Food Security in South Asia with Special Reference to India

Abstract

The paper aims to study the extent of food insecurity in South Asian Countries (SAC) with special focus on India. Agriculture is the predominant sector of economies of all SAC and poverty and hunger are the most serious problems faced by this region. Agriculture is caught in a low equilibrium trap with low productivity of staples, supply shortfalls, high prices, low returns to farmers and area diversification, which result in a threat to food security. The growth of agricultural output has slowed down in most of these countries and in other countries where growth is still reasonably high, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain that. India has produced adequate food reflected in mounting buffer stocks, but there are millions of food insecure and undernourished people. The per capita availability of foodgrains has fallen substantially during the last decade of reforms. Besides this, decreasing per capita availability of arable land, climate change risks and natural resource degradation are compounding the challenge of meeting food demand. India needs an agricultural growth rate of 4.0 to 4.5 percent to reduce poverty and food insecurity significantly and needs to take necessary steps towards achieving food security.