Can Central Bank's (RBI) Policies boost Economic Growth without addressing Food Insecurity?

By: Vijay Sardana

Photo from The Telegraph

With the growing inflation of food items, poverty is enhancing in India. Quality of life and health is suffering. It is extremely important that we should focus on improving the food supplies. It is also important that we should plan ahead and be ready to feed the growing population and also to meet growing demand of agriculture raw material by industries as well as to meet export demand.

Food security is must for peaceful democracy:

In last few decades our agriculture scientists have done a great job to feed the nation. Now time has come we should relook into the agriculture as a foremost profession because without food security no democracy can sustain its meaningful significance for the common man. Any country depending upon food and energy security based on imported supplies cannot retain its independent policy environment and will come under pressure of global forces in policy making process. It is high time we should give due important to food security of India.

Food Insecurity is Bigger challenge than any other challenge for India:

According to Global food insecurity status report of FAO, food security of India is not very comfortable. With growing population, per capita land for food production is shrinking fast. There is growing deficiency of protein; child malnourishment situation is also not very encouraging.

Average protein supply in India is about 57 grams per capita per day, which much below than world average of 78 grams per capita per day and even lower than least developed, low income and food deficit countries. This is not good for any nation which aspired to be global power.

Prevalence of food inadequacy is also much higher in India it is about 27.5% and prevalence of under-nutrition is about 17.5%. It is much higher than world average of 19.1% and 12.5% respectively. It means that population that is at risk of not covering the food requirements associated with normal physical activity, and therefore including also those who, even though cannot be considered chronically undernourished, are likely being conditioned in their economic activity by insufficient food. This not a good sign because this will affect the productivity of the work force in India and will impact the productivity in industrial and agriculture sector. Good nutrition is precondition for good health and good mind.

The situation becomes more alarming when we look at the number of children aged below 5 years stunted. This number is close to 50%. Child growth is the most widely used indicator of nutritional status in a community and is internationally recognized as an important public-health indicator for monitoring health in populations. In addition, children who suffer from growth retardation as a result of poor diets and/or recurrent infections tend to have a greater risk of suffering illness and death.

It is shocking to note that 47.5% of our children in India are susceptible to some form of growth retardation due to poor diet. This clearly highlights the prevalence of under nutrition and malnutrition in the country.

Elimination of Chronic food deprivation i.e. “hunger” should be the foremost agenda for economic development of India to ensure social, economic and political stability of the country.

Food Insecurity also means poor labour productivity, food purchasing power, high healthcare bills and more paid sick leaves.

Our constitution under Article 21 guarantees that No person shall be deprived of his Life or Personal Liberty. Without availability of basic nutrition how we can ensure this? It is a huge challenge for all of us. My government is planning to bring Food Security Bill to ensure this fundamental right for every citizen.

Therefore, there cannot be more urgent program than doubling food production in India to ensure basic human right and fundamental right for the government.

In last few years, economic development of India is discussed all over the world. We all are happy to see that world is talking about India as an investment destination, but we also know that vast population in rural India is still disconnected from gains of economic development of India. It is high time we should develop out economic agenda for inclusive growth so that all citizens of India must gain from the growth India growth story.

India’s economic growth so far was largely based on non-agriculture industrial and technology oriented. This has resulted in a situation where the demand for agro-products is growing at faster pace but supply side is not able to meet the growing demand of food and value added products from agriculture eco-system.

In this context, the theme doubling food production should be the utmost priority for the government and must be part of National Agenda for Governance with inclusive growth.

Doubling Food production will benefit in creation of rural employment for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled work force on the country. Enhanced food production will bring investment in infrastructure in rural India for storage, processing, transportation, packaging, etc. With investment in infrastructure, investment in the skill development will also follow. This will improve the quality of life and better livelihood opportunities for our rural youths will emerge near their homes. This will also reduce migration pressure on urban centres because more job opportunities will be created in rural India.

Doubling food production will also strengthen our supply line for exports as well and at the same will also reduce dependency on imported foods like edible oil, pulses etc. Today, about USD 15 billion is going out of India to purchase basic food items like edible oils and pulses, etc. This is creating serious pressure on our balance of trade and current account deficit. We are selling assets like PSU shares to bridge this gap. It is like selling family silver to meet the deficit due to poor food security planning. How long we can sell these assets to buy food for survival? Is this a sustainable option? Growth in food production will preserve this precious foreign exchange for us.

Growth in food production will also support and conserve natural resources. The by-product from increased food production can be used as feed and fodder for livestock and aquaculture sector. This will also reduce pressure on forest lands which are used as pastures for grazing animals. With suitable technology adoption, fuel issues can be address to some extent.

While we are planning for doubling food production, in globalized economy it is important that we should learn from success stories around the world. Doubling food production means we have to think out of the box and our research should focus on quantum jumps and not incremental growth. Timely action is essence for growth and success.

Conventional approaches and wisdom may be good for sustenance agriculture but not for sustainable growth and livelihood. When we have serious food deficit and we have population spending more than 60% of their income on food, we have think how to reduce cost of production and make food affordable to masses. Any concept or technology which makes food expensive for average consumers and common masses is not suitable for Indian requirements. Our goal should be to develop self-sufficient with affordable food so that hunger can be eliminated from India.

It is also important to keep in mind that self -sufficiency in food production is very important for India to ensure its leadership in global economic stage.

Many may not like the growth of India’s success story in agriculture. There will be attempts by vested interests to derail the process of growth. They will raise issues to slowdown the growth and technology adoption. Many don’t want to see India as a strong nation. Food Insecurity is the biggest threat for India’s peaceful democracy. Like we have seen protect against safe use of nuclear energy.

Many continue to oppose because if they support technology adoption they will lose focus and public recognition. Constant criticism gives the space in public media and political hearing.

Don’t expect them to change their position because their existing will vanish. Irrespective of them, country has to move ahead for betterment of larger population.

So, what is the way forward for the country?

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Vijay Sardana Online