Food is as essential for living as air is to breathing. But food security means something more than getting two square meals. Food security means availability, accessibility and affordability of food to all people at all times.

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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

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

8. 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.

9. 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)

10. 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 )
0 Women and children

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

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

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

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

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

16. 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)

18. Benefits from the PDS:
0 Stabilizes prices of foodgrains
0 Makes 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

19. Problems faced by PDS:
0 Problem of Hunger still exists in many areas of India
0 Foodstock in granaries often above specifed levels
0 Deterioration in quality of stored foodgrains 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

20. 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