The Hindu Business Line : Emaciated food policy

In the seventeenth century France, when the poor were getting restive during a famine, Marie Antoinette famously asked them to eat cake instead of bread. The result: France burned and the Empress paid dearly with her life. India might not burn, but there is a groundswell of resentment among the poor and hungry.

First, we were told that the country is self-sufficient in food, especially in wheat. Soon, the Government imported close to 2 million tonnes (mt) of wheat at an exorbitant price. This was two years ago.

Production inadequate

And, then, the agricultural messiahs came up with another ploy. They said the country produces enough and more, only the poor have no purchasing power.

The question: If indeed India is producing enough, why does not food come cheap? In rice-eating Kerala, a kg of low grade rice costs Rs 23. Atta does not sell at less than Rs 20-30 a kg in the open market, with branded products costing even more. About cooking oil and pulses – the protein supplement of the poor – the less said the better.

Look at China. For a population of 1.3 billion, the country harvested more than 550 mt cereals last year. Our harvest of 220 mt for a 1 billion plus population, pales in comparison.

The country simply is unable to produce enough to meet the needs of its burgeoning population. Post-reforms, foodgrain production growth has plummeted to 1.6 per cent a year , while population growth, at 1.9 per cent, outstrips food production.

The latest “Economic Outlook for 2007-08” put out by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, under the stewardship of former RBI Governor Dr C. Rangarajan, shows India in very poor light compared to China on the farm front and buttresses its argument by noting that the “traditional excuses” for India’s “sub-standard performance in the farm sector” are not only “tired”, but, “inadequate”.

But the most distressing document is the recent “India State Hunger Index”, put out by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute. Here are some of the startling observations: Punjab, the traditional front-runner in farming, has a hunger level below Vietnam and Honduras, which already are placed low in global ranking. Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, are at the top place in the State Hunger Index.

Mr G .S. Chadha, member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council, who released the report, said: “Figuring in the 88 hungry countries list itself is shameful for the country. Policy-makers have to think about it. High GDP growth is not sufficient. Inclusive growth is necessary.”

India, which scored 66th place in the Global Hunger list of 88 countries, does not have a single State in the “low hunger” or “moderate hunger” categories. Twelve States, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal are in the “alarming category”, with Madhya Pradesh falling in the “extremely alarming” category.

Four States, Punjab, Kerala, Haryana, are in the “serious category”. According to the report, child underweight accounted for the greatest contribution to the State Index for almost all States, followed by calorie intake. Today’s young generation is tomorrow’s work-force. What can India expect from such an emaciated work-force?

Right to food

The “Millennium Development Goals” targets reduction of world hunger by 50 per cent by 2015, just six years away. Given the lacklustre hunger eradication programmes, can India ever hope to achieve this, when more than a fifth of its population — more than 200 million – is already hungry?

It is in this connection that the “Right to Food” 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed by the UN, needs to be critically examined. Article 25 of the Declaration maintains that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food…, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age and other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

Yet, more than half a century later and after three world food summits, and a so-called Green Revolution which was touted as filling our granaries, India hosts the highest number of hungry in the world. Is anything more shameful than this?

(The author is an agricultural scientist.)

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