🎓 Class 9 Economics Notes
📘 Chapter 4 – Food Security in India
🌾 Overview
Food security means ensuring availability (उपलब्धता), accessibility (पहुंच), and affordability (सस्ती उपलब्धता) of food to all people at all times.
It depends on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and government action during times of shortage or crisis.
🍽 What Is Food Security?
Food security has three main dimensions:
- Availability (उपलब्धता) – Food production within the country, imports, and previous years’ stock.
- Accessibility (पहुंच) – Food must be within reach of everyone.
- Affordability (सस्ती उपलब्धता) – People should have enough money to buy safe and nutritious food.
Conditions for Food Security:
✅ Enough food for all
✅ People can buy food of acceptable quality
✅ No barriers to access food
⚠️ Why Food Security?
During natural calamities (प्राकृतिक आपदा) like drought:
- Food production falls → Prices rise → People cannot afford food → Starvation may occur.
- Extreme starvation can lead to famine (महामंदी): widespread deaths due to hunger and epidemics.
🥺 Who Are Food-Insecure?
- People with little or no land, traditional artisans, petty workers, beggars.
- Urban poor working in casual labour jobs.
- SC, ST, OBC communities with poor land or low productivity.
- Pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children under 5 years.
Hunger Types:
- Chronic hunger – Long-term insufficient diet
- Seasonal hunger – Linked to harvest cycles
🌱 Food Security in India
- Green Revolution helped India become self-sufficient in food grains.
- Food security ensured through:
- Buffer Stock
- Public Distribution System (PDS)
📦 What Is Buffer Stock?
- Stock of food grains (wheat & rice) procured by the government via Food Corporation of India (FCI).
- Purchased from farmers at Minimum Support Price (MSP) → Encourages production.
- Distributed in deficit areas and to poorer sections at Issue Price (lower than market price).
🏪 What Is the Public Distribution System (PDS)?
- Food from farmers is sold via government-regulated ration shops (Fair Price Shops).
- Stocks include food grains, sugar, kerosene.
- Introduced during 1940s Bengal famine, modernised with:
- PDS – Food grains
- ICDS – Integrated Child Development Services
- FFW – Food-for-Work
🔹 Current Status of PDS
- Revamped PDS (1992) → Targeted PDS (TPDS, 1997) for poor households
- Special schemes (2000):
- Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)
- Annapurna Scheme (APS)
Challenges:
❌ Malpractice by dealers: diverting grains, selling poor quality, irregular shop timings
❌ Environmental concerns: overuse of water for rice cultivation in Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, Andhra Pradesh
❌ Pricing issues for APL families → Little incentive to buy from PDS
🤝 Role of Cooperatives
- Cooperatives sell low-priced goods to poor people
- Examples:
- Mother Dairy (Delhi)
- Amul (Gujarat)
- Academy of Development Science (ADS, Maharashtra)
✅ Key Takeaways:
- Food security = Availability + Accessibility + Affordability
- Green Revolution & PDS helped India achieve self-sufficiency
- PDS, buffer stock & cooperatives ensure food reaches the needy
- Hunger & malnutrition are linked to poverty & social inequality
