Year: 2022 | Month: June | Volume 11 | Issue 2
Food Security Status at different Levels and Opportunities for Course Correction in Odisha State of India
Bidhan K. Mohapatra
Prakashan Chellattan Veettil
Ashok Kumar
DOI:10.46852/2249-6637.02.2022.3
Abstract:
This paper reflects the status of food security at different levels – global, country (India), and state (Odisha) based on the secondary sources of data and information. It tries to find out feasible and sustainable measures to ensure food security for all at the country and state level. Also, the paper diagnoses the relationship between food security and sustainable agriculture, exclusively. Our learning is that despite sustained economic developments, poverty reduction and targeted policy efforts, there has not been substantial progress in reducing food insecurity and malnutrition over the last decade and at all levels in terms of comparable socio-economic indicators. Food-grain production has slowly gone up, but the rising population (at country and state level) has made per capita food-grain availability lower. The paradox of food insecurity could be in the inherent flaws in the existing policies and implementation bottlenecks together with the weak public distribution system (PDS) including lack of required infrastructure to safely store and distribute food grains. Hence, to ensure food security for all, strategically designed programs need to be implemented with a strong monitoring system, creation of required rural infrastructure (roads, transport, market, communication, cold storage, grain banks, etc.), strengthening PDS, controlling rapid population growth, ensuring education for all etc.; besides developing and implementing precision agriculture technologies.
Highlights
- Global grain production is in decreasing trend in the last decade (2241.6 million tonnes in 2008-09 to 2121.0 million tonnes in the year 2018-19). The world’s population is projected to grow from 7.7 billion in 2019 to 8.5 billion in 2030 (10% increase), and further to 9.7 billion in 2050 (26%) and to 10.9 billion in 2100 (42%). This is the major concern of food security for all.
- India at present finds itself in the midst of a paradoxical situation. Endemic mass-hunger (189.2 million people are undernourished) coexisting with the mounting food grain stocks (62 million tonnes against an annual requirement of around 20 million tonnes). Besides, there is a high decadal population growth rate of 17.7% and its population is expected to exceed that of China around 2027. This could make the food security situation more serious.
- Although the state of Odisha has been witnessing marketable surplus of cereal crops (out of 24 years, 17 and 15 years for rice and cereals, respectively), it has been placed in the category of the ‘severely food insecure’ regions. Here also, the population is increasing at a high decadal growth rate of 14% which if continued could aggravate the food security situation.
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