Food and Nutritional Security in the Frame of Crop Diversification in the Temperate Region of Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

The World Food Conference in response to the existence of widespread undernutrition and incapability of agriculture to meet future food needs was the first to recognise the necessity of food security (Kalamkar, 2012). Nevertheless the concept developed and gained momentum in the early 1990s (Power et al.,1998) and in United States, the issue became the policy focus to address poverty related food accessibility at the household level (Hamilton, 1995).The concept is complex and multi-dimensional, and has approximately 200 definitions and 450 indicators (Hoddinot,1999). In its broadest spectrum, World Food Summit (1996) noted that food security at any level is achieved when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritional food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The fact that the vicious circle of hunger and poverty are the main causes of malnutrition and the resultant faulty physical and mental development among children. Underlying this are various inadequacies including mainly household and community level food security. The affordability of the food despite being available is far from accessibility. In this context the existence of extremely tiny holdings on account of continuing increase in population and simultaneous sub-division of these holdings coupled with the lack of infrastructure for exploitation of available niche areas for inclusive growth are some of the vital constraints hampering agricultural growth and achieving food security in the mountainous state of Jammu and Kashmir. Only 5.07 per cent of its total area is cultivable and more than 95 per cent of holdings are small and marginal with an average size of 0.61 hectares, much less than national average. Food security being an essential foundation for meeting various millennium development goals (MDGs) related to hunger, child mortality, mental health, diseases, gender equality and primary education (Gill et al., 2003), it becomes more important to address these issues through manipulations of the existing agricultural