across states. For example, among the major
states of India, the percentage of rural households
to be covered under the Bill is highest in Jharkhand
(86.48%), followed by Bihar (85.12%), Chhattisgarh
(84.25%), Assam (84.17%) and Odisha (82.17). It is
estimated to be lowest in Kerala (52.63%), followed
by Haryana (54.61%), Punjab (54.79%), Himachal
Pradesh (56.23%) and Tamil Nadu (62.55%). The
percentage coverage of urban households will be
highest in Bihar (74.53%), distantly followed by Uttar
Pradesh (64.43%), Madhya Pradesh (62.61%), Assam
(60.35%), Jharkhand (60.20%), and Chhattisgarh
(59.98%). It would be lowest in Himachal Pradesh
(30.99%), followed by Tamil Nadu (37.79%), Kerala
(39.50%), Haryana (41.05%) and Andhra Pradesh
(41.14%). This clearly shows that relatively developed
states would get less number of households covered
under the NFSB.
Current PDS in most of the states is not found
working efficiently. Planning Commission estimated
that about 45-55% of food grains under the PDS
did not reach to the intended beneficiaries. This
4 Kurukshetra
Bill is expected to seal leakages in the food delivery
system through technological and administrative
interventions, such as, use of Aadhaar Card and
setting up of new accountability, transparency and
grievance redressal system. Moreover, since more
than two-third of Indian population, including non-
poor, get legal right to have cheap food grains from
the PDS, possibility of leakages and supply of poor
quality of food grains may be minimized due to
their collective power and action. However, major
challenge in the execution of the Bill seems to be the
identification of eligible households. Under the NFSB,
responsibility of selection of beneficiaries is given to
the state governments which have to finalise the list
of eligible households in each village and town. As
has been happened in the past, this time also, there
may be possibility of exclusion of eligible households
or inclusion of non-eligible households. An Expert
Group headed by N C Saxena estimated that 61% of
the eligible population was excluded from the BPL
list, while 25% of APL households were included in
the list.
Approximately 62 million tonnes of cereals
is required to implement the NFSB. In the
current financial year (2013-14), under the TPDS
(AAY+BPL+APL) the government has allocated nearly
50 million tonnes (MT) of cereals (rice and wheat).
Out of the total annual allocation, 10.22 MT was
made under AAY and 17.46 MT under BPL. Thus,
under the current arrangement, only 27.68 MT
of cereals was distributed at the much subsidized
rates. In 20013-14, economic cost of rice and wheat
is estimated to be Rs.2643.61 and Rs.2010.22 per
quintal, respectively. It means that the direct cost
of providing one kg of rice and wheat under the
TPDS to the government would be Rs.23.44 and
Rs.18.10, respectively. The additional procurement
as a result of the NFSB will not only put enormous
pressure on the existing infrastructure of the FCI
but also constantly increase the financial burden
on the government exchequer. Even if the quantity
of food remains the same each year, the amount of
food subsidy will increase annually due to increase
in the cost of food production, distribution and
management. Economic cost of food grains can be
reduced if the TPDS is decentralised and efficient,
transparent and inclusive delivery system is put in
place.
One of the reasons for monthly distribution of
cereals under PDS was that poor households did not
have the sufficient purchasing power to buy cereals
for the entire season. Therefore, under the current
PDS, food grains are released and distributed under
November 2013
 the PDS on monthly basis. Since, under the NFSB,
the eligible households would get rice/wheat/
coarse cereals at the rate of Rs.3/2/1, respectively,
there would be no difficulty to them if they buy
their allotted quota six monthly. For example, if an
eligible household in North India purchases 150
kgs of wheat (its six month quota), only Rs. 300 will
be paid. This amount can easily be earned through
two days manual work. Problem of storing of huge
quantity of cereals by the FCI may be solved if food
grains are distributed under the TPDS twice in a year
at the time of Rabi and Kharif harvesting.
One of the key issues is that this Bill does not
have exit-clause. Only issue prices are supposed to
be revised after three years. Our past experiences
show that if someone is used to enjoy the benefits
of any scheme, it is hard to withdraw it. The same
argument may be valid for the NFSB. It would be
difficult, if not impossible, to withdraw it even after
hunger and malnutrition are completely removed
from the country.
The implementation of the Bill may create
mismatch between demand and supply of cereals
in the economy. Since more than one-fourth of
total cereals will be sold through the TPDS at the
subsidized rates, there would be possibility of
diversion of cheap cereals towards cattle and poultry
feeds and thus can distorts the market. Moreover,
small and marginal farmers may shift to non-cereal
crops as their requirement may be met from the
NFSB. It is also feared that agriculture would face
shortage of workers as the Bill may motivate the
agricultural workers not to work as their food
requirement will be easily met through TPDS. In
some regions, farmers have already feeling the heat
of increasing real agricultural wages mainly due to
implementation of MGNREGS. Labour cost is one of
the most important components of variable cost of
cultivation. In recent years, real wages in agriculture
has increased faster than the real growth in gross
value added in agriculture. During the last five year
period (2007-11), real farm wages recorded an
average annual growth rate of 6.8 percent, while real
growth in agriculture was only 3.3 percent.
Supply-side Challenges
The NFSB has several challenges, such as,
identification of eligible households, huge subsidy
burden on the government exchequer, and volatility
in food grains production and prices. Our focus here
is on the supply-side challenges of the NFSB. As
reported by the NSSO surveys, direct consumption
of cereals has declined over the period due to
changes in the dietary pattern of the people. With
Kurukshetra November 2013
the increase in income, people diversify their
consumption towards high income elastic livestock
and horticultural products. For instance, share
of food grains in the total food expenditure has
declined from 47.4% in 1987-88 to 36% in 2009-
10 in rural areas and from 32.6% to 29% in urban
areas, whereas, share of dairy products, eggs, meat,
fish, and vegetables has increased from 26.7% to
34.1% in rural areas and from 32.6% to 36.4% in
urban areas during the same period. This makes a
strong argument that the food security should not
be limited to the accessibility of food grains but it
should be extended to the availability of livestock
and horticultural commodities. In this regards, two
points may be taken into consideration. First, poor
households get more calories from cereals than
non-cereal food items. Table 1 shows that bottom
10 percent rural and urban households in India in
2009-10 met respectively 72.7 and 66.4 percent of
their calorie requirement from cereals, while the
corresponding percentages for the top 10 percent
households were 47.4 and 34.6 respectively in rural
and urban areas. The table shows that there is
wide difference between rich and poor in regard of
the per capita calories consumption. For example,
bottom 10% households in rural and urban areas
consume only 1619 and 1584 calories, respectively,
while the corresponding calories intakes in case
of top 10 percent households are 2473 and 2511,
respectively. This implies that poor households
consume much less calories than the minimum
prescribed norms. This makes a strong case for the
implementation of NFSB. Second, diversification
of dietary pattern towards meat, poultry, milk and
other livestock products would increase the indirect
demand for cereals for feed grains. Since over 67%
of population will be covered under the TPDS, the
direct or indirect consumption of cereals may likely
to increase in future, raising further demand for
cereals and consequently their prices.
Table 1: MPCE Decile Class-wise per capita
calorie intake and share of cereal in total calorie
intake in India in 2009-10
MPCE Per Capita Calorie Share of cereals in
Decile intake Calorie intake (%)
Class Rural Urban Rural Urban
1 1619 1584 72.7 66.4
2 1795 1773 68.6 61.6
3 1901 1872 66.5 58.3
4 1994 1964 65.1 56.2
5 2072 2029 62.5 53.8
5
5
 6 2131 2134 61.4 51.8
7 2247 2195 59.5 48
8 2315 2311 57.3 46.2
9 2473 2511 54.4 41.7
10 2922 2855 47.4 34.6
Source: NSSO 66th Round 2009-10
There are several supply-side bottlenecks in
the food security of the country. First is declining
the productivity of land and rising input cost in
agriculture. The chemicalization of agriculture has
not only degraded the precious land and water
resources, but also affected the land productivity and
quality of agricultural products. There is increasing
tendency of abandoning of agriculture by farmers
as it is no longer considered to be a profitable and
respectable occupation. Agricultural workforce has
been becoming more ageing and more feminized.
How to attract educated youths (both males and
females) in farming activities, especially in doing
innovations in agricultural practices needed for
raising productivity per unit of labour, land, water
and other inputs, is a major supply-side concern. Due
to knowledge-deficit in agriculture, there is a huge
productivity gap between what the technologist gets
in the experimental farm and what a farmer gets on
his farm. Therefore, price policy driven agricultural
growth may not be sustainable if it is not properly
integrated with technological breakthrough.
The NFSB ensures quality food to the eligible
households. Quality food cannot be possible
through the on-going process of chemicalization of
agriculture. We have to promote organic farming
not only to provide safe and quality food but also to
maintain soil fertility, water quality, and reduce non-
point sources of pollution of water bodies. Organic
farming could be a viable option if government
supports farmers by protecting their farm income,
developing marketing infrastructure, putting in place
the institution of certification, quality checking, and
branding, and training. Agriculture is getting huge
amount of direct or indirect subsidies. At least one-
third of these subsidies can be directed towards
promotion of organic farming. Keeping in view the
negative externalities that the conventional farming
has generated in terms of soil and water pollution
and public health cost, the organic farming would be
more cost-effective than the conventional farming.
Another critical issue in food security is
increasing use of land and water resources for
non-agricultural purposes. During the last two
6 Kurukshetra
decades, area under non-agricultural purposes has
increased from 21.087 million hectares (Mha) in
1990-91 to 26.513 Mha in 2010-11, a net increase
of 5.42 Mha. Contrary to this, net cultivated area
(NCA) has declined from 143.999 Mha to 141.579
Mha during the same period. Similarly, the share
of non-agricultural sector in the total water use
has increased from about 6 percent during 1983-
87 to about 9.6 percent during 2008-12. In future,
due to fast urbanisation and industrialization, there
would be more demand for land and water for non-
agricultural uses, thus having serious implications for
future food security. Moreover, regional disparity in
the availability of land and water resources is also an
issue in this context. Water and land both are the key
drivers of agricultural growth. These two inputs are
unevenly distributed across states. In some states,
there is sufficient area of arable land but there
is acute shortage of water (for instance western
region) and therefore per hectare productivity is
quite low. On the other hand, in some part of the
country, there is sufficient quantity of water, but
size of operational holding is too small to introduce
modern farm practices (for example eastern region).
Government of India has special focus on agricultural
development of eastern states and wants to make
this region as a future food bowl of the country.
There is no physical scarcity of water in this region;
however economic scarcity of water along with
natural factors, such as, flood limits the scope of
potential increase in food production. On the other
hand, in northern state like Punjab, which supplies
both wheat and rice to national pool, water has
become a scarce input due to its overexploitation.
Punjab transfers huge quantity of virtual water to
others states by supplying cereals to the central
pool.
In recent years, food prices have significantly
increased, making food items unaffordable to poor
households, and at the same times, agricultural
income has not increased in commensurate with
the increase in the cost of cultivation, consequently
increasing distress among farmers. Increasing
energy prices have made agricultural production
more expensive via raising the production and
transportation costs. Agricultural diversification
and rising energy prices have significant impact
on the food security. A high growth in horticulture
and livestock products may not improve nutritional
status of the common masses as they have little or
no access to fruits and livestock products. Secondly,
increasing consumption of highly income-elastic
food products such as meat and dairy products also
November 2013
 increases the demand for cereals for feed-grains and
thus cereals prices, affecting the poor households.
If more quantity of grains is diverted towards
production of meat and dairy products, less quantity
would be available for common masses for direct
consumption. The NFSB is likely to increase both
direct and indirect demands for cereals.
Increasing energy prices would also affect the
food security. Energy prices affected the food prices
in two ways: First, rising prices of petroleum products
motivates the government and corporate sector to
go for producing bio-fuels. Although, in India, grains
are not being used to produce ethanol, however, its
possibility in future cannot be ruled out. If you look at
the trends in developed countries, you will find that
indirect demand for cereals (feed-grains and fuel-
grains) is much higher than the direct demand. The
increasing production of bio-fuel reduces the global
availability of food grains for consumption and thus
raises the food prices. Second, increasing energy
prices makes agricultural production more expensive
via raising the cost of mechanical cultivation, inputs
like fertilizers and pesticides, and transportation of
inputs and outputs. It may be relevant to note that
the share of mechanical and electrical power in the
total power consumption has significantly increased
from 39.63% in 972-73 to 86.6% in 2005-06, while
corresponding share human and animal power
has come down from 60.37% to 13.4% during the
same period. Energy intensification in agriculture
has increased the external cost of agricultural
production.
Another most critical issue in context of food
security is diversion of cultivated land towards
wood farming. High GDP growth is leading to
increase consumption of wood and wood products
like furniture, timber, pulp & paper. Recently, some
farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh, and plains of Uttarakhand have
been gradually shifting towards cultivation of poplar
trees which is turned out to be more remunerative
than the crop husbandry. It is expected that in future
more land would be brought under cultivation of
poplar trees due to various reasons, including labour
shortage, low profitability in crop husbandry, and
increasing absentee land owners. Increasing indirect
demand for cereals and declining areas under
cultivation may create mismatch between supply
and demand and generate inflationary pressure and
consequently the fiscal burden on the government.
Volatility in food systems due to exogenous
shocks from weather related events or instability
Kurukshetra November 2013
in international markets may compromise our food
security. If India decides to enter in the world market
as a bulk importer of food, international prices would
increase to a greater extent, thus jeopardizing our
food security.
Summing Up
Given the current trend in the productivity
levels with growing pressure on water and land,
it would be a difficult proposition for the public
agencies to ensure food security on sustainable
basis. Among others, there are three key supply-side
challenges in regard of food security. First is a trade
off between food and fuel. Rising energy prices in
the world market may motivate the corporate sector
to produce bio-fuels from cereals. The second trade
off is between food and feed. Increasing demand
for high-income elastic dairy, poultry and meat
products may increase cereal demand for livestock
feed and as a result, would affect the food security
of poor people who cannot afford to buy costly dairy
and meat products. However, small and marginal
farmers and landless workers, who supplement
their income from livestock activities, may gain from
this diversification. Third challenge is the trade off
between food and wood
As discussed above, farmers in the north region
have been gradually sifting towards cultivation of
poplar trees as it has emerged more remunerative
than crop husbandry. This may have some impact
on the food security. Apart from these challenges,
increasing land demand for non-agricultural uses and
near stagnant or decline in productivity of land, water
and other resources are other supply-side challenges
which are to be properly addressed. Since possibility
of bringing additional area under cultivation is quite
limited, future demand for agricultural products,
including food, can only be met by enhancing
productivity and efficiency of agricultural resources.
As, food security is not less than the national security;
food security system cannot be made vulnerable to
the production and price volatilities of global food
market. Therefore, policy focus must be on removing
the supply-side bottlenecks by raising investment
in agricultural infrastructure, R&D, human capital,
roads, markets, storage, and processing, along with
support to organic farming and reform in tenancy
and lease laws.
[The author is Professor of Economics,
Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT
Roorkee email: singhfhs@iitr.ac.in]
7
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8 Kurukshetra November 2013
 Food Security vs Farmer security
Dr. Parveen Kumar
W illiam Paddocks and Paul Erlich in their
books in seventies had wrote that India
along with Egypt and Haiti would be
declared, Cannot be saved and left to starve
because the amount of aid needed to bail out their
malnourished millions would be so great so as to
leave little for everyone else. Commenting on the
state of agriculture production in India, the writers
further said that Gambia and Libya would be able
to survive without immediate aid and Pakistan and
Tunisia would be the beneficiary of US food aid
only because they made some effort to implement
population control campaigns and have a sufficient
robust political structure to make them worthy of
aid. Although they knew that knew of the wheat
varieties development work of Dr. Norman, but still
they believed that even the green revolution would
not be able to save India Egypt, Haiti and Philippines
from the impending crisis.
Definitely proving them wrong the
Government of India came out the Right to Food
by enacting Food security act that entitles
food to about two third of the population at an
affordable cost so as to ensure that all Indians
live a life with dignity. The act passed by
the parliament is definitely a landmark social
legislation much important for fighting against
hunger. No other country has such a provision. The
Kurukshetra November 2013
act marks a shift in approach to the problem of
food security; from the current welfare paradigm
to a rights-based approach. The legislation
confers eligible beneficiaries the legal right to
receive grain at highly subsidized prices. For a
country like India where about 250 million people
still are in the grip of hunger and malnourishment,
the recommendations of the Food security act will
definitely go a long way in achieving food security
for all. The act however puts the limit on the food
grain quota to five kilogram per person per family
subject to a maximum of 25 kg per family. The right
to food campaigns had demanded 35 kilograms
per family.
The act brings under its purview 75% of
rural households and 50% of urban households.
The beneficiaries would receive five kilograms of
subsidized food grains at the rate of rupees three
per kilogram for rice, Wheat for rupees two per
kilogram and coarse cereals for rupees one per
kilogram. Besides this, the law also entitles every
pregnant woman and lactating mother to meal
free of cost during pregnancy and six months after
child birth. The act also provides for a maternity
benefit of Rs. 1,000 a month for six months.
Every child up to the age of fourteen shall have
entitlement to nutritional needs. For children
9
9
between six months and six years, appropriate
meal would be provided free of charge through the
local Anganwadi to meet nutritional standards. For
children in the 6-14 age group, one mid-day meal
would be given free of charge every day, except
during holidays, in all schools run by local bodies,
and government and government-aided schools up
to class eighth.
Without food all the components of social
justice are meaningless. Manjeet Singh Kang former
Vice-chancellor of Punjab Agriculture University,
Ludhiana says that the act has adopted a life cycle
approach as it provides a nutritious diet from pre
birth to death. It has expanded the food basket by
including in addition to rice and wheat health or
nutria foods such as Maize, Jowar, Bajra and Ragi.
The Right to food will also confer legal rights on
women, children and other special groups destitute,
the homeless, disaster-and-emergency-affected
persons and persons living in starvation to receive
meals free or at an affordable price.
Jean Ziegler, a member of the UN Human Rights
Councils Advisory Committee, working as an expert
on economic, social and cultural rights, including
the Right to Food once remarked that In a world
overflowing with riches, it is an outrageous scandal
that more than 1 billion people suffer from hunger
and malnutrition and that every year over 6 million
children die of starvation and related causes. We
must take urgent action now. This is despite the fact
that the United Nations considers the right to food
as an individual right. The United Nations committee
on Economic Social and Cultural rights defines the
Right to Food as the right of every men, women
and child alone and in community with others to
have physical and economic access at all times to
adequate food or means for its procurement in ways
consistent with human dignity. In 1996 world leaders
from 185 countries got together at the world food
summit and reaffirmed the right of every individual
to safe and nutritious food. The government of India
from time to time has taken various steps to feed
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the peoples through various safety net programmes
and various policy as well as institutional reforms. To
fulfill the right to food the Government must provide
an enabling environment for the people to feed
themselves. It also implies three types of obligations
of the state viz. i. Respect of the existing access and
the state not to take any measures that can result in
preventing such access, ii. Protect i.e. states to ensure
that no enterprise or individual deprives human of
the access to adequate food and iii. Fulfill i.e. state to
actively engage in activities intended to strengthen
the people access to and utilization of resources and
means to ensure their livelihood.
A growing world population and the escalating
hunger and malnutrition demand immediate public
intervention. The Right to Food is not just related
to poverty, it is a much broader than poverty. Poor
do get two square miles a day but what matters is
the quality of food. In fact Right to Food equals food
sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the right of peoples
to safe nutritious and culturally appropriate food.
Article 25(1) of the universal declaration of human
rights of 1948 states that everyone has the right to
a standard of living adequate for the health and well
being of himself and his family, including food. Food
and nutritious rights were subsequently reaffirmed in
two major binding international agreements. Article
11 of the international covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural rights (ICESR) binds the states present
at the covenant to recognize the rights of everyone
to an adequate standard of living for himself and his
family and also recognizes the fundamental right of
everyone to be free from hunger. India is a state party
to ICESCR. Hence there is an obligation to respect,
protect and fulfill the right of food of every citizen of
the country.
Farmer security: Where do we stand?
Dang Kim Son, Director General of the Institute
of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural and Rural
Development (IPSARD) has rightly said that food
security in a country starts with the farmer who
provides the food. Today we talk of making tall claims
about record food grain production and providing
them to the peoples at an affordable cost but there is
another side of the coin too. Those facts and figures
cannot be ignored also. To what Prime minister of
India described as a national shame, the findings of
HUNGaMA (Hunger and Malnutrition) Survey Report
2011, which said that in 100 focus districts located
in six states, 42 per cent of children under five are
underweight and 59 per cent are stunted .The report
of National Crime records bureau 2009 also came
out with a shocking revelation. It put the number
of suicides in the year 2009 at 17,368 (Kumar, N,
Kurukshetra November 2013
 2011). The report further said that the suicides
are not region specific but are spread across India.
46 farmers commit suicide every day even as the
packages are rolled out in a bid to bail out the debt
ridden community from the crisis. The Nutrition
Barometer Launched by two NGOs World vision
and Save the Children that assess the governments
political legal and financial commitments towards
tackling the scourge in 36 countries which are home
to 90% of worlds malnourished children says that
in India every day 5000 children die largely due to
causes that are preventable like malnutrition and lack
of a proper diet. The same farmer which once during
the green revolution era appeared enthusiastic and
determined irrespective of age now is willing to leave
this profession.
Even in agriculturally progressive state like
Punjab 37% of farmers wants to quit agriculture.
Definitely the percentage must have risen high
now. 95% of farming community has no access to
microfinance and insurance. 56% still borrow from
informal sources and 70% has no deposit account
in Banks. Crop insurance also covers only 4-6% of
farmers. Youths are not interested in agriculture. A
December 2012 report of the Institute of Applied
Manpower Research (IAMR), a part of the planning
commission said that on an average 2,035 farmers
are losing main cultivators statuses every single
day for the last 20 years. Isnt this shocking? Isnt it
ridiculous to talk of providing food security when we
cannot provide security to the farmers who provide
us food?
Projections say that by 2050 we would have
forty per cent more population than it is now. Indian
population grows at 15 million in two years i.e. a
population equivalent to Malaysia. With the food
security act in place can India produce the required
amount of food grains in the backdrop of such a large
number of farmers leaving farming? The answer is a
big No. Without farmers security being an inbuilt
mechanisim in any food security programme we
cannot achieve our target. Now the biggest question
is how to make our farmers secure.
For this we have to plug the loopholes in our
existing agricultural production and distribution
system. Agriculture has to be revamped. Lakhs of
tonnes of food grains spoil every year due to lack of
adequate storage facilities. Scientific grain storage
and modern storage structures should be constructed
in higher production areas. Proper storage structures
can stop the rotting of food grains. An effective
delivery mechanism to reduce the pilferage of food
grains is also essential. Similarly value addition and
food processing facilities have to be provided to
raise the farm income of small and marginal farmers
Kurukshetra November 2013
and ultimate reduction of their dependence on food
grain subsidies. The real problem with the Indian
agriculture is that of low productivity. More than
80% of the farmers are small and marginal. The small
size of farms along with lack of quality inputs lead
to low production. All this forces the small farmers
to depend on subsidized food grains as their own
productivity is low. The productivity of the small
farms has to be improved by suitable technological
interventions. Suitable farming system models should
be developed for different agro-climatic zones.
Farmers need to be motivated for diversification.
A large of investment is required for increasing the
area under irrigation. As per estimates a sum of
roughly Rs 1,11,000 crore would be required to boost
farm output with grain requirement increasing, on
account of this intervention, from 55 million tonne to
61 million tonne annually. For this we have to invest
in agriculture to boost production in a big way. Credit
is also an important requirement in the agricultural
production process.
Although the government has started a lot of
programmes for the financial inclusion of farmers but
all those schemes are beyond the reach of farmers.
Hassle free and timely availability of credit should be
made available to the farmers so that they does not
fall in the hands of money lenders who charge huge
rate of interests from them ultimately forcing them
the consume their lives. Climate change is another
threat that can severely reduce our yields. Suitable
drought resistant varieties should be developed and
provided to the farmers. Farmers need to be made
aware of the mitigation and adoption strategies.
Agriculture insurance is another area which needs
to be looked upon immediately. Indian agriculture
is said to be the gamble of monsoons. The whole
agriculture production process is subjected to the
vagaries of monsoons. Agriculture insurance should
be provided to the farmers for their crops. At the
same time suitable infrastructure has to be created at
the gross root level. Food security through increased
productivity along with wise and judicious use of our
natural resources is the also need of the hour. At the
same time the agricultural scientists have to come
out with practical solutions to the problems faced by
the farming community
The more the secure a farmer; the more is the
agriculture production which ultimately ensures food
security for all. If we are able to make a farmer secure,
only then we can hope that the food is available to
the aged, the infirm, the disabled, the pregnant and
lactating women and to all those who do not have
the financial resources to get sufficient food.
[Dr. Kumar writes on agriculture issues and
can be reached at pkumar6674@gmail.com]
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 Hurdles in implementing Food Security Bill
Dr. Arabi. U, Ramya H.D

I
ndias Food Security Bill 2013 is considered As the Bill in its present form throws up major
as a landmark bill to make the right to food a operational and financial challenges, obviously it
legal entitlement. Ideally, the bill will be able has enormous ramifications on the cereal economy
to protect everyone from hunger and can make a markets of Indian agriculture. It is important to
significant contribution to the elimination of under ensure adequate availability of grain with the public
nutrition in the country. As the bill proposes to authorities to fulfill the underlying obligation in the
provide food at a subsidised rate to nearly two- Bill. However, given the current trends and volatility
thirds of the countrys population; but ending in rates of growth in foodgrains production and
under nutrition requires many other interventions yields, the growing pressures on land & water in the
related to health care, safe water, and sanitation. wake of climate change, dependence on monsoon
Nevertheless, some provisions of the bill will have rains needs lot of government intervention to
a significant nutritional impact, like, childrens augment production further, enhance procurement,
entitlements to nutritious food. Other provisions, and stock large amounts of grains to meet the
such as those relating to the PDS, are better seen commitments of food distribution through public
as a form of social security than as a nutritional
intervention specifically. However, the fundamental
problems of Indias malnutrition, visa-viz, 61 million
children being chronically undernourished, 8 million
children suffering from severe acute malnutrition;
thus, the focus needs to be on the right to adequate
nutrition, beyond the right to food as the bill
indicates.
In recent years despite ensuring ample
availability of food, existence of food insecurity
at the micro-level in the country has remained a
formidable challenge for India. In this context the
recently introduced National Food Security Bill
(NFSB) aims to address this and marks a paradigm
shift in addressing the problem of food security
from the current welfare approach to a right based
approach. The central pivot of the Bill is large-scale
subsidized grain distribution to almost 1.2 billion
countrys population to achieve food and nutritional
security. It implies a massive procurement of
food grains and a very large distribution network
entailing huge financial expenditure. But the long-
term feasibility of the envisaged strategy under
NFSB need an adoption of holistic approach to
point out the major laps and hurdles in achieving
the hunger free society. This will possibly cover the
entire system of food production, food procurement
and distribution network existing for achieving food
security on sustainable basis.

12
12 Kurukshetra November 2013
 food delivery system. To fulfil these, the mechanism
of ensuring adequate possible foodgrains availability
on sustainable and stable basis needs to be explored
other than what exists now.
Inadequacies in the bill
Farmers bodies in India fear that the bill
would lead to making the government the biggest
buyer, hoarder and seller of foodgrains. There is
a clear feeling that this would distort the market
mechanism and reduce the bargaining power of
farmers. Besides the bill also makes no provisions
for production of food or for support of small
and marginal farmers who are food producers; of
course, a single bill cannot address all food related
issues. Small and marginal farmers have certainly
been left behind in the growth process, and
need various kinds of public support, related, for
instance to power supply, economic infrastructure,
credit facilities, land rights, and environmental
protection. The main objection to the bill is that it
does not specify any time frame for the rolling out
of the entitlements.
The country continues with a targeted PDS,
excluding 33% of the population from accessing
it as a right, giving scope to large exclusion of the
poor in the country as a whole. The improved
framework of single pricing in the present bill over
the dual pricing under the existing above poverty
line - below poverty line system is undermined by
the exclusion of a third of the country. While the
Indian Council for Medical Research recommends
that an adult requires 14kg of food grains per month
and children 7kg; the bill provides entitlements to
5kg per person per month, thus ensuring only 166g
of cereal per person per day. Also, the bill provides
only for cereals with no entitlements to basic food
necessities such as pulses and edible oil required
to combat malnutrition. The bill allows the entry of
private contractors and commercial interests in the
supply of food in the integrated child development
scheme and it also tying maternal entitlements
to conditions (like two-child norm) discriminates
mothers who have more children.
Concerns remain over PDS that it will
intensify corruption. The government should
focus on productivity enhancement rather than on
subsidising food at the expense of taxpayers. There
have been many positive experiences of PDS reform
Kurukshetra November 2013
during the last few years in specific states like Tamil
Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Odisha among others. These experiences provide
a reasonably clear roadmap for PDS reform across
the country. Some elements of that roadmap are
included in the bill like inclusive coverage, clear
entitlements, de-privatisation of ration shops,
computerisation of records, among others. Beyond
that it is best to leave it to the states to reform
the PDS in their own way, instead of centralising
PDS management. However, although the flawed
distribution system has made matters worse,
but, the purpose of the bill is to correct delivery
mechanism. This is one of the many reasons that
have led to malnourishment among women and
children. Most social security schemes meant
for them are either not reaching them or getting
severely diluted due to leaks in the system.
On the whole, the Food Security Bill suffers
from few drawbacks:
Firstly, it does not specify/identify who will
come in the excluded category. In other words,
unless it decides clearly who will not get subsidised
food grain; there is the need to wait for more time
to identify.
Secondly, NFSB specify that 67% or 75% %
population of rural areasshould get subsidised food
grain.But, the question of majority of population
in rural areas remains being as farmers, crop
sharers, agricultural labours etcalready have more
than 600 kgsof wheat or rice for consumption for
whole of the yearin their houses after the period
of harvesting is over, then such people are being
covered for subsidised food grains; thus benefits
again reach to those already entitled to benefit.
Thirdly,a huge amount ofcost of transportation
of food grains involved which is stated to be twice
the amount of cost of procurement of wheat, then,
then the question of why in rural areasbeneficiaries
are not given 600 kgs of wheat or rice by sarpanch or
Patwari of a particular village panchayat; which will
hopefully save thecost of transportation,storage,
commission, overheads, pilferagedue to rains and
rats.
In brief, the important inadequacy in the NFSB
2013 can be listed as:
Firstly, it does not specify any time frame
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for rolling out the entitlements and the grievance
redressal of the states in the Bill. In fact several
entitlements and redressal structure would require
state legislatures to make adequate budgetary
allocations; hence, implementation of the Bill may
be affected if states do not pass requisite allocations
in their budgets or do not possess adequate funds.
Secondly, it continues with a Targeted PDS,
hence the scope for exclusion of 33 % of the poor
population from accessing the PDS as a right
covering the entire country as a whole.
Thirdly, although an adult requires 14kgs of
food grains per month and children 7kgs; the Bill
provides for reduced entitlements to 5kgs per
person per month, thus, there is an absence of
entitlements to pulses and oil in the PDS, so fails to
address the widespread problem of malnutrition.
Fourthly, the Bill continues to allow for the
entry of private contractors and commercial
interests in the supply of food in the ICDS by insisting
on specific norms related to Food Safety Acts and
micronutrient norms. However, these standards
can only be met through centralized factory based
food production. In this regard, the Supreme Court
has ordered to keep private contractors away from
the food schemes for children, particularly in a
take-home ration of ICDS scheme. Further, the role
of self-helf groups and their effort to provide local
food have also been ignored.
Fifthly, the Bill does not have an effective
grievance redress mechanism. The Bill ignores
the needed food delivery supervisory role at local
Panchayat or Gram Sabha level.
Finally, the Bill does not provide any agriculture
and production-related entitlements for farmers in
spite of the fact that more than 60% of the people
in this country are dependent on agriculture for
their livelihoods.
Major hurdles for the implementation of the
Bill
The areas that the government needs to focus
on are procurement. This has increased to 75 mt.
But last year, foodgrains storage was 82 mt. In fact,
wheat storage alone last year was 39 mt and this
year it is expected to be 44-46 mt. Further, there
is no limit on government procurement. Hence,
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the government has to procure whatever comes
into the market and that is the main challenge.
The government also brought down the wastage
from 2.5% to 0.1% (of foodgrains) over the last five
years, but this will have to go further. Although the
government has also started an operation called
clean FCI (Food Corporation of India)to clean
all the storage and distribution, until five years ago,
the government had capacity of only 55 mt. Now
the capacity gone down; this may require few more
years to complete. Once this exercise completes,
then only it is possible to know the actual foodgrains
wastage in FCI.
The cash transfer aspect of the food security
Bill has to be introduced carefully. The government
(Food Ministry Department) can start the cash
transfer scheme only after at least 90% of the
beneficiaries have bank accounts and when there
is end-to-end computerization. The cash transfer
scheme, however, does not mean that officials are
giving cash instead they will continue to procure
foodgrains, transfer and distribute them. What
the Bill proposed is that, for example, for rice the
government gives Rs.20 to the beneficiary and he
can addRs.3 from his pocket and purchase 1kg of
rice from the fair price shop (FPS). Since the system
will be computerized, a certain beneficiary has
to purchase rice from the FPS, and that will get
adjusted in the quota. If the beneficiary does not
purchase foodgrains with that money, after two
months he will stop getting the cash. That is why
end-to-end computerization is a prerequisite for
the successive implementation of the bill and this
infrastructure may take two more years.
The government already procures one-third
of the cereals production. In several states like
Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
and Chhattisgarh, the states are overwhelmingly
dominant in procuring rice and/or wheat, leading
to almost a situation of monopsony. Any further
increase in procurement by any state would crowd
out private sector operations with an adverse
effect on overall efficiency of procurement and
storage operations, as well as on magnitude of food
subsidies and open market prices. This would also
slow down or even regress the process of overall
diversification in agriculture, and go contrary to the
emerging demand patterns in the country.
Kurukshetra November 2013
 The food subsidy in coming years will balloon
due to the lower central issue price of grain, a
significant rise in the number of entitled beneficiaries
and the need to keep raising the MSP to cover the
rising costs of production and to incentivize farmers
to increase production of cereals. The existing food
security complex of procurement, stocking and
distribution would further expand and increase the
operational expenditure of the scheme given its
creaking infrastructure, leakages (which amount
to about 40 percent as per our calculations) and
inefficient governance. This raises not only the issue
of sustainability of the financial obligations entailed
in NFSB, but also its efficacy in trying to extend food
security.
As the report, titled A Global Development
Agenda: Toward 2015 and Beyond, argues that
the world has made substantial progress toward
achieving many of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) targets, such as halving the proportion
of people living in poverty, the progress has been very
slow on other priorities for development including
global hunger and nutrition. Consequently, as we
frame the global development agenda toward 2015
and beyond these goals should include a stand-alone
goal to end hunger and achieve food security and
good nutrition, and they should advance womens
economic empowerment, community resilience, and
effective institutions. In this regard, the emphasis
should be on the importance of making hunger a
prominent and free standing development goal. As
hunger is a universal human experience, and setting
goals to which the global population can relate to is
crucial to garner support and mobilize towards its
success; stunting should be a key indicator under
the hunger goal. Stunting is a powerful indicator of
hunger, and more importantly, also a key indicator of
deep generational poverty.
If we recognise that malnutrition is a multi-
dimensional problem and needs a multi-pronged
strategy, then we have to include the costs of
creating such a rural and urban infrastructure to
tackle malnutrition of children and women at any
significant scale, which the country will have to
attend to in due course, the financial obligations
under the NFSB will be much higher than are
indicated in the Draft Bill.
The National Food Security Bill (NFSB) envisages
distribution of about 61.2 mt of cereals, primarily rice
Kurukshetra November 2013
and wheat, through the existing public distribution
system (PDS) and other welfare schemes, costing
the exchequer about Rs. 1,25,000 crore annually.
The National Food Security Bill 2013 could be an
effective policy instrument, or say, a game-changer
for national food security if the government is able
to overcome large scale corruption and reduce
leakage and wastage through computerization and
involving the local bodies. The learned experiences
from states like Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have
shown that, increased local participation and
innovative technologies including smart cards and
computerized records have made food distribution
transparent, more efficient and better targeted.
Overall better results can be obtained by
integrating various welfare schemes designed to
raise the wellbeing of the poor masses as revealed
from the experiences in countries such as Brazil,
Ethiopia and Bangladesh. In fact, these countries
took initiatives to bundle income/food transfers
with education and healthcare. Hence, India may
have to consider these successive policy initiatives
so as to pullout poor themselves from poverty and
become self reliant in the coming years.
Another paradigm shift needed in Indias food
security strategy relates to nutrition security for
which the Food Bill has provision of free nutritious
meals to children and pregnant and lactating women,
which is very encouraging. But the time to diversify
the food strategy through policy changes, R&D
and investment towards more nutrient-rich foods,
including pulses, the poor are increasingly unable
to afford as it demands more paying capacity.
Although the bill focuses on food subsidies, the
government has an open door to introduce other
types of benefits, such as direct cash transfers and
vouchers. Although the cash transfers have the
potential to reduce costs and market distortions, their
success may be significantly hindered by insufficient
banking infrastructure networks especially in the
remote un banked regions and the absence of well-
functioning markets and supermarkets. However,
there is no clarity about plans on how these different
schemes will come together and time bound. Above
all, as the international experience shows that food
vouchers have led to the largest improvements in
dietary diversity followed closely by cash transfers,
while food transfers led to the largest increase in
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calorie intake, India should treat different types of
transfers as complementary food security tools.
This attitude will allow policy makers to adjust when
and how much cash and food is transferred based
on the desired outcome, market conditions and
the ability of institutions to deliver. But the current
conditions and the status prevail across the country
to attain the direct cash transfer benefits indicate
that, Government has to explore further needful
mechanisms to speed up the process as it require to
overcome deficiencies in the provision of the Aadhar
/Smart cards to the beneficiaries across the country.
While centralized planning is all right, the
government must not discourage or ignore local
innovations; thus, it calls for the Bill should be flexible
enough to accommodate local ideas, particularly
those through the Panchayats. Therefore, all the
ongoing and any new development schemes/ projects
should be integrated in the overall framework of
long term development perspective of agricultural
development and welfare of the larger poor people;
which further doubts how it is possible and time
frame.
The Food Bill is a grand scheme and will cost
around Rs 1, 30,000 crore annually which is about
1.1% of GDP. For example, the economic cost of rice
to the government is about 20 rupees per kg and will
be sold to ration card holders at between Rs 1 and
3 per kilogram, which is a subsidy of 18 rupees per
kilogram. A total of about 62 million tonnes of food
grain will be needed under the food bill; but even
if the grain quantity remains fixed each year, the
subsidy cost will keep increasing annually because
the rising input cost to the farmers will always keep
the pressure to raise the minimum support price
(MSP). This will increase in effective cost of the
grain to the government; surely the selling price at
the TPDS is unlikely to change and it is also likely
that because of the rising population, the food
grain quantity will also increase. Therefore, given
the rising costs of the scheme in coming years, its
sustainability is doubtful.
Suggestions
As India learns from the global best practices of
poverty reduction, malnutrition, hunger -starvation
and adapts them to Indian conditions with a view
to tackle its food and nutritional security concerns,
which can be done by allowing enough flexibility
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in the NFSB to innovate and evolve into such a CCT
scheme, using the globally acclaimed expertise of
India in IT and Aadhaar, to connect to and pull those at
the bottom of economic pyramid. As under nutrition
jeopardises childrens survival, health, growth and
development, it also slows the national progress
towards development goals. Under nutrition in India
happens very early in life; about one-third of children
are already undernourished at birth because of
nutrition deprivation during prenatal life due to the
poor nutrition situation of women before and during
pregnancy. Thereafter, poor feeding, care and hygiene
practices in the first two years of life contribute to
compound the situation. But to address nutrition
security, a comprehensive approach is required,
which may include a host of policy programmes like,
improving the diets and nutrient intake of children
and women; ensuring access to essential health
services and improving hygiene and sanitation;
improving womens education and decision making;
and improving poverty reduction and safety net
programmes for the most vulnerable. Hence the bill
needs to address childrens right to the correct food.
Similarly, as nutrition forms the basis for prosperity
and economic progress, it is not just an outcome
but also a driver of development and economic
growth. Hence, specific emphasis should be on the
importance of making hunger a prominent and free
standing development goal.
Since the NFSB also aims at improving the
nutritional status of the population especially of
women and children, womens education, access
to clean drinking water, availability of hygeinic
sanitation facilities are the prime prerequisites for
improved nutrition. Hence, it needs to be recognised
that malnutrition is a multi-dimensional problem;
hence needs a multi-pronged strategy.
It may be well noted that, in fact, this Bill is
being brought in the Parliament to enact an Act
when internationally, conditional cash transfers
(CCTs), rather than physical distribution of subsidized
food have been found to be more efficient in
achieving food and nutritional security. Similarly,
the best practices of income policy approach
around the world have shown that price policy
is not an efficient device in achieving equity ends.
The evidence reveals that this has been adopted
successfully by many countries across the world like
Brazil, Mexico, and Philippines etc.
Kurukshetra November 2013
 Most of the over 550,000 villages produce
food crops; the rest focus on cash crops and villages
have something to sell in the market, indicating
surplus food grains. Yet, in the same village there are
hungry people; thus the question of why cant the
food security system use the local surplus stock to
distribute among the local hungry and poor needs
solution; which means decentralized storage of food
grains seems inevitable. Current practise of public
food delivery system has the mechanism of deriving
food grain in the PDS shops from a centralized
warehouse located far away. So, decentralised PDS
along with its whole procurement, storage and
distribution grain will necessitate the involvement of
the local Panchayat bodies. Hence, greater emphasis
needed based on the principle of decentralised
provision of food grains through the supervisory
control by panchayats or village republics in India.
The need also arise now to learn from the local
tradition of food grain bank which have worked
brilliantly based on the principle of sharing and
caring, where, perhaps, even in the hunger belt of
Kalahandi in Orissa, there are villages where people
dont starve.
Finally, since the proposed bill likely to cause
heavy public expenditure burden, physical delivery
of grains in remote areas or extremely deficit states
needs further financial support may cause huge
budget deficits can still go on and if the state feels it
is necessary to carry its obligations that way, then,
necessary bold steps are to be taken to avoid wastes
in or food leakages as well to reach the benefits to
real beneficiaries in the country. In this context, for
instance, the recently announced policy of cash
transfers for some 29 schemes excluding food and
fertilizers subsidy in 51 districts in 15 states from
1st January, 2013 are some of the bold steps in the
right direction. Besides these, it could have also been
linked to education as is done in Bangladesh where
school children and their families are given access
to subsidized food. Of course, in India we have the
midday meal scheme for children to improve their
attendance in schools. The bill should have also
included subsidized rates for pulses which for many
of the poorest are the only source of protein and
other nutrients.
As it appears, given the fiscal constraints, there
is always a trade-off between allocating money
through subsidies and increasing investments into
agricultural sector in India. Therefore, to sustain long-
term growth in agricultural production and also to
reduce poverty faster the focus of public expenditure
for agriculture needs to shift towards investments to
boost productivity rather than subsidies. In contrast,
however, NFSB is likely to shift the nature of resource
allocation more towards subsidies rather than
investments which will be retrogressive from long
term agricultural growth and sustainable food security
point of view. This should be taken much care.
[Dr. Arabi. U is Professor and Chairman,
Department of Studies and Research in Economics,
Mangalore University, Mangalagangothri,
Karnataka.574199, and Ramya H.D. Ph.D. is
Scholar, Department of Studies and Research
in Economics, Mangalore University,
Mangalagangothri, Karnataka-574199]

Kurukshetra
Forthcoming Issues

Panchayati Raj : January 2014

Rural Development Schemes : February 2014
Rural Infrastructure : March 2014
Budget 2014-15 : April 2014
Agribased Industries in Rural Development : May 2014
New Technologies in Agricultural Development : June 2014

Kurukshetra November 2013 17

17
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18 Kurukshetra November 2013
 FOOD SECURITY A Remedy for Malnutrition
K.N.Tiwari

The programme when implemented will be the biggest in the world with the government spending estimated
at Rs 1.3 lakh crore annually on supply of about 62 million tonnes of rice, wheat and coarse cereals to 67
per cent of the population.

F
ood security refers to a households physical
and economic access to sufficient, safe, and
nutritious food that fulfills the dietary needs
and food preferences of that household for living an
active and healthy life. Food security for a household
means access by all members at all times to enough
food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes
at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally
adequate and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability
to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable
ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food
supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping
strategies) (USDA). The World Health Organization
defines food security as having three facets: (1i) Food
availability (ii) Food access and (iii) Food use. Food
availability is having available sufficient quantities
of food on a consistent basis. Food access is having
sufficient resources, both economic and physical, to
obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Food
use is the appropriate use based on knowledge of
basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water
and sanitation. The FAO adds a fourth facet: the
stability of the first three dimensions of food security
over time.
Indicators to Measure Food Security
Food self sufficiency, food security and nutrition
security are the essential components of food and
nutrition security. Therefore, food security should
ensure both adequate food availability and desired
nutrition. Food and nutrition security should go hand
in hand. Nutrition security can be defined as physical
and economic access to balanced nutritionand clean
drinking water to all people at all time. Only when

Kurukshetra November 2013 19

19
a country has achieved nutrition security for all its
people will it have provided an opportunity for every
child and adult to express his or her innate genetic
potential for physical and mental development
(Swaminathan 1986).
agricultural productivity, hunger, poverty, and
sustainability. Hunger and poverty eradication
requires an understanding of the interconnection
of these two evils. If poverty exists, then hunger,
and the malnourishment both follow it. Poor
health coupled with poor economy prevent poors
to learn, work, and care for themselves and their
family members. In developing countries, often
70% or more of the population lives in rural areas.
In that context, agricultural development among
smallholder farmers and landless people provides a
livelihood for people allowing them the opportunity
to stay in their communities. In many areas of the
world, land ownership is not available, thus, people
who want or need to farm to make a living have little
incentive to improve the land.

Food insecurity exists when people are

undernourished as a result of the physical unavailability
of food, their lack of social or economic access to
adequate food, and/or inadequate food use. Food-
insecure people are those whose food intake falls
below their minimum calorie (energy) requirements,
as well as those who exhibit physical symptoms
caused by energy and nutrient deficiencies resulting
from an inadequate or unbalanced diet or from
the bodys inability to use food effectively because
of infection or disease. An alternative view would
define the concept of food insecurity as referring
only to the consequence of inadequate consumption
of nutritious food, considering the physiological use
of food by the body as being within the domain of
nutrition and health. Malnourishment also leads to
poor health hence individuals fail to provide for their The Food Security Bill : Governments Flagship
families. If left unaddressed, hunger sets in motion Programme for Twelfth Plan
an array of outcomes that perpetuate malnutrition,
reduce the ability of adults to work and to give birth A huge percentage of the Indian population
to healthy children, and erode childrens ability to lives below the poverty line where getting one square
learn and lead productive, healthy, and happy lives. meal a day is a challenge. The food security bill aims
This truncation of human development undermines to satisfy this basic want and in that sense although
a countrys potential for economic development for it encourages welfare economics, the intention is
generations to come. noble. This is what would need to be weighed against
other economic considerations.
The Agriculture-Hunger-Poverty Nexus
The National Food Security Bill 2013 aims to
There are strong, direct relationships between provide 5 kg of food grains per person per month

20
20 Kurukshetra November 2013
 at subsidised prices from State Governments under
the targeted public distribution system. The eligible
households will be entitled to food grains at a
subsidised price not exceeding Rs 3 per kg for rice; Rs
2 per kg for wheat and Re 1 per kg for coarse grain.
The programme when implemented will be the
biggest in the world with the government spending
estimated at Rs 1.3 lakh crore annually on supply of
about 62 million tonnes of rice, wheat and coarse
cereals to 67% of the population.
Implications of Food Security Bill
A huge percentage of the Indian population
lives below the poverty line where getting one square
meal a day is a challenge. The food security bill aims
to satisfy this basic need and in that sense although
it encourages welfare economics, the intention is
noble. This is what would need to be weighed against
other economic considerations.
Subsidy burden: To gain a perspective on the
subsidy portion, we should loo k at the per kg price
of at least rice and wheat. As per todays price of
Government current procurement price, the prices
of rice and wheat would be approximately Rs. 13.45
per Kg and Rs. 12.85 per Kg, respectively and at this
price the subsidy portion would be Rs. 10.45 per
kg of rice and Rs.10.85 per kg of wheat. Taking into
account the total number of beneficiaries and the
quantity of foodgrains to be distributed, the burden
on the exchequer is projected at a whopping Rs.
Kurukshetra November 2013
1.3 lakhs crores per year and as such, the increase
in subsidy burden would add to the current fiscal
account deficit woes.
Inflationary pressures: Procurement of rice,
wheat, and millets by the government of such huge
quantities would result in less quantity available
in the open market, thereby pushing up foodgrain
prices. As agriculture in India is a gamble of monsoon,
the poor or excessive raifall in a particular year would
necessitate procurement through imports, which in
turn will again enhance prices of the foodgrains and
escalation.
Public distribution system and leakages:Twin
Problem The current system of distribution through
the approximately 5 lakh fair price shops spread
across the country suffers from logistics issue of
picking up the food from the source, storage and
onward transportation coupled with the leakages
on account of pilferage, rotting of grains and
logistics inefficiencies accounting for nearly 40% to
50% of the total food stock. If this trend continues,
the nation cannot afford the incremental losses
on account of additional procurement envisaged
under the Bill.
Food security legislation to put pressure on
public finances: FICCI: Implementation of food
security legislation will impose pressure on public
finances and push up the fiscal deficit to 5% of the
Gross Domestic Product in the current financial year,
said a FICCI report. ...it will impose an additional
pressure on the fiscal situation and would make
fiscal sustainability plan of the country difficult
to achieve. As a result, the expected fiscal deficit
to GDP ratio is 5 % for 2013-14, which is slightly
above the budgeted 4.8%,. It said allocating food
through public distribution system is plagued with
inefficiencies and ensuring efficiency in the delivery
system is required. Further, the survey said decline
in industrial output, widening current account deficit
and a depreciating rupee may dampen the growth
prospects the country if adequate supportive action
is not taken.
Food security programme: A remedy for
malnutrition ? There are doubts on how effectively
the legislation will tackle all factors perpetuating
malnutrition in India. Though congress leaders have
officially touted the ordinance as their chief means
to tackle malnutrition in the country, but data on
the nutrition problem suggests that the legislation
21
21
is inadequate to deal with certain facets of the
issue. The ordinance currently stipulates five kg of
foodgrain, classified as coarse grain (including rice,
wheat, and millets) per person per month. However,
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines
stipulate at least 16 kg for adults and seven kg for
children. The ordinance also fails to provide access
to the entire basket of nutrients necessary to
effectively improve the nutrition status of the target
population.
The ordinance specifically provides for free
meals to pregnant and nursing women (six months
after childbirth) along with children up to 14 years,
through local angan wadis (primary healthcare
centres). These free meals can help pregnant
women gain weight and maintain it as they nurse.
It will consequently increase weights at birth. More
than a fourth of all newborns are low birth infants
weighing less than 2.5 kg, according to latest UNICEF
data. A healthy infant weight is around 3 kg at birth,
according to UNICEF.
Free meals to children, especially adolescent
girls, can also increase their weight-for-age and
allow them to have healthy pregnancies and infants,
according to Kadiyala. But the success of free angan
wadi meals is questionable especially after the
deaths of 22 children in Bihar who consumed a mid-
day meal made headlines this week.
Calling it a missed opportunity, Dr. Suneetha
Kadiyala, a Research Fellow with the IFPRI
(International Food Policy Research Institute) at New
Delhi explained that the ordinance was too focused
on calories and not on diet diversity. According to
her The Food Security Bill does not give access
to diversified food, which is what food security is
all about. This is really the grain provision bill.
Kadiyalas critique points to rampant micronutrient
deficiency and related diseases that perpetuate
chronic undernutrition. While providing food grains
will help increase access to calories, it will not ensure
beneficiaries get all important nutrients. Most cite
iron deficiency and related anemia which claims
22,000 maternal deaths per year, according to ICMR.
Latest ICMR data shows 87% of pregnant women and
75% of children below five years of age suffer from
iron-deficiency anemia. UNICEF data shows that
Vitamin A and iodine deficiencies are also significant
22
22
public health problems relevant to the malnutrition
challenge.
As mentioned earlier, nutrition security
should satisfy the physical and economic access to
balanced nutrition and clean drinking water to all
people at all time, the availability of clean drinking
water to meet peoples water needs should also to
be met by developing water resources. Arresting
the trend of declining ground water level due to
increasing population and thus increasing water
demand is a big challenge. As ground water
capital is not infinite, its over exploitation should
be avoided. Agriculture is the major consumer of
ground water. The water demand of agriculture
can be minimised by balanced cropping systems.
This can be done by increasing productivity of rice
based cropping systems (Rice Wheat and Rice-
Rice) and the area, thus, saved through increased
productivity could be utilised for less water and
less nutrient demanding crops like pulses and
millets. While food security can be limited to
access to more calories and diversified nutrients,
any legislation will need to address sanitation
shortcomings to truly attack all malnutrition
problems. Diarrheal diseases, for example, create
a perpetual cycle of deteriorating malnutrition;
repeated episodes reduce the bodys ability to
absorb nutrients, according to Kadiyala. Diarrhea
claims 13% of all child mortalities, according to
UNICEF. Studies continue to find links between
nutritional status and sanitation. IFPRI has found
in an ongoing exploratory analysis that access to
clean toilets is most significant when explaining
declining malnutrition in Indias Hunger States.
Ensuring Food Sef Sufficiency
India has made consistent progress towards
food self sufficiency with a record production of
259 million tonnes (mt) in 2011-12. During 2011,
India ranked second in the world in respect of total
production of wheat (80.8 mt), paddy (144 mt),
groundnut (shell 5.6 mt), sugarcane (292.3 mt),
cotton (seed cotton 17.8 mt), vegetables and melons
(100.3 mt), fruits excluding melons (75.2 mt) and
first in total pulses (17.1 mt). Production of most of
the food items increased more than double which
contributed in improving per capita availability of
all food commodities except pulses thus eliminated
Kurukshetra November 2013
 dependence on imports, and India turned out to
be a next exporter of foodgrains. Our granaries are
not only full but due to poor storage facilities, the
foodgrains lying in open also started rotting.
In spite of significant improvement in
agriculture and allied sector, the fact lies that low
production and low productivity are at the core of
agricultural problems in India. There is considerable
variation in productivity levels of various districts
across and within the states. In a study of productivity
assessment of the 551 districts, the productivity/
ha/year was low in 51% of districts which did affect
the standard of living of farm households, especially
that of marginal and small farmers. About 60% of
the gross cropped area is still rainfed. Various studies
indicate that the potential of rainfed areas has not
been fully utilized.
Indian agriculture has started witnessing
second generation problems like diminishing
return on inputs with declining use efficiency,
soil fatigue with decreased content of organic
carbon and increasing deficiencies of secondary
and micronutrients. So far, our major focus was
to enhance crop productivity that happened on
the cost of soil health. Exploitive agriculture offers
great possibilities if carried out in a scientific way
but poses great dangers if carried out with only an
immediate profit motive. Intensive cultivation of
land without conservation of soil fertility and soil
structure would lead, ultimately, to the springing
up of deserts. Management of land, water and
nutrients, therefore, assumes great importance
for sustaining a strong food production capacity
and environment.
[The author is Ex. Director, International
Plant Nutrition Institute-India Program and Ex.
Professor and Head, Department of Soil Science
and Agricultural Chemistry, Chandra Shekhar Azad
University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur,
5/1074, Viram Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow
226010]

Indian agriculture has started witnessing

second generation problems like diminishing
return on inputs and soil fatigue

Kurukshetra November 2013 23

23
 Worlds largest experiment to feed millions
Dr. Archana Sinha
I
ndia is acclaimed internationally for its fast
growing economy among the developing
countries. At the same time it is struggling
with problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment
and food insecurity, though the poverty level has
declined remarkably in terms of percentage from
over 60 percent during 1951 to about 26 per cent in
2011. However, there is no significant improvement
in malnutrition level especially among deprived
and marginalized groups. There are several factors
that challenge Indias food security. Firstly, due to
urbanisation the area under cultivation is reducing
and being used for non-agricultural purposes.
Today humanity is facing a disheartening challenge.
The natural resources, both on land and water, are
increasingly in demand to accommodate with the
human needs and potential.
In order to feed the burgeoning population
of India and to attain food security, the efforts for
increasing food productivity and its sustainability
through advanced agro and biotechnological
ways are to be undertaken. However, problems of
24
24
climate change, biodiversity, desertification, water
depletion, etc are being apparent, which in turn are
becoming unfriendly to nature and human health.
There is a critical need for developing systems to
alleviate the environmental disorders in order to
boost crop productivity. Soil health is defined as the
continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living
system, by identifying that it contains biological
elements that are key to the ecosystem function
within land use limits. After the liberalisation in
1991 there is a boom in land market in favour of
industries, housing sectors and more recently the
educational sector. Good agricultural land is being
converted for these non-agricultural purposes
resulting reduction in overall production as well
as per capita availability of food grain. Secondly,
there is continuous drought or flood that continues
to take place in different sections of the country
each year ensuing decline in food grain production.
Thirdly, there is also a radical lessening in overall
production of pulses due to changes in cropping
pattern. Further over a time period of twenty years,
Kurukshetra November 2013
 there is a sharp hike in costs of fruits, vegetables and
milk that are most essential nutritional supplements
making it economically out-of-the-way for majority
of the people.
Anti Poverty Scheme
The government of India has been putting into
operation several anti-poverty schemes to provide
both physical access to food through its public
distribution system and economic access to food
through its wage employment and self-employment
schemes. Though the government of India has
endorsed the convention on social, economic and
cultural rights, it had not made legislations on
right to food. Currently the Indian government is
planning to introduce the national food security Act
to provide both physical and economic access to
food to its poor population. The issue arises whether
the poverty and hunger will be solved in agreement
with the millennium development goals of United
Nations? This paper is an endeavor to draw attention
to the issues discussed above. Food security in India
has to be understood as a distress phenomenon,
as with marginal enhancement in their incomes
over time they are forced to cut down on their food
consumption to meet up other imperative demands of
health and education that were not well thought-out
important in the earlier period. Towering economic
growth rates have failed to improve food security in
India leaving the country facing a crisis in its rural
economy. If food security is a multifaceted objective,
in a world where individual households face varied,
complex and diverse livelihood opportunities, in
such context what role can policy possibly play? This
present paper attends to the several food security
issues prevalent in the Indian scenario. Some issues
and figures are mentioned from relevant sources to
highlight and analyse the gravity of the food security
issues in India. It also points several development
programmes taken up by the Indian government to
oppose various food security issues including several
schemes and policies.
Food security is described as the state when
people have physical and economic access to sufficient,
safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs
and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Future global environment change such as increased
climate variability, land degradation and loss of
biodiversity, in the context of social, political and
economic changes, may bring unprecedented stress
on the food production system and food security. On
Kurukshetra November 2013
food grain availability to meet requirements, India
procured around 73 million tonnes last year which
is way above the requirement of 61 million tonnes.
A shortfall like in the year 2009-10 of 10 million
tonnes will not affect distribution under the scheme.
India has exported around 12 million tonnes of food
grains last year. The government procured 72.5
million tonnes in 2012-13, 63.34 million tonnes in
2011-12, and 56.71 million tonnes in 2010-11 of
rice and wheat. India has five million professed fair
price shops that sell subsidized food grains, but they
may not be sufficient to cope with the increase in
people entitled to the inexpensive rice and wheat.
A revamp of the public distribution system was
crucial for the schemes implementation. States such
as Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
already have a fairly efficient public distribution
system, but others like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
have to catch up. The real crisis could be manner of
identifying the beneficiaries. The ordinance has left
the working of the criteria to state governments, and
many of which have still not commenced with the
process. The Union government has not put out the
criteria for determining state-wise share of the food
grains as well.
Worlds Largest experiment
The Food Security Bill, envisages the distribution
of wheat, rice and coarse grains at just Rs 2, Rs 3 and
Re1 per kilogram each to about 65 per cent of the
population, 75 per cent of them in rural areas and the
rest in urban areas. Additionally, some entitlements
to special groups, like destitutes or homeless
persons, who will be entitled to at least one meal
a day. Through this worlds largest experiment of
providing food grain to poor, the government plans
to double its food subsidies to 2 per cent of the
gross domestic product. Being a basis of livelihood
and food security for an immense majority of low
income, poor and vulnerable segments of society,
and its performance assumes greater implication in
view of the proposed National Food Security Bill. As
India is still home to the leading number of poor and
malnourished people in the world, a higher priority
to agriculture will achieve the goals of reducing
poverty and malnutrition as well as of inclusive
growth. Achieving an 8-9 per cent rate of growth in
overall gross domestic product may not deliver much
in terms of poverty reduction unless agricultural
growth accelerates. Simultaneously growth with
inclusiveness can be achieved only when agriculture
25
25
growth picks up the pace and is also widely shared
amongst people and regions of the country. All these
factors point to just one thing, that agriculture has
to be kept at the main focus of any reform agenda
or planning process, in order to make a significant
impression on poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and
to ensure long-term food security for the populace.
Malnutrition
Eighty-seven per cent of the rural population
and 61 per cent of urban residents in Bihar had
calorie deficiency during 2009-10, as reported by
National Sample Survey Office. In fact, Bihar ranked
74th in the global hunger index of 88 countries, as
per survey report of India State Hunger Index 2008.
In the same survey, Jharkhand ranked 76th, Odisha
67th and UP 61st, all in the alarming zone. Even in a
food-deficit state like Tamil Nadu, only 80 per cent of
the population acquires grains from the PDS (public
distribution system). Likewise, in Chhattisgarh, where
there is universal food security, only 60 per cent avail
the scheme. It appears that not more than 50 per cent
of the 810 million people will attend ration shops.
Food security concerns facing the country, tells that
Bihar has the highest child malnutrition rates in the
world. Given that Bihar being a multi-hazard prone
state, where the paradox with Bihar is that flood and
drought exist simultaneously consequently, in this
state food grains need to be constantly diverted for
relief work. The living condition of people in some of
the Bihar villages is grimmer than at most places in
the world. It seems that Bihar could be potentially
the biggest beneficiary of National Food Security
Bill (NFSB), 2013. It is said the Food Security Bill will
address the problems of hunger and malnutrition. The
Food Security Bill is aimed at giving legal rights to 67
percent of the population for a uniform quantity of 5
kg food grains at a fixed price of Rs 1-3 per kg through
ration shops. However, there will be no change in
food procurement practices, dispelling concerns
about changes that could disrupt the system. The
government will continue the procurement as it is
and farmers will be guaranteed the minimum support
price also. The public distribution system will be
revamped and rationalized for effective distribution
of food grains.
As per the records of socio-economic caste
census (survey), 1702 tehsils across 27 states have
fewer scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes
(STs) than found in the decennial population census
2011. The census figures of scheduled castes and
26
26
scheduled tribes population exceed the survey
numbers by 1 per cent. Further, this entails that
fewer scheduled castes and scheduled tribes would
be part of the poverty list. This census-survey gap in
population figures of scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes is seen as sensitive since it involves the sections
more likely to be poor. Being scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes is also one of the seven deprivation
indicators to rank the surveyed households in the
poverty index. Hence, a good number of scheduled
castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) may be left out
of the ambit of the ambitious Food Security Act, with
the socio-economic caste census reporting lesser
number of households of the two communities than
found by the decennial census, a fraught prospect
that has led to jitters in the government.
However, nutritional protection and security
would be guaranteed in long term, only if the
government improves livelihood opportunities. The
government has to improve agriculture production
irrespective of the National Food Security Bill. It has
been unable to reach its target of 4 per cent growth
in agriculture, therefore, the additional expenditure
for improving agricultural production on account of
bringing in the National Food Security Bill (NFSB),
2013 remains sound. The government goes on board
on one of the worlds most ambitious government
mission, which is to give its two-thirds people, or
of Indias 810 million populations, the right to food.
The ambitious plan should be seen in the context
of India being home to roughly one third of the
worlds poor; where over 70 per cent of children are
malnourished and about 10 million or more people
die of chronic hunger or hunger-related illness
every year. On the brighter side, the scheme could
leave poor households with more money to spend,
encouraging consumption. Once it is implemented,
the ordinance, which will necessitate to be in due
course replaced by a law, will arm citizens with the
legal Right to Food under the National Food Security
scheme. Anyone eligible for the subsidized food can
approach the courts if he or she is denied this right.
Hence, National Food Security Bill (NFSB), 2013 is
not just about 5 kg of food grains. It would give a
new foothold to the public distribution system (PDS)
at large, if it has an extensive coverage and clear
entitlements.
[Dr. Archana Sinha is Fellow and Head,
Department of Rural and Urban Studies, New Delhi.
email: sinha3may@gmail.com;]
Kurukshetra November 2013
 Our
Selection APURVA DUBEY HARSH DIKSHIT RISHI GARG NITIN SINGHANIA PARTH GUPTA
(RANK-19) (RANK-48) (RANK-49) (RANK-51) (RANK-59)
in
CSE
2012-13

Kurukshetra November 2013 27

27
 FOOD SECURITY IN INDIAISSUES AND CONCERNS
Santhosh Kumar.H
E
nsuring the food security continues to be a
challenging issue of vital importance for the
developing countries like India. The Millennium
Development goals provide us with the starting point
to assess the level of food security and prioritize our
effects to achieve it. The first
According to the National Family Health Survey
2005-06, 40.4 per cent of children under the age of
three are underweight, 33 per cent of women in the
age group of 15-49 have a body mass index below
normal and 78.9 per cent of children in the age group
of 6-35 months are anemic. These are disturbing
statistics which point to nutritional deficiencies. For
the address of the food security issue government
initiated many schemes and policies, policy makers
aims to strengthen the nutritional value of the people
for better livelihood. In spite of various government
schemes and safety norms, under and malnutrition
remains intensive among children and women.
The National Food Security Act 2013
One of the major initiative towards the providing
the food security to people of the country, UPA
governments most ambitious bill recently passed
in Parliament, it received President of India assent
on the 10th September, 2013. The object of act is to
28
28
provide for food and nutritional security in human
life cycle approach, by ensuring to access adequate
quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people
to live a life with dignity and for matters connected
therewith. The act enshrines freedom of right to
food and nutrition.
Salient features
l The act promise to cover 67 percent of
population, it includes 75 percent rural
population and 50 percent of urban households,
the beneficiaries will be identified by the States
based on parameters prescribed by the Union
Government
l Every person belonging to priority household
shall be entitled to receive Five kilograms of food
grains per person per month through Targeted
Public Distribution System, as subsidized prices
of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat
and Rs 1 per kg for coarse grains for a period of
three years from the date of commencement
of this act: and there after such price as may be
fixed by the Central Government from time to
time.
l In case of non-supply of the entitled quantities
of food grains or meals to entitled, such person
Kurukshetra November 2013
 eligible to receive Food Security Allowance from
the concerned State Government.
l The act ensures that the Central and State
Governments shall endeavor to progressively
undertake reforms in Targeted Public
Distribution System.
l There is a special focus in the act on nutritional
support to women and children. Pregnant
women and lactating mothers, besides being
entitled to nutritious meals as per the prescribed
nutritional norms, will also receive maternity
benefit of not less thanRs. 6000/-
l This act promotes women empowerment
through the eldest woman who is not less than
18 years in every household, shall be head of
the household for the purpose of issue of ration
cards.
l There is special focus on women, children
and other special groups such as destitutes
homeless, disaster and emergency affected
persons and persons living in starvation.
l It strengthens the grievance redressal
mechanism to starting help centers, call centers,
appointing nodal officers etc.
Challenges on food security
The current Bill creates a statutory entitlement
for the included population and its obverse namely
a legal obligation for the government. Therefore, it
is important to ensure adequate availability of grain
with the public authorities to fulfill the underlying
obligation. Given the current trends in rates of
growth in food grain production & yields, and the
growing pressures on land & water in the wake
of climate change, there is a possibility that food
grain availability on sustainable basis becomes a
constraint. Financial obligation of central and state
governments are matter of concern, simultaneously
the government should promote the sustainable
agriculture production
As per government statement total annual
requirement of food grains, including food
grains required for other welfare schemes, is
estimated at 612.3 lakh tons. Procurement of food hunger and malnutrition problem from India in the
grains(wheat and rice), both in absolute quantity and
in terms of percentage to production, has improved
in recent years. The average annual procurement,
which was 382.2 lakh tons, i.e. 24 percent of
theaverage annual production during 2000-2001 to
2006-07, has gone up to 602.4lakhtons during 2007-
08 to 2011-12,i.e.33.2 percent of the average annual
production. It will therefore be possible to meet the
Kurukshetra November 2013
requirement at the current levels of production and
procurement of food grains for implementation of
food security act.
Some concerning issues
The food security includes many operational
challenges and issues to reach the targeted
beneficiaries, the food scenario in country has
more complex and providing the food security to
all is a gigantic responsibility that requires many
preparations
l Reforms in Targeted Public Distribution
System such as application of information and
communication technology tools to improve
PDS system, leveraging Aadhaar for unique
identification of beneficiaries for proper
targeting of benefits under this Act etc, ensure
transparency
l Promoting the Sustainable agriculture is very
crucial due to meet the standards of production
and shortcoming of problems of small farmers.
l The focus is on incentivizing farmers through
fair value of their products by way of Minimum
Support Price mechanism, distribution of
foodgrains to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families
and covering poor households at the risk of
hunger under food security act
l Strengthening the local authorities to meet the
obligation of the food security act in this regard
the role of Gram Sabha is very crucial.
Summing up
India is one of the emerging economies in the
world, but it facing malnutrition and food insecurity
problem. The HUNGaMA (Hunger and Malnutrition)
report published by Nandi Foundation, conducted
across 112 rural districts of India in 2011 showed
that 42 percent of children under age group of five
are underweight and 59 percent are stunted, it is the
matter of concern in this regard the Food Security act
2013 is very prominent, it covered 67 percent Indias
population to meet food security obligations, the
act has a laudable objective of eradicating extreme
shortest possible time. The proposed legislation
ensures a paradigm shift in addressing the problem
of food security from the current welfare approach
to rights based approach
[The author is Lecturer in Sociology, Govt. P.U.
College, Chikkajambur (V), Shimoga (Dt.)Karnataka.
577428; email:santhoshkumar.h88@gmail.com)]
29
29
 making food security work
Anupam sarma

Even though self-sufficiency of food production has been achieved, the population still lacks access
to balanced food. It is a matter of concern that even though cereal production has kept pace with the
increasing requirements and average per capita intakes of cereals have remained satisfactory, there have
been a fall in the per capita consumption of pulses
Ninth Five Year Plan

F
ood security is a complex issue that has
been raised over time. The concept of
food security indicates access of food to all
people of the country at all times. According to
World Development Report (1986), food security
is access by all people at all times to enough food
for an active, healthy life. Apart from it, Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO, 1983) has defined
food security in terms of ensuring that all people
at all times have both physical and economic
access to basic food they need. Therefore we
can say that food security involves not only the
physical availability of food to entire population in
the country, but also enough purchasing capacity
in the hands of the countrys people to buy food
and maintaining timely, reliable and nutritionally
adequate food supply for long time. Thus in a
modern dynamic society, food security can be
classified under four important heads. Firstly, it
involves adequate quantity of cereals to be made
available for human survival. Secondly, it involves
to make availability to cereals and pulses. Thirdly it
involves ensuring the availability of cereals, pulses,
milk and milk products and finally extension of
third stage with the availability of eggs, meat,
vegetables and fruits.
Availability of Food
At the country level, food security mostly
depends on the total production of food grains,
net availability of foodgrains and per capita net
availability of foodgrains including the prices of it.
Therefore, food security at the national level refers
mainly availability of sufficient stocks of food to
meet either through domestic supply or through
imports at the domestic level of the country.

30
30 Kurukshetra November 2013
 The idea of net production, net availability of Table-2
foodgrains and per capita availability of food in
Cereals Pulses
India has presented in Table-1, since 2001.
Year Production Production Yield
Table-1 Yield (kg/
(million (million (kg/
(In million tones) hectare)
tonnes) tonnes) hectare)
Year Net Net Net Per capita 1990-91 162.1 1571 14.8 578
foodgrain Imports availability availability 2000-01 185.7 1844 11.0 544
production of of food (in
2007-08 216.0 2151 14.8 625
foodgrains kg)
2008-09 219.9 2183 14.6 659
2001 172.2 - 2.9 156.9 416.2
2009-10 203.4 2075 14.7 630
2002 186.2 - 6.7 189.5 494.1
2010-11 226.3 2256 18.2 691
2003 152.9 - 5.5 170.6 437.6
2011-12 240.2 2396 17.2 694
2004 186.5 - 6.5 183.3 462.7
2005 173.6 - 6.0 170.0 422.4 Source : Economic Survey (2012-13)
2006 182.5 - 2.3 181.9 445.3 Table-2 reveals that production of cereals
2007 190.1 - 4.7 183.7 442.8 and pulses increase gradually. During 1990-91 total
2008 210.2 - 9.7 183.5 436.0 cereals production was 162.1 million tones as against
2009 205.2 - 4.1 189.5 444.0 1571 kgs yield per hectare. The same has achieved
2010 190.8 - 2.2 189.2 437.1 at 185.7 million tones as against 1844 kgs yield per
hectare. But in 2009-10, production of cereals has
2011 214.2 - 2.9 203.1 462.9
come down to 203.4 million tones whereas yield per
Source : Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department hectare of cereals has reduced to 2075 kgs. If we
of Agriculture and cooperation.
notice on pulses production then it becomes clear
From the table, it is observed that there exists that in 2009-10, its production remain more or less
divergences between net foodgrain production same inspite of reducing yield per hectare from 659
and net availability of foodgrains. It is noticed kgs to 630 kgs as compared to 2008-09. As a result
that net foodgrain production in India has shown of it, per capita availability of food reduces to 437.1
a flexible trend. Since 2001, the net imports kgs in 2009-10 from 444 kgs in 2008-09. Obviously,
have become negative, which is difference of the while moving towards foodgrains security, India has
total imports and exports of the country. Thus succeeded in terms of cereals though either increase
with the increase in population of the country, in domestic production and import but has miserably
net production of food grains production, net failed to increase the production of pulses consistent
availability of food increased but expected growth with the needs of a growing population.
is still to achieved. Food security and inflation cum poverty : Food
Availability of Cereals and Pulses: From the security and inflation both are closely related to one
view point of food security it is necessary to bring another. It is because of the fact that accessibility
the cereal consumption in the 1st time to achieve to food is associated with the income and thus in
the minimum cereal consumption norm of 11.6 kgs prices of foodgrains. In India, prices of foodgrains
per month fixed for subsistence level by the Indian have increased over the years as a result of which
Council of Medical Research (ICMR). But the lowest inequality of food consumption diverge.
30 percent of our population are not able to reach Increasing prices of foodgrains lead to remove
the minimum level of cereal consumption which consumption of some food items for poor because
is become a sad commentary on our achievement of reducing their purchasing capacity. Consequently
towards food security. In this context, it is better per capita calorie consumption comes down that can
to look at the figures of net availability of cereals push up the people to below poverty line. According
and pulses in absolute terms. The following table-2 to Tendulkar Committee Methodology, the poverty
shows the net production of cereal and pulses headcount ratio in India has come down from
since 1990-91 with per hectare yielding. 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 29.8 percent in 2009-

Kurukshetra November 2013 31

31
 Table-3
State 2004-05 2009-10
Rural Urban Combined Rural Urban Combined
Andhra Pradesh 32.3 23.4 29.9 22.8 17.7 21.1
Arunachal Pradesh 33.6 23.5 31.1 26.2 24.9 25.9
Assam 36.4 21.8 34.4 39.9 26.1 37.9
Gujarat 39.1 20.1 31.8 26.7 17.9 23.0
Haryana 24.8 22.4 24.1 18.6 23.0 20.1
Jharkhand 51.6 23.8 45.3 41.6 31.1 39.1
Kerala 20.7 18.4 19.7 12.0 12.1 12.0
Madhya Pradesh 53.6 35.1 48.6 42.0 22.9 36.7
Maharashtra 47.9 25.6 38.1 29.5 18.3 24.5
Odisha 60.8 37.6 57.2 39.2 25.9 37.0
Punjab 22.1 18.7 20.9 14.6 18.1 15.9
Uttar Pradesh 42.7 34.1 40.9 39.4 31.7 37.7
Uttarakhand 35.1 26.2 32.7 14.9 25.2 18.0
All India 42.0 25.5 37.2 33.8 20.9 29.8
Source : Economic Survey, Assam, 2012-13.
10. Though poverty headcount ratio has shown Conclusion
a declining trend yet still now a large number of
people are living below poverty line. According to From the ongoing analysis, it can be stated
Task Force on Projections of Minimum Needs and that increase in production of foodgrains may not
Effective Consumption Demand, those persons who always lead to sufficient household consumption
have not taken a daily calorie intake of 2400 per because of peoples unaffordability. Therefore
person in the rural areas and 2100 in urban areas food accessability can be increased by creating
of the country, are said to suffer the problem of more employment opportunities so that income
poverty. This definition has adopted by the planning level accelerated that can push down the level
commission in India also. of poverty. For reducing the poverty ratio, public
distribution system can play an effective role. In
During 2004-05, the wholesale price index
order to assist the poorer sections of the society,
of foodgrains in India was 179 (Source : Economic
Survey) as a result of which poverty ratio at all India the govt. should introduce effective management
level stood at 37.2 percent out of which 43 percent on public distribution system and also the dual
was in rural area and 25.5 percent was in urban price mechanism. Though both these two systems
area. But as in 2009-10 the wholesale price index of are introduced in different states of the country,
foodgrains stands at 172 (Source : Economic Survey), but has failed to achieve the desired results.
correspondingly poverty headcount ratio comes Production and access to vegetables, fruits
down to 29.8 percent out of which 33.8 percent
and livestock products have not received as much
in rural area and 20.9 percent in urban area in the
attention as deserve though such products are
country. The following table 3 is presented to showing
important contributors to food security. Therefore
some major statewise comparative statement on
percentage of below poverty line population. the biggest challenge faced by the agricultural sector
in India is to diversification of wheat and rice to
There has been a significant reduction in poverty pulses and vegetables.
ratio during the period in states like Andhra Pradesh,
Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha [The author is from the Department
etc. While some states like Punjab and Haryana of Economics, M.N.C. Balika Mahavidyalaya,
have succeeded in reducing poverty by following Nalbari (Assam), Gauhati University, email ID :
modernization path and high agricultural growth. anupam4uk2012@gmail.com]

32
32 Kurukshetra November 2013
 GENE REVOLUTION-SOLUTION FOR FOOD CRISIS
Dr B.K Mohanty

T
he first signs of slowdown in agriculture were humans meat, dairy products, fruits, vegetables,
visible in the mid 1990s, mainly due to a decline, sugar etc. According to UN estimates there will be at
in public investment in agriculture. By the end least 800 million hungry people looking for the food.
of 1990s, the signs became ominous. The CAGR If the above food production figures remains true
(compound Annual Growth Rate) of food production than why there will be hunger? The simple answer is
has fallen from 2.9% during 1980s to 1.7% in the that food is not available equally to all.
1990s. The growth rate in rice production in 1990s
has fallen to less than half of that in the 1980s while Table-1
World Population and Food Grain Production
wheat fared only slightly better. When we analyse the
trend a little closely, the food grain sector production Year Population Production Availability
was found much sharper after 1996-97. Almost all (Billion) (Million Kg Per
the crops have shown a stagnant or decelerating Tons) Capita
growth rates during the period 1996-97 to 2004-05.
1950 2.54 631 248
Therefore, it is clear that the country started facing
severe supply side problems since the mid 90s, which 1960 3.03 824 272
became acute by the turn of the century. In 1950, the 1970 3.77 1079 286
worlds population was about 2.5 billion. In 1999, it 1980 4.45 1429 321
crossed the 6 billion mark. According the United 1990 5.29 1768 334
Nations population Division, the world population
2000 6.12 1843 301
would be somewhere between 8 and 11 billion by
2050. These figures appear to suggest that it may 2007 6.60 2075 314
indeed be difficult to feed everybody in the future. Source- UN Population Division and FAO

In 1950, world food grain production was 631
million tons. It increased about 3 times to 1843 MT
by 2000 and further2075 MT in 2007. Thus between
1950 and 2007, the population increased by about
2.6 times but grain production jumped by 3.3 times.
In 1950, each person had 248 kilograms of grain.
In 2007, this increased to 314 kg. Similar increases
have occurred in the whole range of food needed by
Limits of Population Growth
There is a limit to how much the earth can yield.
There is a limit to cultivable land, which is currently
11% of the 13.2 billion hectares of the total land
area of the planet, the rest being taken up by forests,
settlements and grass lands etc. There is also a limit
to water. If everybody was to start consuming as

Kurukshetra November 2013 33

33
much as, say, the American consume, than obviously 4 tonnes in the developing world, while it is over 6
the earth will not be able to sustain it. At the current tonnes in the advanced Countries. There is also a
population of about 6.7 billion people, a US level per vast difference in vegetable production. Vegetable
capita consumption of 1046 kg would require world production is just 10 tons in Africa and 9.6 tonnes in
population of nearly 7 billion tonnes of food grain- South East Asia. But in North America, it is 26 tons
three and half times the present production. The and in Europe it is nearly 21.21 tonnes. The reason
earth would become a waste land by 2050.now the of this difference is that more and better resources
question arises whether the earth feed an additional have been available to the farmers. If same amount
3 billion people in the next 50 years? The answer is of resources are made available to the farmers in
yes. The reason is that the full potential of agriculture India or Bangladesh no doubt they can also produce
is yet to be realised in most parts of the world. more food products and the yield rate will increase
tremendously. It requires a shift of the method of
An Outlook cultivation both domestically and internationally.
For example, in Africa, the total harvested area In this connection Greg Wagner, Director of a grain
under cereals is 98.7 million hectares, from which trade consultancy in Chicago told Global economy
about 146 MT of cereals are produced. In North continuing to expand, the demand base has been
America (US and Canada) the harvested area for increasing the supply has been decreasing. As a
cereals is 71 million hectares but the production is consequence price must go high enough to cut back
398 MT. They are producing 252 MT more despite on demand otherwise there will not be any wheat
cultivating 20 million hectares less land. So, it has left.
been evident that Africa has a vast potential to From the following table it has been revealed
improve its agricultural production. This discrepancy that there has been no remarkable increase in the
can be measured by checking out the yields per yield rate of wheat, rice, corn, soyabean or sugarcane
hectares of land as shown below in the table. in any part of the world over last 10 years. Agricultural
Table-2 productivity has stagnated internationally, while the
Land Utilisation under Cereals consumption of agricultural products has steadily
increased with the increase of the income levels and
Name of the Area- Million Production
population growth.
Country Hectares (Million Tonnes)
Africa 99 146 Indias average rice yield today is 2.9 tons per
North America 71 398 hectare. By comparison, Chinas average rice yield,
South East Asia 53 199 remained at 6.3 tons per hectare, is more than
Europe 118 404 double that of India. South korea has achieved
World 674 2221 an even higher rice yield i.e. 6.8 tons per hectare.
Agricultural productivity has stagnated after the
Source- FAO
green revolution. What comes concern is that Indias
Table-3
agricultural productivity is even lower than that of
Yield Rate of Food Grains in Different Countries
(Kg per hectare) many other countries. India has 170 million hectares
under food grain cultivation, producing 220 million
Name of the Rice Wheat
tons of food grains in a year. China has only 60% of
country
this arable land area but it is able to harvest twice
US 7694 2825
the quantity of food grains that India produces.
China 6265 4455
India 3124 2619 Sixty years after independence India produces
Nigeria 1440 1127 on an average, only 14 kg of rice and wheat per
person per annum, just a little over one kilogram per
Source-FAO
person over a month. Over 60% of Indias net shown
China produces 6,265 kg of rice, while Nigeria area still remains at the mercy of the monsoon.
has to make do with just 1440kg and India with About 60% of our farmers own only 0.4 hectares of
3124kg. This is nothing but a division between rich land each. Another 20% of farmers hold an average of
and poor Countries. Cereal yield per hectare is about 1.4 hectares each. Therefore 80% of our farmers are

34
34 Kurukshetra November 2013
 Australia 73.80 82.60 82.60 87.10 94.10 88.80 A slowdown will have a serious effect on Indias
Sugarcane Thiland 71.00 71.00 70.00 61.00 66.90 71.10 economy. Hence, we have no choice but to keep the
China 50.25 49.50 43.50 47.25 50.18 53.33 growth story going, and to keep a check on inflation.
India 67.00 66.00 58.00 63.00 66.90 71.10 The common man spends 50% of his income on food.
Brazil 70.00 71.00 73.00 75.00 66.90 71.10 Therefore, food prices would have to top our long
USA 2.66 2.56 2.28 2.84 2.89 2.87 term approach to combating inflation. These prices
China 1.63 1.73 1.65 1.81 1.70 1.72 have risen as a result of rising population and falling
Soyabean

Argentina 2.63 2.82 2.36 2.71 2.66 2.99 productivity.

Table No:- 4 Yields of Various Crops (Tons\Hect.)

India 0.90 0.71 1.05 0.73 0.90 0.95

Food security remains a global challenge today
Brazil 2.66 2.82 2.37 2.31 2.56 2.85
and famine still threatens several parts of the Globe.
Thiland 2.62 2.57 2.65 2.63 2.70 2.69
There is an urgent need to develop new agricultural
Indonesia 4.41 4.50 4.56 4.64 4.59 4.60
technologies that will increase yields and eliminate
Rice

China 6.16 6.19 6.06 6.31 6.26 6.23

crop failures and famines. Many scientists believe

Source:- The Economic Times of India, Dated- 21 July 2008.

India 3.14 2.67 3.13 2.95 3.17 3.18 that new plants developed using modern Bio-
Brazil 3.30 3.25 3.43 3.37 3.86 3.81 technology will play an important role in increasing
South 2.84 2.65 2.94 3.64 3.41 2.52 our ability to produce enough food. Advancement of
Africa
Bio-technology is having dramatic impacts on Global
Corn

Argentina 6.00 6.33 6.52 7.37 6.48 8.04

agricultural production.
USA 8.67 8.12 8.93 10.06 9.29 9.36
China 4.70 4.92 4.81 5.12 5.29 5.39 Bio-tech crops were planted on over 100
Canada 1.94 1.83 2.26 2.64 2.74 2.61 million hectares in 2006 by 10 million farmers in
Turkey 1.82 1.96 1.95 2.15 2.15 2.03 22 countries and the results have been found well.
Wheat

USA 2.70 2.36 2.97 2.90 2.82 2.60 In all countries where farmers have access to bio-
China 3.81 3.78 3.93 4.25 4.28 4.55 tech crops, yields are higher and production costs
India 2.71 2.77 2.62 2.71 2.59 2.63 are lower, making farmers more efficient than
ever before. Since 2007, when bio-tech cotton was
2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007
Year

introduced Indias cotton output has almost doubled

to 27 million bales weighing 170 kilograms each,
and average yields are up around two-thirds, largely
small and marginal farmers. Nearly 87,000 farmers because of lower rates of pest infestation. Unlike the
in India committed suicide between 2001 and 2005, original Green Revolution which saw large increase
within a span of four years. The per capita availability in use of pesticides and fuel, the new bio-tech crops
of food grains in India has declined from about 500 of the Gene Revolution help reduce the use of
grams per day per person to less than 400 grams per inputs like pesticides, fuel and water. EU economists
day over the last two decades. reported that biotech crops have been responsible
for a decrease in pesticide use of over 200 million
Since the mid 1960s, the traditional agricultural kg which has reduced the environmental impact by
practices are gradually being replaced by modern more than 15%. Fewer pesticide applications mean
technology and farm practices in India and a veritable less use of fuel and water on the farm. In India,
revolution took place in our Country. The new pesticide use in Bt. Cotton has been reduced by half
technology was tried in 1960-61 as pilot project in and this has reduced the use of fuel and water as
seven Districts and was called Intensive Agricultural well as reducing farmer exposure.
District Programme (IADP) and later High Yield verity Agriculture is a contributor of green house
Programme (HYVP) was added and was extended to gas and studies have shown that biotech crops
cover the entire country. This strategy was popularly help decrease these emissions. Scientists estimate
known as Green revolution. Now it is the time that biotech crop planted in 2005 decreased global
to lunch a Gene Revolution instead of Green emission of carbon dioxide by 20 billion pounds. This
Revolution to feed the world and make Indian is the equivalent of removing 4 million cars from
farmers rich. the road for a whole year. These new crops are

Kurukshetra November 2013 35

35
grown in a more sustainable manner, with less use
of pesticides, fuel and water and less impact on the
environment.
Improvements in agricultural technology are
a critical component of meeting this challenge and
biotech crops are already making a combination.
Insect protected crops and herbicide tolerant crops
allow farmers to achieve high yields even while
using fewer pesticides. New drought tolerant
crops, which will grow and survive even when
rainfall is not optimal, are being developed through
biotechnology.
Many Countries have tackled food scarcity
in the past with the introduction of conventially
bread, although gene-altered high yielding crops.
Scaling up the genetic production potential of a crop
through traditional plant breeding technologies is
a long drawn out process. The problems plaguing
Indian agriculture call for quick solutions that only
molecular breeding can bring about.
Measures to eradicate food crisis
(1) Development of a strong Agricultural
Infrastructure base
Now there is an urgent need to develop
agricultural infrastructure to meet the rising
demand in India for food grains and other
Agri- products. Setting up storage facilities to
processing facilities for our farm products is
one big issue that needs to be tackled by the
policy makers in the country. Public goods,
infrastructure, welfare imperatives other
regulatory needs and areas of market failure
will continue to need government intervention.
Now it is a matter of concern that Globally the
investment in the agricultural sector is shrinking.
Building of rural roads, rural telecom and rural
electrification need to be accelerated and
coordinated. Farm subsidy amounts to about
Rs. 1 l lac crore. The sector can be better off
if this were to be spent as investment towards
the development of infrastructure towards
agricultural sector.
(2) Restructuring the Agricultural sector
Now it is the time for re-establishing a trained
and dedicated cadre of agricultural extension
workers. It is also necessary for strengthening
of agricultural research and technology
development and institutional support system.
36
36
There is an urgent need for augmenting the
physical and economic connectivity of farm
to market, post harvest operations including
the role of food processing industries and
ultimately enhancing farmers income, rural
employment security and inclusiveness. Reform
should be taken up to encourage private sector
investment in agriculture.
(3) Approach Towards Yield Gaps
Low yield areas are to be demarcated and an
analytical measurement should be taken up to
find out the reasons of yield gap and low factor
productivity. Local farmers and private money
lenders should come forward and extend their
cooperation with the government officials
in conducting various surveys relating to the
growth of production in the agricultural sector.
(4) Creation of Advanced Laboratories at National
Level
A national network of advanced soil testing
laboratories should be established to promote
balanced nutrient application and advise the
micro nutrient deficiencies. Farmers should
be necessary to ensure timely availability
of quality seeds and agro chemicals to the
farmers at the time of their need. Each farmer
should be issued soil and water health cards.
Just like carbon credits, the farmers should
be given credit on the basis of the water used
by him for the production purpose. Special
emphasis and training should be given to the
small and marginal farmers for the adoption of
dry land farming in the country. Bio-diversity
conservation and creation of livestock heritage
on farm Gene banks should become an integral
part of development programmes.
(5) Organise Farmers into Bodies
Individual farmer has no bargaining power to
sell the farm produce at the reasonable price.
Companies or Co-operatives are capable of
leveraging the opportunities afforded by the
market. It is essential to encourage initiatives
taken by ITCs E-Choupal and DCM Shrirams
Haryali stores that offer farmers a host of inputs
ranging from seed, fertiliser, tractor parts and
disel for pump sets to agronomic advice and
soil testing post harvest infrastructure should
be modernised.
Kurukshetra November 2013
 (6) Institutional Support
The flow of credit, particularly to small and
marginal farmers should be made speedier and
hassle free. Whether based insurance products
should be promoted to increase the coverage
which is now at a nascent stage. SHGs (Self Help
Groups) should play more pro active role in the
process. In public distribution system through
SHGs micro credit should be opened to have an
easy product delivery system.
(7) Implementation of MSP in a massive scale
In India, the farmer sells his produce for about
one third the price the consumer pays. To
increase the benefit of rising food prices to
the farmer and to minimise the cost to the
consumer, this huge margin between the farm
and the consumer prices must shrink. For the
removal of the gap the first step is to abolish
the Mandi tax. Next step is to allow direct
sourcing of farm produce by agribusinesses
and organised retail and reduce several rounds
of transportation and loading and unloading
costs etc. Appropriate policy interventions are
needed to transfer the benefits of the rise to
the farmers and at the same time to strengthen
social safety programmes to assure access to
food on part of the poor. The MSP must be fixed
for all major commodities and implemented
judiciously throughout the country.
Conclusion
Todays paramount need is to improve
agricultural productivity across the Globe. Crop
yields can be increased through the introduction
of technologies such as drip irrigation or through
education and training of farmers. If Countries like
India and China, which have large agricultural land,
can boost their productivity to the levels attained
by the developed world, it will no doubt mitigate
food scarcity. From the first Green Revolution
to the current Gene Revolution, innovative new
technologies have significantly improved our ability
to feed our people. Farmers in India and around
the world, who have pioneered the use of modern
biotechnology have seen their innovation rewarded
in term of high production and lower environmental
impacts. Further innovations like bio-fuels and
drought tolerant crops will further contribute to
sustainable production efficiencies.
[The author is Reader, Faculty of Commerce,
Banaras Hindu University,Varanasi- 221005 (U.P)
email: bk_mooohanty@yahoo.co.in]

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37
 Water Management and Food Security
Dasharath Prasad and Rakesh Kumar
I
ndia is an agrarian economy. Majority of our
population live in villages. Since independence,
considerable efforts were made towards
attaining food security, to meet the ever-increasing
demand of food for the ever-growing population,
and there has been a remarkable improvement.
Undoubtedly, the Green Revolution technologies
of the 1960s addressed this challenge, promoted
the production and distribution of seeds of high-
yielding varieties, and successfully increased crop
production. Since mid 1990s, there has been some
slackening in the growth rate of food production
and in the last ten years it has been below the
targeted rate of 4%. With the population growth
rate continuing at the current rate, the food
security concerns in the country can become really
serious in 2020-30 unless there is commensurate
increase in food production.
Food security in the FAO terminology has been
defined as follows: Food security exists when all
people, at all times have physical and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet
their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life. Now, ensuring food security
for the fast-growing population is a major challenge,
which ultimately exerts pressure on the available
38
38
natural resources. While the significance of natural
resources like water was felt as an important input,
ensuring its availability in adequate quantity and
good quality has been ignored by mismanagement.
Indiscriminate exploitation of water resources and
the inadequate protection measures have led to
water depletion and deterioration at an alarming
rate.
In 201011, India achieved a target of 235.88
million tonnes food-grain production, registering
an increase of 364% during 195051 to 201011
(Fig. 1). This parallel trend of food-grain production
and area under irrigation illustrate that the resource
which has contributed the most to increase the
food-grain production is irrigation water. This
justifies the role played by water to make India
self-sufficient in food-grain production. The net
shown area increased marginally from 133.20 m ha
in 196061 to 139.85 m ha in 200607.
In the last 60 years, significant developments in
water resources and in agriculture have been noticed
in India. In India, canal water and groundwater are
the major sources of irrigation. During the last 23
decades, there has been practically no scope to
further increase the canal water-irrigated area, and
in the last 10 years or so, there has been a declining
Kurukshetra November 2013

Fig. 1. All-India production of food grains and % area
under irrigation.
(Source: Department of Agriculture and Cooperation,
200809 and 2010-11)
Fig. 2. Irrigation trend by canals and groundwater.
(Source: Ministry of Agriculture, GOI, 200607)
trend in the canal water-irrigated area (Fig. 2).
The contribution from groundwater to the
total irrigation area has increased substantially from
5,978,000 ha (29%) in 195051 to 35,372,000 ha
(59%) in 200506. An abrupt rise in groundwater
utilization is observed since 1980, which has
doubled in 25 years. Groundwater irrigation,
which expanded rapidly in the last few decades,
forms a major part of the water withdrawals in
many river basins. At present, more than 60% of
the total irrigated area is ground water-irrigated.
Nevertheless, during the last 10 years or so, even
the groundwater-irrigated area shows relatively
slower growth rate compared to the exponential
expanding situation from 1950 to 2000. This may
be due to possibly declining groundwater levels
induced by indiscriminate withdrawal, thereby
increasing the cost of pumping, and also due to
pollution of groundwater in many areas.
Kurukshetra November 2013
Clearly illustrates ( Fig. 3) that water utilization
for agricultural purposes in India is above the
international usage trend, which was 87% in 1990
and 85% in 2000. For application of water as
input, flood irrigation has predominantly been the
adopted practice throughout the country.
Currently, India is the largest groundwater
user in the world and millions of private tube
wells have been constructed. Such phenomenal
growth has been the reason for exploitation of
groundwater in the previous decades. The over
exploitation of groundwater and the existing vast
canal network, however, led to water- logging and
soil salinity in many parts of the country. There
are many reasons for high water usage, such as
zero or negligible tariffs on farm power in some
states of India; no additional costs for extracting
extra water; inadequate canal water; cultivation
of crops with high water requirement (e.g. rice
and sugarcane), and assured markets.
In India, the annual replenishable groundwater
resource is 433 billion cubic metre (bcm) and net
annual groundwater availability is 399 bcm. The
overall contribution of rainfall to the countrys
annual replenishable groundwater resource is 67%,
and the share of other sources, including canal
seepage, return flow from irrigation, seepage from
water bodies and water conservation structures
taken together is 33%. The available groundwater
resource for irrigation is 361 bcm, 90% of which is
utilizable quantity. A rapid growth in the number
of bore wells since 1980 has led to unplanned
abstraction of groundwater and a steady decline in
the water table, resulting in a large increase in
the cost of pumping a given volume of water.
Accordingly, the irrigation sector was assigned a
high priority in the Five-year plans. It is projected that
by 2030, demand of food grains in India will grow to
almost 1.5 trillion m3. Against this demand, Indias
current water supply is approximately 740 billion m3.
As a result, most of Indias river basins could face severe
water deficit by 2030 unless concerted action is taken,
with some of the most populous basins, including the
Ganga, Krishna, and the Indian portion of the Indus
facing the biggest absolute gap. Moreover, aquifers
are depleting in the most populated and economically
productive areas. Overall, up to a quarter of Indias
harvest has been estimated to be at risk due to
groundwater depletion.
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39
 Table 1. Annual water use/requirement of India
Use of water (bcm) 1990 2000 2010 2030
Agriculture 437 541 688 1198
% Use 87 85 85 80
Total 502 634 813 1498
(Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation, GOI, 2002 and Water Resources Group,
McKinsey and Company, 2009)
With the increase in population and per capita
income, the total demand of food grains is showing
an uptrend, causing an imbalance in demand and
supply. This clearly indicates that in the coming
years more food grains need to be produced
to fulfill the requirement of the population. The
data also suggest that from 2021 onwards India
may find it difficult to produce the required food
to feed the people under limited or scarce water-
availability conditions.
In some parts of India, the government provides
electricity to farmers at a reasonable cost to enable
agricultural use. This low-cost irrigation encourages
the users to draw more water, resulting in lowering
of groundwater and reducing the productivity of the
wells. The groundwater level in many watersheds
is declining due to unregulated over-exploitation
even when the recharge conditions are good.
Uttar Pradesh, a part of the Indo- Gangetic
Plains having extensive agriculture, where majority
of the farmers hold > 2 ha of land holding, the
number of diesel pump sets in 197980 was
581,998, which increased to 2,965,357 in 1998
99, a four-fold increase. From this trend, one can
estimate the number of diesel pump sets now, i.e.
12 years later. The increased use of diesel pumps
to run these sets would definitely be costing more
under the depleting water-level conditions. One of
the estimates of the Ministry of Water Resources,
GOI under the Fresh Water Year 2003 project, is
that in alluvium areas, energy saving for 1 m rise
in groundwater level is around 0.40 kW/h or vice
versa. Hence, if this is the case in only one state of
India, one can imagine the rise in cost of the food
items or energy requirement for proper irrigation
of the food crops.
In India, since the rural population density is
large and most of the agricultural holdings are small
(< 2 ha) and highly fragmented, social equity must
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40
be ensured in terms of water availability. Therefore,
to develop planting strategies and selection of
cropping pattern, systematic integration of time
distribution of water requirements for various
crops and various planting dates with water supply
according to availability of water is of paramount
importance. This will minimize the adverse impacts
of water scarcity on potential water-consuming
crops.
The availability of water is determined by
water accessibility and utilizability in terms of
quantity and quality. Enhancement in water
availability and safe water supply is guided by the
policies, plans and technologies at our disposal,
in addition to political, socio-economic, biological
and other factors. For an effective, efficient and
sustainable groundwater resources development
and management, the future challenges are to
assess the inextricable logical linkages between
water policies and ethical consideration.
All development plans should be based on
strict implementation of strategies for conservation
of water, increasing irrigation efficiencies,
minimizing the wastage of water, prevention
of water pollution, more efficient protection of
water quality, and restoration of landscapes and
ecological systems.
Groundwater recharge should be estimated
by reliable and accurate improved methods and
revised time to time, and the exploitation of
groundwater resources should be regulated so that
it remains in commensurate with the recharge.
Rational pricing of groundwater, energy irrigation
nexus and discouraging government support for
the installation of tube wells and subsidies on
electricity supplied to farmers could be the possible
policies for groundwater withdrawal management.
While such policy changes are likely to reduce
excessive and injudicious use of groundwater, it
may have different impacts on different sections of
the society in different regions.
[Dasharath Prasad is Assistant Professor
(Agronomy) Agricultural Research Station
(SKRAU) Sri Ganganagar 335001 (Raj) and and
Rakesh Kumar, is Assistant Professor (Department
of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry) at Bihar
Agricultural University Sabour, Bhagalpur (Bihar)
email-dashrath.sagar@gmail.com]
Kurukshetra November 2013
 Vegetable based Agripreneureship
for livelihood security
Shubhadeep Roy, Yerasu Suresh Reddy and Vanitha, S. M.
I
f someone asks a farmer today, that would you
like your child to become a farmer then in most
of the cases the answer will be obliviously NO.
This is because, agriculture is known for its gamble
with climate and market prices, less remunerative,
and leading to low social recognition. Resource
flowing into the agricultural sector is declining and
indebtedness of small and marginal farm families
is steeply rising. Input costs are increasing while
factors of productivity are declining. The cost-risk-
return structure of farming is becoming adverse,
to over 80 million farming families operating small
holding (NCF, Vth Report, 2006). Average land
holding of the country is shrinking day by day as
61.58% of total land holding belongs to marginal
category (Land below 1.0 ha), 18.73% holding
belongs to small category (1.0-2.0 ha) and such land
holdings can only support subsistence agriculture
and nothing else until and unless there is an apt
planning, positive will power of the individual
peasant with support of modern technology and
guiding principle.
Kurukshetra November 2013
Growing traditional crops like cereals, pulses
in small land holdings which is prevailing in our
country is not economically viable, because after
meeting the family consumption needs farmers
are hardly left over with marketable surplus of
the produce. It could not be sufficient to meet
other family requirements and many a times it
leads to indebtedness of the farm families. Now,
the question on how a farmer can make sufficient
money with his small piece of land and available
resources to meet his family requirements.
Farmers have to strategically choose crops which
have more market value and seasonal demand, to
earn remuneration round the year.
In India, urbanization is taking place at a rapid
rate. Urban population and number of towns are
increasing at galloping speed over the years. Due
to increased purchasing power and awareness
about health benefits of high-value commodities
(such as products of horticulture, dairy, livestock
and fish), over the time food habit of urban
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people has changed. People now prefer to have
high-value commodities in their daily diet. Of late,
due to welfare policies (eg.. MNAREGA, Mid-day
meals scheme, Annapoorna Anthya Yojana, now
Food security bill on cards) of Government of
India economic condition of poor in rural India
is improving and at the same time they have to
spend less on food grains. This situation gives
more scope for rural poor to include high value
commodities in their diet.
Overall, in future the demand for food and
processed commodities is going to increase due to
growing population and rising per capita income.
According to projections (Vision 2030, ICAR, New
Delhi, 2011), the demand for food grains would
increase from 192 million tonnes in 2000 to 345
million tonnes in 2030. To meet this, the production
of food grains needs to be increased at the rate of
5.5 million tonnes annually. On the other hand, the
demand for high-value commodities is increasing
faster than food grains. For most of the high-value
food commodities, demand is expected to increase
by more than 100% from 2000 to 2030.
Among high value commodities, going for
vegetable production and vegetable entrepreneurship
is the best option for small and marginal farmers as
it requires relatively less investment then others.
Other merits of vegetables production includes that
on an average, the yield-of vegetable crop is about 5
to 10 times more than that of cereals, they are quick
growing and shorter duration so provides for intensive
and multiple vegetable cropping leading to better
utilization of resources, year round employment and
revenue generation.
(From Vision 2030, ICAR, New Delhi, 2011) opportunity in the area
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Vegetables are highly perishable and have
many post harvest losses. To overcome this, they
may require different infrastructure for handling,
value-addition, processing and marketing. This
helps in augmenting farm incomes, generating
employment and in bringing a number of additional
stakeholders in the food-supply chain. So, going
for vegetable production has an upbeat scope
especially in peri-urban villages due to their easy
access to ever increasing markets and expanding
urban population.
India is a leading vegetable producing country
in the world. Looking at the vegetable scenario of
the country, presently it occupies 8.49 millions
hectare area with an annual production of 146.55
million tones. The country being blessed with
the unique gift of nature of diverse climate and
distinct seasons makes it possible to grow an array
of vegetables throughout the year.
Potato being the staple food and easy to
mix in several preparation ranks first (28.9%) in
total production of vegetables followed by other
important solanaceous vegetables, like tomato
(11.3%) and brinjal (8.1%). Onion is also one of the
important vegetables, occupying significant share
(10.3%) in vegetable production. Cauliflower and
cabbage are most preferred winter vegetables
and their total share in the countrys vegetable
production is 4.6 and 5.4 percent, respectively.
Other important vegetables primarily grown in the
country are okra, vegetable peas and cucurbits.
In last one decade, there has been considerable
progress in enhancing the productivity of
vegetables, which is presently 17.3 tonnes
per hectare. India has
potential to become one
of the largest vegetable
exporters in the world
due to its agro-climatic
diversity. For this dream to
come true there should be
technology upgradation,
quality management,
firm adherence to export
commitments and
acquisition of appropriate
negotiation skills. There
is an upbeat business
Kurukshetra November 2013
 Production share (%) of major vegetable
crops in India
(Indian Horticulture Database, 2011)
of seed production, storage and processing for
vegetable crops. Similarly, opportunities in the
area of post harvest processing would increase
manifold in near future. Business opportunities
in these areas are going to be increased manifold
in near future (Vision 2030, IIVR, Varanasi, 2011)
and there lies the opportunity to establish
entrepreneurship in vegetable crops and uplift
the subsistence farmers to sustainable and
economically viable agro- businessman. The farmer
interested to enter into agri-business must go for
product identification first and SWOT (Strength,
Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) analysis of
his venture. The issues, which have to be kept in
mind, while doing SWOT analysis of the identified
product venture are:
1. Availability of market: If there is no
assurance of an adequate market, there is no
scene of venturing into the business. There
is huge demand of pure vegetable seeds in
the market. It is reported several times that
the vegetable seeds available in the market
are spurious, farmers dont get uniform
germination and fruits are also not uniform.
Moreover, seeds are very costly. Venturing
into seed production industry, may pave good
business scope as there is huge demand of
quality vegetable seed in the market.
2. Availability of technology and skill: For
running the vegetable seed production
industry, the entrepreneur should have
the knowledge about its production
technology. The method of cultivation for
seed production is nearly the same as that of
cultivation of vegetable. However, he should
Kurukshetra November 2013
have knowledge about specified isolation
distances for individual crops, details about
sowing and transplanting time, seed rate,
planting distance and fertilizers doses. He or
his fellow employee should be aware about
the skill of rouging of seed crop throughout
the crop period.
3. Strategic fit and priority: The business
venture should fit well within the existing
product line, technology, marketing set up,
production system, facilities and resources of
the entrepreneur. The availability of quality
seed is of utmost importance for increasing
the vegetable production. Vegetable growers
recognize quality seed of improved varieties
as the most strategic resources for higher and
better vegetable yields.
4. Risk factor: The degree of risk has to be
assessed beforehand. Regarding vegetable
seed production, the risk may be of admixture
in the pure line or crop failure cue to abiotic
and biotic factors may be disease pest
infestation.
5. Profitability and cost-benefit: Profitability is
a matter of perception or prior knowledge of
the entrepreneur based on their experience,
observation or feedback from the others. The
entrepreneur has to analyze the benefits of
his enterprise in forms of profitability, risk
investment requirement and availability
of inputs. The enterprise should provide
sufficient benefits to the community either
through employment generation, backward
and forward linkages with other industries or
through economic activities, and availability
of needed product and services.
Conclusion
Based on resources in the hand, market prices
of input and out put, requirements of society etc.,
farmers have to practice farm business astutely.
There is a great need to make our farmers
entrepreneurial as entrepreneurs are not borne
but can be made through systematic process and
by providing sufficient infrastructure (both social
and physical) to take a shift from subsistence
agriculture to commercial agri-business.
[The authors are from the Indian Institute
of Vegetable Research, Varanasi]
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 Zinc vital to crop production and productivity
Yashbir Singh Shivay
Z inc has emerged as the most important
micronutrient deficient in soils of several
countries of the world. About 50% soil samples
analyzed for available Zn were found deficient in
25 countries including India. A good response to Zn
application has been reported for several crops from
all over India. The factors responsible for increase of
incidences of Zn deficiency include large Zn removals
due to high crop yields and intensive cropping
systems, lesser application of organic manures, use of
high analysis fertilizers such as urea and DAP in place
of ammonium sulphate and single superphosphate,
increased use of phosphate fertilizers resulting in
P-induced Zn deficiency and the use of poor quality
irrigation without adequate drainage. The availability
of Zn in soils is influenced by pH and CaCO3 content,
clay minerals, oxide minerals, organic C, soil moisture,
amounts of Zn applied and weather.
Functions of Zn in plants
The essentiality of Zn for higher plants was
demonstrated by Somner and Lipman in 1926. Zinc is
involved in diverse enzymatic activities such as auxin
metabolism, dehydrogenases, phosphodiesterase
and the promotion of synthesis of cytochrome C. Zn
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44
is essential for the stability of cytoplasmic ribosomes
and root cell plasma membrane, catalyses the process
of oxidation, is concerned with synthesis of protein
and indole-acetic acid and the transformation of
carbohydrates. Zn can affect carbohydrate metabolism
at various levels. The activity of Zn-containing enzyme
carbonic anhydrase sharply declines with Zn deficiency
and in extreme Zn deficiency net photosynthesis is
inhibited, presumably due to chloroplast structure
and inhibited photosynthetic electron transfer. Several
other enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism
are Zn dependent and inhibited by Zn deficiency. Zn
containing enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) plays
an important role in anaerobic root respiration in rice
and the process is impaired under Zn deficiency.
Zn deficiency inhibits protein synthesis mainly by a
marked decrease in RNA. Zn containing isoenzyme SOD
(Cu-Zn-SOD) plays an important role in the detoxification
of superoxide radicals and thus protects membrane
lipids and proteins against oxidation. Accumulation
of tryptophan is reported to be an expression of an
inhibited protein synthesis under Zn deficiency. Zn
deficiency leads to lower concentration of IAA as well
as impaired GA metabolism. Many enzymes contain
tightly bound Zn essential for their function. Considering
Kurukshetra November 2013
 all organisms, more than 80 such enzymes are known,
however, only a few are known in higher plants.
Deficiency symptoms
Zinc deficiency in citrus and corn has been known
in USA for quite some time in the past and these crop
plants are referred to as marker plants for Zn deficiency.
In maize the Zn deficiency is known as white bud due
to shorter yellowish to white top leaves. In India, Nene
(1966) was the first to report Zn deficiency in rice at G.B.
Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar.
The symptoms of Zn in rice were brown spots in the top
leaves to begin with followed by almost complete rust
browning of leaves. Because of this rust brown colour
the disease was named as khaira (Katha or Catechu
used as an ingredient in pan or betel leaves popularly
chewed in India and Pakistan). Since then there has
been considerable research in India on Zn and other
micronutrients under the All India Coordinated Project
on Micronutrients of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research with the head quarter at the Indian Institute
of Soil Science, Bhopal. Zn being a less mobile nutrient,
most of the deficiency symptoms are in young leaves
at the growing point. Physiologically, Zn deficiency can
adversely affect the leaf chlorophyll content, stomatal
conductance and net photosynthesis. Because of this
in some cases the Zn deficiency symptoms in some
crops such as maize may be confused with Fe deficiency
which also produces yellowing or whitening of leaves. In
wheat the symptoms are similar to those in rice but with
lesser browning. In peas Zn deficiency is manifested in
malformed leaves or little leaf and is known as rosette
formation. Zn deficiency is also reported in soybean,
cowpea and other legumes.
Critical (concentration) limits
Lower critical concentration (LCC) in plant tissue
at which it shows the deficiency symptoms depends
not only on crop and its cultivars but also on the plant
part and age of the crop. It is generally agreed that Zn
deficiency in plants occurs when the Zn concentration is
20 mg kg-1 of plant tissue (ppm) or less. Lower critical
limits (LCC) for some crops are given in Table 1.
In rice Yoshida et al. (1973) gave the following
criteria for diagonizing Zn deficiency in rice:
Zn (mg kg-1 DM) in whole shoot Diagnosis
<10 Definite deficiency
10-15 Very likely deficiency
15.1-20 Likely deficiency
> 20 No deficiency
Zn being a micronutrient its excess uptake
results in phytotoxicity which not only results in
reduction in crop yield and quality but may also
lead to accumulation in food chain and this may
impair human and animal health. Zn phytotoxicity
symptoms are similar to Fe chlorosis. For field crops,
in general, a normal range of 27 to 150 mg kg-1 DM

Table 3. Lower critical limits (LCC) of Zn in plant tissue below which Zn deficiency is likely to occur

Crop Tissue Critical limit Reference

(mg kg-1 DM)
Field crops
Rice Whose shoot 20 Yoshida et al. (1973)
Leaf 20 Singh and Singh (2005)
Shoot 10 Singh and Singh (2005)
Wheat Leaves 8-12 Takkar et al. (1997)
Maize Ear leaf at tasselling 20 Lukas (1967)
Soybean Top fully open leaves leaf 20 Lucas (1967)
blade No. 5 21 Okhi (1977)
Vegetables Top fully open leaves 20 Lucas (1967)
Chickpea Whole shoot 20-21 Khan et al. (1998)
Subterranean clover Youngest open leaf blade 18 Legett and Westermann (1986)
Cowpea Upper leaves 20 Marsh and Ewalters (1985)
Fruit crops
Avocado Leaf tissue 20 Crowley et al. (1996)
Pecan Leaf 14 Hu and Sparks (1991)

Kurukshetra November 2013 45

45
in mature leaf tissue is reported, while in general
a value of leaf Zn concentration above 100 mg kg-1
DM is considered the upper critical limit (UCL).
Once leaf Zn exceeds 400 mg kg-1 DM, toxicity of Zn
is to be expected. Tissue Zn concentration (mg kg-1
DM) for plants showing visual toxicity symptoms
were: cotton and orange 200; tomato 526 and oats
1,700. In pot experiments, Zn concentration of 792
mg kg-1 DM in maize, 523 mg kg-1 DM in lettuce
and 702 mg kg-1 DM in alfalfa were associated with
yield depressions. Chino (1981) suggested the toxic
Zn levels for rice tops as 100-300 mg kg-1 DM and
for rice roots as 500 to 1,000 mg kg-1 DM. Thus the
upper critical limit (UCL) for Zn varies considerably
in crops and will depend upon the crop, cultivar
and the concentration of other nutrients in plant
tissue.
It may also be pointed out that while the major
effort in breeding cereal varieties is for developing
those that can produce grain with least amount of
Zn in soil, some effort is being made to produce crop
varieties that can absorb more Zn from the soil so
that the nutritional demands of Zn of humans are
met from the cereal grains, which are the staple food
in many developing countries specialty in Asia.
Effect of weather conditions of plants in maize due to heavy P fertilization has
(i) Temperature
Considerable literature exists from USA and
Australia to show that Zn deficiency manifests under
low temperatures in corn, linseed, beans and potato
etc. This could be due to reduced root growth as well
as due to lowered absorption and translocation of Zn
in plants. Hayman (1974) pointed out that reduced
mycorrhizal growth that helps in Zn absorption could
also be a factor responsible for expression of Zn
deficiency.
(ii) Soil moisture
Under dryland conditions reduced moisture
content in the surface layer may reduce Zn absorption
and cause Zn-deficiency. Zn-deficiency in rice may
be accentuated by flooding due to increased soil
pH that reduces Zn availability, increased Fe++ and
Mn++ concentration that suppress Zn uptake and
increased HCO3 concentration that detrimentally
affects translocation of Zn in plant.
(iii) Light
Reduced light intensity is reported to
increase the severity of Zn-deficiency in corn
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46
and subterranean clover. In India Zn deficiency in
maize manifests itself on a cloudy day (authors
observations).
Interactions of Zinc with other Plant Nutrients
Availability of Zn in soils and its absorption and
translocations in plants is influenced by almost all
other plant nutrients.
(a) Primary nutrients
Zinc interacts positively with N and P and
negatively with P. Synergistic effects of Zn x N
interaction, are mainly attributed to increased
availability of Zn in soils due to acid forming effect
of N, while positive Zn x K interaction is attributed
to the role of K in Zn translocation in plants. On the
other hand Zn in general interacts negatively with P,
which depends upon a number of physico-chemical
properties of soil. Antagonistic Zn x P interaction has
been subject of intensive research in several countries
and has been thoroughly reviewed, although some
Zn x P synergistic interactions are also reported.
When large amounts of P are applied close to
the seed and soil Zn levels are low, Zn deficiency in
plants is exhibited. Yield reductions or poor growth
been reported from USA. From India Takkar et al.
(1989) indicated that increasing levels of P beyond
44 kg ha-1 in growth medium significantly decreased
the grain yield of maize.
Reductions in crop yields due to high P
fertilization have been attributed to high P:Zn
ratio although reports are available where
depressed Zn concentrations associated with high P
concentrations in plant tissue were not associated
with a decrease in yield. One of the apparent causes
for decrease in Zn concentration in plant tissue
due to P fertilization is simply dilution caused by
increased plant growth. Excess Zn application can
also reduce P concentration in plants. Welch et al.
(1982) showed that Zn deficient wheat roots have
increased permeability for phosphate and chloride.
There are some reports indicating P reduced
imbition of Zn into the roots or interference with
translocation of Zn from roots to metabolic sites in
the leaves. Loneragan and Webb (1993) showed that
when plants are supplied with high P and low Zn,
they accumulate high P in their leaves, precipitating
Zn and therefore increasing plants internal need of
P. The enhancement of P uptake and translocation
Kurukshetra November 2013
 is specific for Zn deficiency and does not occur in
plants deficient in Fe, Mn or Cu.
Mycorrhizas associated with roots are believed
to enhance the uptake of Zn and since high P values
reduce VA mycorrhizal development this may affect
Zn uptake.
As regards P-Zn precipitation reaction in soil
the solubility diagrams show that Zn3 (PO4)2.4H2O is
much more soluble than soil Zn. As a matter of fact
zinc phosphate compared well with zinc sulphate
as a source of Zn. In a study by Takkar et al. (1976)
addition of P even beyond 200 kg P2O5 ha-1 only slightly
influenced extractable Zn. Thus addition of P to soils
does not generally decrease Zn extractable by water,
0.1 NHCl or dithiozone. Norvell et al. (1987) reported
that addition of P caused a significant decrease in the
Zn concentration only in calcareous soil; this is in line
with the spread of Zn deficiency in such soils. Thus,
reduced Zn availability in soils due to the formation
of Zn-P precipitate does not seem valid.
Increased Zn sorption into soils due to
increased negative surface charge with P reducing its
bioavailability to plants has also been reported.
It may be summarized that P induced Zn
deficiency in plants can be due to several mechanisms,
some of which are:
1. Increased negative surface charge on soil due
to P fertilization leading to increased retention
of P.
2. P-Zn interaction in the soil either on soil-root
interface or on adsorption sites.
3. Dilution effect on Zn concentration in plant
tissue due to growth response to P.
4. Reduced translocations of Zn.
5. Precipitation of sparingly soluble Zn-phosphates
in stems and leaf tissue (physiological
inactivation of Zn).
6. Impact of P on mycorrhizal infection of roots.
b) Secondary nutrients
Zn interacts antagonistically with all the 3
secondary plant nutrients. Higher concentrations of
Ca and Mg inhibited absorption and translocation
of Zn in maize, citrus, rice and sunflower. Similarly S
and Zn interacted negatively in wheat, chickpea and
sunflower. However, positive interaction of S and Zn
is also reported in rice, wheat and mustard.
Kurukshetra November 2013
c) Micronutrients
Most available reports show negative interaction
of Zn with Fe, Mn, Cu and Mo. As regards B, it is reported
that Zn application created a protective mechanism
in root cell micro-environment against excessive B
uptake.
Sources and Methods of Zn Application
Sources of Zn
There are four classes of Zn sources: inorganic,
synthetic chelates, natural organic complexes and
inorganic complexes. The inorganic sources are sulphate,
chloride, carbonate and oxides of Zn (Table 2).
Of these sulphate is the most widely used
source of Zn. Of the two sulphates zinc sulphate
heptahydrate (ZnSO4.7H2O) is most widely marketed
and used Zn fertilizer in India. Of late ZnO is receiving
some attention because of its high Zn content 50-80%
as compared to 21% in ZnSO4.7H2O and especially
in the context of making Zn coated (zincated) urea.
Spent zinc oxide (ZnS) as a by-product of fertilizer
industry has only recently been brought to the scene.
Of the synthetic chelates, Zn-EDTA is the material
that is widely used in India and abroad. A number
of studies have been made to compare the relative
efficiency of different sources of Zn for several crops
and while some researchers reported that water
soluble zinc sulphate was superior for rice and wheat
in other studies no significant differences were
observed between different sources of Zn. Most
of these studies were made on alkaline Entisols,
Aridisols and Vertisols. Some studies also showed
that relatively less soluble Zn fertilizers such as ZnO
or Zn-frits gave higher residual effects on succeeding
crops and recorded higher levels of available Zn. Zinc
frits although inferior to zinc sulphate and zinc oxide
for barley maintained labile Zn in the soil for a much
longer period. The only reference to zincated urea is
that of Deb et al. (1986, 1997), who reported that it
was superior to zinc sulphate A number of studies in
USA have reported 3 or more times higher efficiency of
Zn-EDTA over zinc sulphate. In India in a pot study Zn-
EDTA gave the highest yield followed by zinc sulphate
and ZnO. In one field study in north-western India Zn-
EDTA was found to be nearly 3 times more effective
than zinc sulphate but it was not economical due to
high costs. Zn-EDTA is several times more expensive
than zinc sulphate.
Appropriate balanced combination of zinc
sulphate with urea is likely to become more popular
47
47
 Table 2. Zn content of some Zn fertilizers

Fertilizer Chemical formula % Zn (g kg-1 or kg t-1)

Zinc sulphate
monohydrate ZnSO4.H2O 33.01/ (330)
heptahedra ZnSO4.7H2O 21.01/ (210)
Zinc oxide ZnO 50-80(500-800)
Zinc chloride ZnCl2 48-50 (480-500)
Zinc carbonate ZnCO3 52-56(520-560)
Zinc frits 10-30(100-300)
Zinc chelates Na2ZnEDTA 121/ (120)
Zinc lignosulphate - (5-8) (50-80)
Zinc polyflavonoid - (5-10) (50-100)
Zincated urea - (2 , 12/,0.5) (20, 10, 5)
1/

Spent zinc oxide ZnS (60-66)3/ (600-660)

& (30-32S) (300-320S)
Source: 1/FCO, Govt. of India; 2/Other grades now available (5-10 g kg-1)
3/
Kishore et al. (118); Others: Rattan et al. (195)

in future because of convenience of application and
guarantee of quality due to its coming directly from
major fertilizer producers.
Zinc lignosulfonates and zinc polyflavonoids are
the wood by-products of the paper industry and have
not been tested in India so far.
In addition to the specific Zn fertilizers just
discussed the organic manures and chemical fertilizers
used for supplying NPK especially rock phosphate
derived ones and bone meal contain fairly good
amounts of Zn. The problem of Zn deficiency emerged
in rice-wheat belt of north-western India because of
shifting from superphosphate to DAP, disuse of organic
manures and of course depletion of native soil Zn due
to high crop harvests season after season and year after
year (10-14 tonnes ha-1yr-1).
Methods of Zn application
Methods of Zn application to crops include soil
application (broadcast or band placement), foliar
application, dusting seeds with Zn powder or soaking
them in Zn solution, swabbing foliage with Zn paste or
solution, dipping roots of seedlings of transplanted crops
in Zn solution or suspension and inserting galvanized
mails or pieces of metallic Zn into tree trunks. However,
in India mostly soils vs. foliar application have been
compared. Although in some studies when a number
of sprays were made, foliar applications were equally
effective as soil application or did show some advantage
over soil application in other studies soil application
was found better than foliar application. Generally 6 kg
zinc sulphate applied foliar equals to about 25 kg zinc
sulphate applied through soil, but the soil application
has advantage of building up soil Zn level and giving
residual effects to the succeeding crops, while the
continued foliar application results in mining of native
soil Zn and over years it may make them Zn deficient.
Katyal et al. (2004) based on the review of several
studies under diverse conditions pointed out that the
relative efficiency of Zn sources could vary with the
method of application. They observed that with soluble
fertilizers such as zinc sulphate band placement was
generally superior to broadcast application, while for
less soluble fertilizers such as ZnO and Zn frits broadcast
application was better. They also pointed out that the
differences between soluble and less soluble fertilizers
disappeared when broadcast on wet puddle as in rice
production. These views were corroborated by other
workers also.
Other modes of applications such as soaking
seeds in Zn solution, dipping roots of rice seedlings in
Zn suspension and raising of Zn enriched nursery have
also been evaluated with variable results and despite
favourable economics have not gained popularity.
[The author is Principal Scientist, Division of
Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New
Delhi 110 012, email: ysshivay@hotmail.com]

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48 Kurukshetra November 2013