Food Security and Undernourishment in India: Assessment of Alternative Norms and the Income Effect

Abstract

Food and nutrition security has remained one of the top priorities of policy planners in post-Independent India. The country followed a multi-pronged strategy to improve and sustain food and nutrition security. The core objective of this strategy has been to sustain and improve food and nutrition security through food selfsufficiency. The strategy includes (i) strong support for raising food production, (ii) stable supply of some food staples and (iii) making food available at affordable prices. This strategy embraces several instruments that cover generation and adoption of technology, better availability of inputs, institutional credit, subsidy on farm inputs, improved infrastructure, expansion of irrigation, institutional reforms and mechanisms, competitive markets, remunerative prices for farmers/producers, public procurement, system of buffer stocks, open market sales, supply of food through public distribution system, nutrition interventions and trade policy. This strategy has helped India in several ways. Food production including livestock products and fish increased from 188 million tonnes (MT) during 1970-71 to 342 MT during 1990-91 showing an 82 per cent increase over two decades. In the next two decades, food production increased to close to 600 MTmarking a 75 per cent increase. In these two periods, the population of the country increased by 53 and 47 per cent, respectively. This has resulted in an increase in per capita production of total food from less than 350kg per person during the early 1970s to more than 500 kg in recent years. However, the effect of increase in per capita production of food recorded in the country is not visible in terms of the improvement in food and nutrition security. According to some studies based on the per person per day energy norms of 2400 Kcal for rural and 2100 Kcal for urban areas, there is deterioration in the prevalence of undernourishment based on energy intake during 1987-88 to 200405 (Deaton and Dreze, 2009). About 40 per cent children under age of 5 years are underweight and child mortality is also high. Based on such facts, serious questions are now being raised about the country’s achievements in food security. This