Poverty, Hunger and Agriculture

1. SDGs: Poverty, Hunger and
Agriculture
Prof. S.Mahendra Dev
Director and Vice Chancellor,
IGIDR, Mumbai

2. MDG progress in India
Indicators Achievement Indicators Achievement
Poverty Early Achiever Antenatal care Slow track
Underweight
children
Slow Track HIV prevalence Early achiever
Primary
enrolment
On track TB incidence Early achiever
Primary complet. Early achiever TB prevalence Early achiever
Gender Primary Early achiever Forest cover Early achiever
Gender Tertiary Slow track Protected area Early achiever
Under 5 mortality Slow track Co2 emissions
per GDP
Early achiever
Infant mortality Slow track Safe drink. water Early achiever
Maternal
mortality
Slow track Basic Sanitation Slow track
Skilled birth atte. Slow track
Source: UN

3. SDGs
All the 17 SDGs are important and inter related.
1. No Poverty; 2: Zero Hunger
3. Good health and well being; 4. Quality education;
5. Gender equality; 6. Clean water and sanitation; 7.
Affordable and clean energy
8. Decent work and economic growth; 9. industry,
innovation and infrastructure; 10. Reduced
inequalities; 11. Sustainable cities and communities;
12. Responsible consumption and production; 13.
Climate action; 14. Life below water
16. Peace, justice, strong institutions; 17.
Partnerships for the goals
We focus on poverty (1) hunger and nutrition (2).

4. Poverty
There are several issues in poverty
measurement and trends.
Official Committees: Tendulkar Committee,
Rangarajan Committee: Poverty line debate
Niti Ayog : Yet to decide on poverty estimat.
Multi-dimensional Poverty is higher.
National Account statistics (NAS) and NSS
consumption. Difference was 10% in 1970s
and nearly 50% in 2009-10
Poverty ratios and identifying the poor.
Public expenditure and impact on poor

5. Poverty and SDGs
Target 1.1. By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for
all people living on less than $1.25 a day
Target 1.2. By 2030, reduce at least by half the
proportion of men, women and children of all ages
living in poverty in all its dimensions according to
national definitions.
We consider here income poverty.
Income poverty declined faster in recent years
The all India Poverty Head Count Ratio (PHCR)
estimate was 47.8% in 1990. In order to meet the
target the PHCR level has to be 23.9% by 2015. In
2011-12, the PHCR at all India level was 21.9%,
which shows that, India has already achieved the
target well ahead of time.

6. Trends in Poverty Estimates
There are two conclusions in the post-reform
period.
First one is that a World Bank study by Gaurav
Datt et al shows that poverty declined by 1.36%
points per annum in post-1991 compared to that
of 0.44% points per annum prior to 1991.
Second conclusion is that within post-reform
period, poverty declined faster in 2000s than in
1990s.
0.74 percentage points per annum during 1993-
94 to 2004-05.
2.2 percentage points per annum during 2004-
05 to 2011-12

7. Access: Changes in poverty (official)
Poverty Ratio (%) Number of Poor (million)
Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total
1993-94 50.1 31.8 45.3 328.6 74.5 403.7
2004-05 41.8 25.7 37.2 326.3 80.8 407.1
2011-12 25.7 13.7 21.9 216.5 52.8 269.3
Annual
decline
1993/94
to
2004/5
percenta
ge points
0.75 0.55 0.74
Annual
decline
2004/5
to
2011/12
percenta
ge points
2.32 1.69 2.18
Poverty
decline
faster in
the
second

8. Concentration of Poverty
Best Performing States Worst Performing States
State 1993-94 2011-12 State 1993-94 2011-12
Kerala 31.3 7.1 Bihar 60.4 33.7
A.P. 44.6 9.2 U.P. 48.4 29.4
Tamil
Nadu
44.5 11.3 Jharkha
nd
60.7 37.0
Punjab 22.4 8.3 Assam 51.8 32.0
Haryana 35.9 11.2 M.P. 44.0 31.7
Uttarakh
and
32.1 11.3 Chattisg
arh
50.9 39.9
All India 45.1 21.9
Worst performing states had share of 41% in total 1993-
94 but increased to 57% in 2011-12

9. Poverty by Social groups and Types (Rural)
ST SC OBC Others
SE in agri 42.2 28.9 20.3 13.4
SE in
non-agri
28.3 23.4 19.1 12.5
Regular
wage
20.8 12.9 10.3 7.7
CL in agri 59.7 41.3 34.8 31.0
CL in
non-agri
54.5 32.7 29.7 23.0
Others 44.3 27.6 16.5 8.2
Total 45.3 31.5 22.7 15.5
In rural, poverty is concentrated in SCs and STs and
casual labour in agri and non-agri

10. Factors for decline in poverty
What are the factors for higher decline in poverty
during 2004-05 to 2011-12? Several factors
The following factors are generally mentioned.
Higher economic growth: 7 to 8% per annum
Agricultural growth: Around 4% per annum.
Agriculture and rural real wages recorded higher
growth
Rural non-farm employment increased. It rose
from 23.7% in 1999-00 to 35.9% in 2011-12.
Social Protection programmes like MGNREGA
Productive employment is crucial for reduction in
poverty

11. Will India achieve SDG on poverty?
If recent trends continue, India would be
able to achieve the SDG on poverty by
2030 based on both global ($1.25 earlier
or $1.90 now) and national poverty lines.
But, if we consider multi-dimensional
poverty, more efforts are needed
Similarly, inclusive growth approach may
be needed to eradicate poverty in states
and social groups with high poverty.

12. Debate: Role of Agri&Non-agri in poverty reduction
Recently there have been debates on the roles of
agriculture and non-agriculture
Some studies showed that non-agri. and urban
growth were important for poverty reduction.
Some other studies indicated that agriculture and
rural growth were responsible.
Recent paper by Datt, Ravallion and Murugan
showed that during pre-991-period, rural growth
was the driver of poverty reduction.
However, in the post-1991 period, rural growth
though still important, has been displaced by
urban growth as the most important contributor to
the rapid reduction in poverty even in rural areas.

13. Agri, non-agro and poverty
Stephan Dercon (Oxford University) in a paper
‘Does Agriculture Reduce Poverty’.
He challenged the very notion that agricultural
research or agri growth reduces poverty.
He says poverty did not decline during green
revolution time in India. Later decline was due to
non-agriculture.
On the other hand, World Development Report of
the World Bank says the poverty reducing impact
of agriculture is twice to that of non-agriculture.
Recent study by Raghav Gaiha & others
examined separate effects of agriculture, rural
non-agri., small towns and metropolitan cities.

14. Roles of Agri and Non-agri
They found that contrary to the conclusion of Datt
and Ravallion, agriculture’s contribution to poverty
reduction is five times more than the metropolitan
cities.
This is in contrast to the dominant view that
urbanization is the key to poverty reduction.
Of course, one should have more balanced
approach on the roles of agriculture, non-
agriculture and urban growth.
My view is that I agree more with the latter view.
Revival of agriculture in policy discourse is needed.
It is still biggest provider of livelihoods (may not
absorb additional labour) but important for poverty.

15. 2. Hunger and Nutrition
Target 2.1. By 2030, end hunger and ensure
access by all people, in particular the poor and
people in vulnerable situations, including infants,
to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year
round
Target 2.2 By 2030, end all forms of
malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the
internationally agreed targets on stunting and
wasting in children under 5 years of age, and
address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls,
pregnant and lactating women and older
persons

16. Indicators of Hunger
Hunger has three major dimensions. First one is
calories deprivation
Second, protein hunger is another deprivation, due
to inadequate consumption of pulses, milk, eggs,
fish and meat.
Third is hidden hunger, caused by the deficiency of
micro-nutrients such as iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A
and vitamin B12.
Achieving zero hunger by 2030 is a challenge.
Globally, one in nine people in the world today (794
million) are undernourished. 2 billion people
experience micronutrient malnutrition. 1.9 billion
adults are overweight or obese.
India has many people with the above deficiencies.

17. Undernutrition
In the 1990s and upto mid-2000s, the progress in
reduction in stunting, underweight and wasting
was slow.
Stunting rate in under three declined from 53% in
1992-93 to 45% in 2006, average rate of decline of
1.2% per year.
It declined from 48% in 2005-06 to 38.% in 2015-
16 at the average rate of 1% per year.
This decline could be to expansion and
improvement of several programmes. These
programmes are
Expansion in Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS)

18. Undernutrition
The launch of National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM), MGNREGA,
reforms in several states in PDS, targeted efforts
like Maharashtra Nutrition mission.
It is true that the expansion and increasing
efficiency in the delivery systems helped.
In addition, improvements in sanitation and
drinking water might have also helped in
enhancing nutrition.
Also economic and agricultural growth might
have helped in reducing malnutrition.

19. Undernutrition
India had a high economic growth of 9 per cent per
annum during 2005-06 to 2008-09, which helped in
an increase in tax-GDP ratio and an allocation of
higher expenditure to the social sector.
Similarly, India also had a higher agriculture growth
rate of 4 per cent per annum during the 11th Plan
period (2007-12). This too must have helped in
raising nutrition.
However, it is fair to say that economic growth that
includes high agricultural growth and direct
programmes has been a responsible factor in the
recent finding of a significant reduction in
malnutrition.

20. Progress in Stunting (height for age)
States 2005-06 2015-16 States 2005-06 2015-16
Andhra
Pradesh
-- 31.4 Maharas
htra
46.3 34.4
Bihar 55.6 48.3 Odisha 45.1 34.1
Chattisga 52.9 37.6 Punjab 36.7 25.7
Gujarat 51.7 38.5 Rajastha. 43.7 39.1
Haryana 45.7 34.0 Tamil N. 30.9 27.1
Jharkha. 49.8 45.3 Telangan -- 28.1
Karnatak 43.7 36.2 U.P. 56.8 46.3
Kerala 24.5 19.7 West B. 44.6 32.5
M.P. 50.0 42.0 All
India
48.0 38.4

21. Importance of India for Global Goals
Why is India important for global food &nutrition security?
Inspite of significant progress in the last eight years, a lot of
work has to be done in order to reduce malnutrition in India.
48 million out of 159 million stunted children of the world
are from India (30 per cent). In other words, one out of
three stunted children are in India.
Similarly, global share is high in other indicators of hunger
and malnutrition.
In order to achieve SDG on hunger and malnutrition,
lot of efforts are needed on agriculture linkages,
women empowerment, health, sanitation, drinking
water, nutrition awareness and education.

22. Women and malnutrition
The evidence shows that malnutrition can be reduced
by enhancing women’s health, promoting gender
equality and, empowerment of women including
female education.
Gender equality and the well-being of children go
hand in hand.
The rights of women and children are mutually
reinforcing. Need for concentration first 1000 days
(children upto 2years)
Significant part of Indian and South Asian
‘Enigma’ as compared to Sub-Saharan Africa can
be explained by women’ agency given the income
growth.

23. Agriculture-Nutrition Linkages
Four broad areas (Ruel and and Alderman,
2013, Lancet) for agri-nutri linkages.
1. Food prices
2. Income from agriculture
3. Consumption of own production due primarily
to market imperfections
4. Factors linked to gender: women’s social and
empowerment in agriculture, women’s time,
women’s health and nutrition status

24. Agriculture and Nutrition
One of the emerging of research and policy
focus on India is how to improve linkages
between agri. And nutrition.
It is true that agri. alone can not improve
nutrition but its impact can be enhanced.
For e.g. the disconnect between agri. and
nutrition could be due to inequality.
Some of the entry points to improve the link
between the two can be --focus on small
farmers, rainfed areas, backward regions,
women farmers, biofortified crops etc.

25. Some policy options for consideration
1.Leverage existing platforms (e.g. RKVY, NRLM, NHM)
 15% of the budget catered to making them “pro-
nutrition”
 water management for safe drinking water
 prevention of zoonotic and water borne disease
 developing ecologically sound small ruminant
sector
 SHGs under NRLM could focus on micronutrient
fortification, low cost nutrient dense supplementary
foods, community mobilization including PRIs
 Enabling convergence with other sectors
 Large scale behavior change communications

26. Some policy options for consideration
2. Agriculture and food policy to improve economic and
physical access to diverse nutrient rich foods
 Bio-fortification
 Primary “nutrition-sensitive” food processing
 Experiment with lessons learnt from other states &
countries
–incentives to produce for own consumption in the
most vulnerable districts
–Agriculture is central to the Karnataka Nutrition
Mission
 Implementing policy reforms in marketing and
price stabilization

27. Some policy options for consideration
3. Agriculture policy and program implementation to
empower women in agriculture
 Ensuring land and property rights for women
 Groups efforts (e.g. women’s cooperatives)
should be used for improving convergence of
health ,nutrition, agriculture and other social
sector initiatives at scale
 Correcting the gender bias in the functioning of
institutions and support systems

28. Women and agriculture
Agricultural development plays a role in improving
nutrition.
However, time dimension is important
Time spent in agriculture—especially by women—
competes with time needed for resting, childcare, and
food preparation and can have unintended negative
consequences for nutrition.
the evidence shows that •women play a key role in
agriculture,. women are important actors in the uptake
and response to agricultural interventions; and
agricultural interventions tend to increase women’s,
men’s, and children’s time burdens.

29. Social Protection Programmes
Need to improve the effectiveness of social
protection programs
National Food Security Bill (NFSB), mid-day meal
schemes, integrated child development scheme
(ICDS),MGNREGA ,Also water, health and sanitation
National Food Security Bill aims to provide legal
entitlement (right to food) of subsidized foodgrains
for 800 million population (67% of total population)
There are debates on the cost of the scheme,
impact on farmers etc.
Criticism is that it provides mainly rice and wheat at
subsidizes prices. Not much impact on nutrition.
Some advocate cash transfers instead of food

30. SDG Agenda and opportunities to reduce malnutrition
Progress towards undernutrition is not on track.
The following measures have to be taken to reduce
hunger and malnutrition in India
(1) First, it has to be recognized that hunger and
malnutrition have significant costs to countries. It has
both intrinsic value and instrumental value
Some estimates show 2 to 3% of GDP loss due to
lower productivity. Investments in food and nutrition
security one $ leads to $25 to $30 returns
SDGs should focus now more on hunger (including
hidden hunger)and malnutrition than before

31. SDG Agenda and opportunities to reduce malnutrition
(2) Second, there are commitments at global level.
UN Secretary General announced an ambitious
Zero hunger challenge by 2025.
The elements of challenge are: (a) Zero stunted
children with less than 2 years; (b) 100% access to
adequate food (c) All food systems are sustainable;
(d) 100% increase in small holder productivity and
income; (e) Zero loss of waste of food.
Politicians are taking the issue seriously. G8, G20
forums. Global nutrition for growth commitment.
Scaling UP Nutrition (SUN) movement is also
helping (several countries joined).
India should take up these challenges

32. SDG Agenda and opportunities to reduce malnutrition
(3)Third , priority areas with major research gaps
(Gates Foundation, DFID)
• Fruits and vegetable value chain intervention and
system
• Seasonal consumptions smoothing
• Post-harvest approaches
• Food safety, beyond aflatoxin reducation
• Price and affordability of nutritious foods
• Behaviour change communication in agriculture
• Nutrition sensitiveve agricultural policies
• Adolescents as a target group
--In general food systems approach is needed

33. SDG Agenda and reduce malnutrition
(3) Fourth, to achieve the goal of ending hunger
and malnutrition by 2030, government has to
invest and follow appropriate policies.
There are lessons from the success of Brazil,
China, Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, Ghana
(5) Fifth, raising productivity of small farmers is
important. The measures include increase in
investments in research and development
(technology), rural infrastructure, financial
inclusion, linking them to markets including
value chains. This will increase food availability,
access, nutrition.

34. SDG Agenda and opportunities to reduce malnutrition
(6) Sixth, assessing climate change and needed
actions for improving productivity and resilience in
agriculture
(7) Seventh, the role of women in enhancing food
and nutritional security should be recognized much
more than before. Gender sensitive policies in
agriculture and health can improve nutrition security.
(8) Eighth, effectiveness of social protection
programs like food and nutrition schemes should be
strengthened. Debate on cash transfers
We must address the special needs of women and ch
ildren, especially during the 1,000 Days window of op
portunity.

35. SDG Agenda and opportunities to reduce malnutrition
(10) Ninth, regional cooperation is one way of
improving food security . It has to be in all aspects of
food security: Availability, Access and nutrition.
For example, Regional Cooperation in South Asia
can be in the following areas.
1. food and agriculture
2. climate change and disaster management.
3. Free Trade agreements like SAFTA
4. Intellectual property rights in agriculture
5. Energy and water
6. Cooperation on global issues
7. Learning from each other: post harvest
technologies and operations, social protection
programs, accountability and governance

36. Conclusion
(11) Finally, the links between agriculture and
nutrition, health, water and energy have to be
recognized. SDG agenda should bring all these
themes together. In other words, convergence
approach.
To conclude, income poverty SDG can be
achieved. Multi-dimensional poverty needs
much more effort.
Similarly, aggressive approach is needed during
SDG period to achieve the ambitious target of
Zero hunger and reduction in malnutrition
challenge by 2025 or 2030.

37. THANK YOU