SCERT

10TH ECONOMY Learn from the Experienced

Unit-3
Food Security and Nutrition

Introduction

1. Food is defined as any substances that people eat and drink to stay active and lead
a healthy life

Food security

1. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation defines food security
2. When all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient
safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for
an active and healthy life

Basic components of food and nutrition security

The three basic components of food and nutrition security are

Availability of food/ Access to food/ Absorption

1. Availability of food
1. Physical availability of food stocks in desired quantities
2. Access to food
1. It is a matter of purchasing power linked with capabilities and employment
opportunities to earn and related to access to Assets and Education
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3. Absorption
1. It is the ability to biologically utilise the food consumed, nutrition, knowledge
and practices, safe and hygienic environmental condition allow effective
biological absorption of food and health status

Availability and access to food grains

1. Food security is not only dependent on the quantum of food available but also the
ability of the people to purchase and access food and to stay in a healthy
environment
2. After independence India adopt a planned development model, after initial focus on
agriculture, industrialisation was given priority, the recurrent droughts pushed India to
depend on imports for food grains
3. But the availability of foreign exchange reserve could not permit open market
purchase of grains
4. India had to plead for food grains from richer countries at concessional rate
5. United States of India extended its assistance through PL 480, this situation was
popularly known as Ship to Mouth Existence
6. Due to our massive population and hunger, India was a potential candidate for
revolution
7. The American Administration and philanthropic organisation gave plan to increase
food production by introducing high yielding varieties
8. The results were promising and the program was extended to other districts
9. Thus green revolution was born paving way for self-sufficiency in food grain
production

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10. Before Green Revolution area under food grains was little more than 98 million
hectare in 1950's and the country was producing 54 million tonnes of food grains
11. Over a period of 65 years the area under food grain cultivation has grown to 122
million hectares with increase of five fold increase in food grain production, it's all
possible due to high yield variety programme
12. The program which includes subsidised chemical fertilizers, cheaper farmer credit
through cooperative societies and banks, minimum support price, and state procured
the harvested grain through the Food Corporation of India
13. Apart from food grains due to technological interventions the milk production in our
country witnessed a 8 fold increase, egg production grown 40 fold, fish production
by 13 fold
14. But India could not succeed in attaining self-sufficiency in the production of pulses
and oilseeds still it depends on imports to meet the requirement of the people

Public Distribution system

1. The increase in food grain production need not result in increase in access to food
for all
2. Unequal distribution of income and the level of poverty persists in Indian economy
3. Government took a step to distribute food grains at subsidised rate through Public
Distribution system
4. Tamil Nadu adopted universal PDS, the rest of the states in India had a targeted
PDS
5. The national food security act was passed in 2013 in the parliament
6. The national food security act covers 50 percentage of urban households and 75
percentage of the rural households they are called Priority household identified based
on set of criteria
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7. The union government supplies rice at Rs 3 per kg, wheat at 2 per kg, and millets
at the rate of 1 per kg
8. But Tamil Nadu continue to have the universal system of PDS and supplies rice at
free of cost to all card holders
National food security act in Tamil Nadu- on 1st November 2016 Tamilnadu became
the last state in the country to implement the national food security act
Biometric smart family cards- the Government of Tamilnadu has declared that smart
family cards will be issued in lieu of existing family cards to avoid data duplication
of members and bogus cards.

Role of consumer cooperatives in food security

1. Consumer cooperatives plays an important role in the supply of quality good at

responsible rate to common people
2. There are three tier structure for consumer cooperative societies in India they are
primary consumer cooperative societies, central consumer Cooperative stores, and
state level consumer federation

Minimum support price

1. A price is fixed by an expert group for a particular crop by considering various cost
involved in cultivation
2. Farmers can sell their product to FCI however if they get more price than the MSP
in the open market they can sell their product on their own

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Purchasing power

It is the value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services

that one unit of money can buy, when price increase which leads to decline in
purchasing power

Factors affecting purchasing power

1. Overpopulation
Large population leads to increase in demand, when supply was not equal to
demand that will show increase in normal price level, especially in rural population
which effects the purchasing power
2. Increasing prices of essential goods
Though there has been constant growth in the GDP and growth opportunities in the
Indian economy, there have been a steady increase in the prices of essential goods
which affects the purchasing power especially the poor
3. Demand for goods
When demand for goods increases which leads to rise in prices which affects the
purchasing power
4. Price of goods affects the value of currency
When the prices increases the purchasing power decreases and finally the value of
currency decreases
5. Production and supply of goods
The production and supply of goods decline, the price of goods increases which
affects the purchasing power

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6. Poverty and inequality

1. In India there exist huge economic disparity in the Indian economy
2. The proportion of income earned by top 10 percentage of Indians goes on increasing
which leads to increase in poverty level
3. Purchasing power is affected by poverty and unequal distribution of wealth
4. One method of monitoring purchasing power is through the consumer price index

Purchasing power Parity (PPP)

1. In economic theory that compares different country’s currencies through a basket of

goods
2. Exchange rate that allows you to buy the same amount of goods and services in
every country
3. China became the largest economy pushing the US to the second position india
occupies the third largest economy in terms of PPP

Agriculture policy in India

1. The new agriculture policy was announced by the central government in 2018
2. According to this policy the government has to remove export restriction like export
duty, export ban and quota restrictions on most of the organic and processed
agriculture products.

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3. The main objectives of these agricultural policies are to raise the level of income
and standard of living of farmers within a definite time frame
Some of the important objectives of India's agricultural policy are
1. Raising the productivity of inputs-improve the productivity of input by purchasing
high yield variety seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation projects ect
2. Raising value-added per hectare- to increase per hectare value added rather than
raising physical output by raising the productivity of agriculture in general and
productivity of small and marginal holding in particular
3. Protecting the interest of poor farmers- agriculture policy has to protect the interest
of poor and marginal farmers by abolishing intermediaries through Land Reforms,
expanding institutional credit support to poor farmers
4. Modernizing agricultural sector- introduction of modern technology in agriculture
operation and application of improved agriculture inputs like high yield variety seeds
fertilizers ect
5. Environmental degradation- agriculture policy has to check environmental degradation
of natural base of Indian agriculture
6. Removing bureaucratic obstacles- the main objective is to remove bureaucratic
obstacles on the farmers, cooperative societies and self-help institutions so that they
can work independently

Multidimensional nature of poverty

1. This Multi-dimensional approach is to reveal who is poor, how they are poor and
the range of disadvantages they experience
2. The multidimensional poverty index was launched by the United Nation development
programme and The Oxford poverty Human Development initiative in 2010
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3. Poverty is not unidimensional and that is always multidimensional it is made up of

many factors which constitutes deprivation of health, education, living standards,
income, empowerment, quality of work and threat from violence

Multidimensional poverty index 2018 in India

1. It is prepared by the United Nation development programme and The Oxford poverty
and Human Development initiative and their observation are
2. India has reduced poverty from 55 % to 28 % in last 10 years, 271 million people
are moving out of poverty
3. But still india had 364 million people in 2015-16 the largest for any country although
it is down from 635 million in 2005-06
4. Out of 364 million people, 156 million are children, whereas in 2005-06 it was 292
million poor children in India, this represents a 47% decrease
5. 80 percentage of people belong to Scheduled caste were very poor in 2005-06, and
50% of them were still poor in 2015-16
6. Bihar with more than half its population is in poverty and it is considered as the
poorest state in 2015-16
7. The four poorest states were Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh,
still home to 196 million MPI poor people in India
8. Kerala is one of the least poor region in 2006 reduce its MPI around 92%

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Multidimensional poverty index 2018 report in Tamilnadu

1. Nutrition plays a vital role in human health, though there was a higher economic
growth, improvements in human development indicators like nutrition levels are
unacceptably low
2. Large number of Indian children are stunted, underweight, anaemic and suffer from
micronutrient deficiencies
3. To tackle this deficiencies central and state government channelized many programs
like integrated child development services, mid-day meal scheme, reproductive and
Child Health Programme, and National Rural Health Mission.
4. Tamilnadu has played a Pioneer role to bring changes in the health and nutrition
status of children under the age of 6, pregnant women, lactating mother and
adolescent girls
5. The Government of Tamilnadu’s successive budget outlays for nutrition and health
are the highest in the country
6. The performance of ICDS and the Puratchi Thalaivar MGR nutritious meal programme
in Tamilnadu are considered one of the best in the country
7. A malnutrition free Tamilnadu is a goal in reducing human malnutrition of all types
to the levels compared to best performing countries
8. In Tamilnadu ICDS scheme is implemented through child centre which comprises
Anganwadi centres, mini Anganwadi centre and child development blocks
9. ICDS has been universalized and convergence with allied departments dealing with
health, education, drinking water sanitation ect
10. Puratchi Thalaivar MGR nutritious meal programme is considered to be the largest
noon meal program in the country for combating malnutrition among children which
increases primary School enrolment and reducing dropout rates. It was implemented
in the rural areas from 1st July 1982 and in urban areas from 1984

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Important ongoing schemes in Tamilnadu

1. Dr muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit scheme- financial assistance of Rs 12000

been given in three installments to poor pregnant women to meet the expenses on
nutritious diet during the delivery. And to avoid low birth weight of new born babies
2. The chief minister's comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme was launched in 2011-12
to provide Universal Healthcare to all by providing free medical and surgical treatment
in government and private hospitals to any family whose annual income is less than
Rs 72000
3. Tamil Nadu health system projects has launched ambulance services free of cost 108
emergency ambulance services
4. The school Health Programme mainly emphasize on providing comprehensive health
care services to all students studying in government and government aided schools
5. The national leprosy eradication programme is being implemented in the state with
the aim to detect and to provide sustained regular treatment to all leprosy patients
6. The general ICDS project and World Bank assisted integrated child development
services started in 1991 covering 24 districts. In 1999 this was further extended
7. Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya yojana scheme (PMGYS)- in this scheme nutrition
supplements in the form of weaning food is given to children in the age group of 6
months to 36 months in the untreated hamlets
8. Mid-day meal programme was introduced for children between 2 and 14 years of age
attending balwadi at an expense of Rs 0.9O beneficiary. This program covered 5.57
crore children

GOOD LUCK

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