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Towards Hunger Free India - Speeches
During the first two decades after independence, India had to import large quantities of food-grains to meet shortfalls in domestic production. the extent of vulnerability came into sharp focus during the severe drought of 1965 and 1966. The cessation of food aid because of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 led to unacceptably high famine deaths in the country. It is a lesson we should never forget. Geo-political conditions are still not such that food security can be dropped from its position as a central element of our economic strategy.
It is this strategy which powered the green revolution, and in a relatively short period of time the country started producing enough not only to meet its internal demand, but also to generate a small surplus. This in itself is not a mean achievement as the country's population has more than trebled since independence. However, this should not be a cause for complacency since per capita production and availability of foodgrains remain below the normative needs of our population. National Family Health Survey (NFHS) - II of 1998-99 has shown that under nutrition, especially in children, is still widely prevalent. Almost half of the women in the age group of 15-49 years and an 3/4th of children have been found to be anaemic.
Increasing food grains production in the country should therefore continue to be a major element of our agricultural strategy. In the past, surplus food grains production was realized primarily in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP. However, there is a tendency among farmers in this region to diversify towards crops other than food grains. Alternatives must, therefore, be developed. The region in the country which has the maximum potential for increase in food grain production, particularly of rice, is the eastern region. the next stage of the green revolution in the country has to come about in this region.
But the rest of the country cannot be neglected either. Even today the extent of poverty in the country is unacceptably high. There is considerable research which suggests that the sector which has the most beneficial effect on poverty reduction is agriculture. Therefore, agricultural growth must be viewed not merely as a means towards food security, but a strategy to subserve the broader goal of poverty eradication. Looked at this way, the effort must be to broad-base our agricultural growth pattern so that every part of the country participates, to the extent possible, in increasing our agricultural output.
Although there is considerable potential for accelerating agricultural growth in the country, including allied activities such as horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy and fishery, the pace of progress has been slow and certain weaknesses are becoming increasingly evident, Among the factors of concern are environmental considerations such as land degradation and water depletion, inadequate market integration leading to localized shortages and gluts, tardy progress of technology diffusion, inadequacy .of appropriate infrastructure, among others. What is also worrying is that the pace of employment creation in agriculture has slowed significantly in recent years. This has ominous implications for the future.
India’s efforts to attain better yields and productivity has also been less than adequate. In fact we seem to be slipping down the productivity ladder in most agricultural products compared to the rest of the world. Some of these issues can be addressed by increased investment, but many cannot. In particular, a gradual shift in the geographical pattern of agricultural production in order to bring it in line with the resource endowments appears essential.
The single most important issue in raising agricultural production is land and water management. Large parts of the country are already suffering from water stress and corrective action has to be taken immediately. Almost 62% of net sown area is rain-fed. Latest estimates of 1993 made by the Ministry of Agriculture show that the extent of degraded land in the country was more than 173 million hectares. Public investment in irrigation, rainwater harvesting and watershed management, coupled with greater participation of the people in managing these common resources, must, therefore, be accorded immediate priority.
Malnutrition among a large section of the people has been identified to be on account of factors other than the availability of food grains and other forms of nutrition alone. For example, even if all the food with adequate complements of all nutrients were available, its absorption physiologically may be problematic because of lack of good quality of drinking water and a clean environment. The problem of hunger, nutrition and food security, is thus related to the whole development process. We have had a growth of almost 6% in the recent past. It may not be disappointing, but it is not enough to account for the major development issues which relate to the quality of life of our people. The Hon. Prime Minister has, therefore, directed us to examine the feasibility of doubling per capita incomes in the country over the next ten years. We are in the process of undertaking this exercise keeping in view the availability of resources. To reach such a target, we must be prepared to jettison concepts and policies which are no longer relevant. Today India is no longer an economy of shortages, but an economy where over-all adequacies are maldistributed.
This is amply borne out by the huge surplus of food grains that have been accumulated in the FCI godowns. The government is concerned about the fact that in spite of surplus production of food grains, we have still not been able to eradicate hunger. It appears perhaps, that the food procurement policy is itself becoming a vehicle for supporting high prices of food grains. The government, therefore, has to strike a balance between what is necessary for the welfare of the farmers and for the welfare of the consumer. The poor in the country will certainly benefit from low prices of food grains in the market, but if this comes through unremunerative prices to the farmers then the pace of future progress will necessarily be adversely affected. Therefore we will have to tread a narrow path.
I hope this consultation will suggest how best we can tackle the problem of ensuring Hunger-free India.
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