Food security depends on the availability, accessibility, and affordability of food. It requires enough food being available, all people having the capacity to purchase food, and no barriers preventing access to food. Food insecurity is caused by factors like poverty, natural disasters that damage food production, and widespread crop failures from drought. The poor, landless, lower castes, migrants, and women and children are most vulnerable. India has implemented programs like the Public Distribution System and food subsidies to improve food security, though many problems still exist, and some groups and areas remain insecure.

2. Food security means :
0 availability,
0 accessibility and
0 affordability of food to all people at all times.

3. DIMENSIONS OF FOOD
SECURITY
a) AVAILABILITY of food means food production
within the country, food imports and the
previous years stock stored in govt. granaries.
b) ACCESSIBILITY means food is within reach of
every person.
c) AFFORDABILITY implies that an individual has
enough money to buy sufficient, safe and
nutritious to meet ones dietary needs.

4. Food Security is ensured in a
country only if
0 Enough food is available for all the persons
0 All persons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable
quality and
0 There is no barrier on access to food.

5. Need for Food Security:
0 For the poor sections of the society
0 Natural disasters or calamity like earthquake,
drought, flood, tsunami,
0 Widespread crop failure due to drought

6. How drought affects food
security
Drought takes place
Total
production of food
grains
Shortage of food in the
affected areas
Prices
Some people
cannot afford to buy food = Food
Insecurity

7. Why food security?
POVERTY

8. Starvation
0 If such calamity happens in a very wide spread area or
is stretched over a longer time period, it may cause a
situation of starvation.

9. Famine
0 A massive starvation might take a turn of famine.
0 A Famine is characterized by
1. widespread deaths and
2. epidemics

10. Famines and Starvation Deaths in
India
0 Bengal Famine, 1943
-killed 1.5 million to 3 million
0 The Bihar famine, 1966-7
- 2,353 deaths due to starvation reported
Starvation deaths have also been reported in:
1. Kalahandi and Kashipur in Orissa
2. Baran district of Rajasthan,
3. Palamau district of Jharkhand
and many other remote areas during the recent
years.

11. Food Insecure Groups
Worst Affected Groups:
0 landless people
0 traditional artisans
0 traditional services providers
0 petty self-employed workers
0 Homeless, beggars etc.
0 Families employed in ill-paid occupations
0 casual labourers (seasonal activities+ very low wages)

12. 0 SCs, STs and some sections of the OBCs (lower castes
among them) –having poor land-base or very low land
productivity
0 Migrants ( as a result of natural disasters )
0Women and children

13. States facing problem of food
insecurity
0 Uttar Pradesh (eastern and south-eastern parts),
Bihar,
0 Jharkhand,
0 Orissa,
0West Bengal,
0 Chattisgarh,
0 parts of Madhya Pradesh and
0 Maharasthra

14. Hunger, another aspect of
Food Insecurity
Chronic
Hunger Due agricultural
Inadequate
diet for a
long time
Poor people
suffer from
chronic
hunger
activities-rural
regions & urban
areas- casual
labour
When a person
is unable to get
work for the
entire year
Seasonal
Hunger

15. India’s attempts at attaining
Food Security
Green Revolution: Foodgrain Production
Highest
Growth
Punjab and
Haryana
Tamil Nadu
and Andhra
Pradesh
Low
Growth
Maharashtra,
Madhya
Pradesh
Bihar, Orissa
and the N-E
states

16. India’s Food Security System
Buffer
Stock
Public
Distributio
n System
Food
Security
System of
India

17. How the Public Distribution System works:
Farmers or
Producers
Fair Price
Shops
C.I.P Distributes
States
Grains MSP
F.C.I
(maintains
Buffer
Stocks)
Allocates Grains
Central Issue Price
Grains

18. Government schemes
0 PDS (initial Public Distribution System scheme)
0 RPS (Revamped Public Distribution System)
0 TPDS (Targeted Public Distribution System)
Special Schemes:
0 AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana)
0 APS (Annapurna Scheme)

20. Benefits from the PDS:
0 Stabilizes prices of food grains
0Makes food available at affordable prices
0 By supplying food from surplus regions of the country
to the deficit ones, it helps in combating hunger and
famine
0 Prices set with poor households in mind
0 Provides income security to farmers in certain regions

21. Problems faced by PDS:
0 Problem of Hunger still exists in many areas of India
0 Footstock in granaries often above specified levels
0 Deterioration in quality of stored food grains if kept
for longer time
0 High storage costs
0 Increase in MSP has led to shift from coarse grain to
rice and wheat production among the farmers
0 Cultivation of rice has also led to environmental
degradation and fall in the water level

25. 0 Average consumption of PDS grain at the all-India
level is very low
0 Malpractices on part of PDS dealers:
 Diverting the grains to open market to get better
margin,
 Selling poor quality grains at ration shops,
 Irregular opening of the shops
0 Low Income families earning just above poverty line
have to pay APL rates which are almost equal to open
market rates – lower incentive to buy from Fair Price
Shops

26. FOOD SECURITY BILL OF 2013
0 The Indian National Food Security Act,
2013 (also Right to Food Act), was signed into
law September 12, 2013.
0 This law aims to provide subsidized food
grains to approximately two thirds of India's
1.2 billion people. Under the provisions of the
bill, beneficiaries are to be able to purchase 5
kilograms per eligible person per month of
cereals at the following prices:
0 R = INR- 3
0 W= INR - 2
0 CG= INR- 1