Will India help the world banish the scourge of hunger?

The world is turning into a strange place of paradoxes. On the one hand, there are an estimated one billion (100 crore) people - representing 14 per cent of the global population of seven billion – undernourished, while on the other, millions suffer from chronic diseases due to excess food consumption.b On the one hand, is the issue of affordability and accessibility to food for the poor and on the other, humungous subsidies and wastages.

Global demand for farm products

Global demand for agricultural products is growing and food prices are rising; and yet, roughly a third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Food inflation hits the poor the hardest and dilutes their already low level of nutritional intake. For most of 2011, global food prices and food price volatility remained high. Droughts, floods and earthquake threatened food security for the poor and increased hunger and malnutrition in the areas hit by these natural disasters. Yet, 2011 saw significant gains in support of agriculture, food and nutrition security, and global poverty reduction. Agriculture moved to the forefront of the international development agenda, and investments in the sector rose. Emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India as well as private sector and philanthropic organisations also increased their voice in the global food system through global platform such as the G20 meetings and the World Economic Forum. According to International Food Policy Research Institute, looming large for 2012 will be continued high and volatile food prices, increased oil prices, threat of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change (such as drought in Sahel) and financial crisis in the US and Europe.

These will combine to affect the food and nutrition security of the poor and hungry. Concrete actions that will help improve food policy decisions and actions in 2012 and beyond include: forging a broad intersectoral coalition to address issues relating to agriculture, food, nutrition and health via G8 and G20 meetings; enhancing the key role of agriculture in economic, social and environmental sustainability via Rio+20; ensuring that water, land and energy are used efficiently in food production and that poor people have access to them; and creating and strengthening institutions and capacities for country-led development strategies. That said, newer challenges are coming to the fore. Land constraints (especially in Asia), water shortage and climate change are new threats that countries have to face.

Climate changes

Climate change threatens more frequent drought, flooding and pest outbreaks. It is estimated that the world loses about 12 million hectares of agricultural land each year to land degradation. Experts point out that land clearing and inefficient practices make agriculture the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution on the planet, contributing to further climate change.

A set of recommendations intended for the consideration of policymakers on how to achieve food security in the face of climate change, population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems has been released by scientific leaders from 13 countries. To understand the path forward, major components and drivers of the global food system were reviewed. These include role of changing diet patterns; link between poverty, natural resource degradation and low crop yields; need to address inefficiencies in the food supply chain; gaps in agricultural investment, and the patterns of globalised food trade, food production subsidies and food price volatility.

need to integrate food security

Calling for a multi-pronged approach, the scientific leaders asserted the need to integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies; significantly raise the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade; sustainably intensify agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impact of agriculture; target populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity; reshape food access and consumption patterns to ensure basic nutritional needs are met and to foster healthy and sustainable eating habits worldwide; reduce loss and wastage in food systems particularly from infrastructure, farming practices, processing, distribution and household habits; and create comprehensive, shared, integrated information systems that encompass human and ecological dimensions. Experts are unanimous in their view that the multiple emergent challenges – food security, climate change, increased competition for energy, water, degradation of land and biodiversity – are connected in complex ways and demand an integrated management approach. They recognise that the efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and food system, and empowering the world's most vulnerable populations. Notwithstanding the above, one set of researchers point out that countries continue to rely on market-based solutions to food and resource shortage, rather than the more controversial need-based reallocation of resources. At the same time, domestic food production continues to have a lower priority in funding projects than connecting producers to export markets. Food price speculation has drawn the ire of researchers. Private investors can bet or speculate on what the price of a food commodity will be in the coming weeks or months.

It has been shown that food commodity prices are directly correlated with the number of futures contracts, or the contracts that investors sign when they bet on prices; and both spiked in 2007-2008.

commodity speculation

To address the issue of commodity speculation, in July 2010, the US passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which has called for maximum limits on the investment of a single speculator as well as improved transparency in all speculation. However, implementation of the law has been slow and uneven, with many legal challenges delaying its having a real effect on speculation.

Ironically, while the developed world is keenly discussing agriculture and related issues, and attempting to bring about a sense of balance in the global food market especially in consumption, there is a lot India can do to contribute to striking that balance.

India is home to a very number of the world's poor and hungry.

Farm growth rates are abysmally low. There is an urgent need for resurgence in agriculture. Our success in banishing poverty and hunger through growth-oriented policies and good governance can substantially reduce the stress the global food market is currently facing.

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