16 October 2024 : The Hindu Editorial Analysis

1. A food-sufficient India needs to be hunger-free too

(Source – The Hindu, International Edition – Page No. – 4)

Topic: GS2 – Social Justice – Issues relating to poverty and hunger.

Context

The article addresses the global challenges of achieving zero hunger and eliminating malnutrition. It also highlights rising food insecurity due to conflicts, climate vulnerability, and economic slowdowns. The article emphasises India’s issues with unhealthy diets, affordability, and accessibility, while discussing global trends and the cost of achieving food sufficiency by 2030.

Ending Hunger, Food Insecurity, and Malnutrition

• Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition by 2030 is challenging due to rising conflicts, climate change, and economic slowdowns.
• Food insecurity and malnutrition are the result of a lack of access to healthy diets, requiring a distribution mechanism ensuring universal access to affordable and nutritious food.
• Addressing malnutrition involves transforming the food system to make healthy diets affordable and accessible while considering inequalities across different population segments.

Global Hunger and Undernourishment

• Global hunger remains prevalent, with 9.4% of the population (757 million people) undernourished as of 2023.
• Africa faces the highest hunger rates at 20.4%, while Asia has the largest number of undernourished people (384.5 million).
• By 2030, half of the world’s hungry are expected to be in Africa, with a significant rural bias and a gender divide that disadvantages women.
• Hunger is closely tied to economic access, as the lack of purchasing capacity prevents many from affording adequate food.

Thalinomics and the Indian Perspective

• In 2011, 63.3% of the rural Indian population (527.4 million people) could not afford the cost of a required diet, even if all income were spent on food.
• India’s food security situation has seen little improvement, and economic access to healthy diets remains uneven.
• To change this, India’s agri-food system needs to be transformed to build resilience, address inequalities, and make healthy diets more affordable.
• Subsidies and market regulation help lower the cost of basic foods, but affordability is not the sole reason for poor diet quality.
• Even the richest 5% of Indian households consume less protein-rich food, highlighting issues with availability, accessibility, awareness, and acceptability.

Global Hunger Index and India

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) has placed India poorly, though its components focus more on nutrition and early-age mortality than hunger itself.
• The basic statistic of a square meal a day reveals that 3.2% of Indians do not consume at least 60 meals in a month.
• More than 50% of the population consumes three meals a day, with around 2.5% falling short of having two square meals daily, representing 3.5 crore people.

Ensuring the Right to Food

• The theme for World Food Day this year, “Right to foods for a better life and a better future,” highlights the importance of universal food security.
• While India’s right to food campaign has made progress, some still go hungry due to a lack of means to buy food.
• Establishing food banks to prevent food waste and ensure redistribution can help address hunger, ensuring no one is left without food.

PYQ: Q.1 There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on Non-Food essential items squeezing their food – budget.- Elucidate. (150 words/10m) (UPSC CSE (M) GS-2 2019) Q.2 Hunger and Poverty are the biggest challenges for good governance in India still today. Evaluate how far successive governments have progressed in dealing with these humongous problems. Suggest measures for improvement. (150 words/10m) (UPSC CSE (M) GS-2 2017)

Practice Question:  Discuss the challenges in achieving food security and eliminating malnutrition in India by 2030, considering factors such as affordability, accessibility, and dietary imbalances. Suggest policy measures to address these issues. (250 Words /15 marks)

2. Food access is about equitable agrifood systems

(Source – The Hindu, International Edition – Page No. – 8)

Topic: GS2 – Social Justice – Issues relating to poverty and hunger.

Context

World Food Day 2024 emphasises the theme of ensuring the right to safe, nutritious, and affordable food for all. India’s progress from food deficiency to surplus highlights significant strides in food security, though challenges like rural poverty, climate risks, and inequality persist. Collective efforts remain crucial for sustainable food systems.

Importance of Food Security

• Food security is essential for individual well-being and societal stability.
• FAO’s 2024 report estimates that more than 700 million people globally face hunger, emphasising the need for urgent action.
• Initiatives like India’s Green Revolution, White Revolution, and Blue Transformation have been significant in ensuring food availability and nutrition.

India’s Journey Toward Food Security

• India has transformed from a food-deficient nation to a food-surplus country, thanks to the Green Revolution and effective policies.
• The National Food Security Act (NFSA) of 2013 plays a crucial role in ensuring food entitlements for over 800 million citizens.
• Recent initiatives, such as distributing fortified rice, show India’s commitment to improving nutrition and food security.

Challenges in the Agricultural Sector

• India’s agriculture faces challenges like small landholdings, with 82% of farmers being small or marginal.
• Issues include natural resource degradation, overuse of groundwater, and chemical fertilisers harming soil.
• Addressing fragmented landholdings and improving market access are essential for improving productivity and reducing food waste.

Rural Poverty and Inequality

• Rural poverty and inequality hinder agricultural growth, with many small farmers lacking access to modern technologies and financial services.
• Sustainable agricultural practices such as water conservation and soil health restoration are vital to combat climate risks and improve livelihoods.

The Role of Non-Agricultural Households

• The right to food goes beyond agriculture, impacting all citizens, including non-farming families in urban areas.
• Urban food security relies on resilient systems, social safety nets, and market interventions to stabilise prices and support the vulnerable.
• India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) has made substantial progress in ensuring access to food across different households.

Collective Responsibility for Food Security

• Achieving food security requires building equitable, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems.
• Collaboration between global agencies and the Indian government highlights the need for collective action to support both farmers and non-agricultural families.
• The goal is to create a prosperous society where everyone benefits from better food access and contributes to a healthier future.

Practice Question:  Discuss the challenges and opportunities in ensuring food security in India with reference to small and marginal farmers. How do government initiatives and global collaborations contribute to addressing food insecurity and malnutrition? (150 Words /10 marks)

3. ‘Yield’ can’t be the sole indicator for agriculture

(Source – The Hindu, International Edition – Page No. – 9)

Topic: GS3 – Agriculture

Context

India’s agricultural focus on maximising yield has led to negative consequences like reduced nutritional value, biodiversity loss, and declining farm profitability. The current approach needs to shift toward sustainability by incorporating new indicators such as nutritional output, water efficiency, and biodiversity. A holistic strategy is crucial for ensuring food security and environmental resilience.

Introduction: Yield as the Golden Metric

• In India, agriculture has historically been measured by yield—output per unit of land.
• The emphasis on yield helped feed the growing population post-independence.
• However, inputs like water, nutrition, and labour are becoming scarce, and focusing solely on yield now harms the health and well-being of both producers and consumers.

High Yield, Nutritional Losses

• The drive for higher yield has prioritised quantity over quality.
• An ICAR study revealed that high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat have led to a decline in micronutrient density, with significant drops in zinc and iron content.
• This has contributed to micronutrient deficiencies in India, with a third of children under five stunted and two-thirds anaemic, according to the National Family Health Survey.

The Misconception of Yield and Income

• Conventional belief links maximised yield with maximised farmer income, but this isn’t always true.
• Farmers face diminishing returns from fertilisers, requiring more input for the same yield.
• Moreover, maximising yield in a single season doesn’t always lead to year-round maximised output.
• Crop combinations and intercropping strategies, such as sugarcane with chilli or coriander, can provide stable income and higher profitability across seasons.

Yield Focus Leading to Biodiversity Loss

• Yield maximisation has also caused a loss of biodiversity, particularly with the promotion of high-yield varieties.
• India has lost about 1,04,000 varieties of rice since the Green Revolution.
• This biodiversity loss undermines agricultural resilience in the face of climate change challenges like floods and droughts.
• Traditional and local varieties of crops have been proven more resilient, but they have been neglected in favour of high-yielding ones.

Decline of Nutritious Crops and Impact on Diet

• The focus on rice and wheat has caused a decline in the cultivation of nutritious crops like millets.
• Since the 1950s, the area under coarse cereals has decreased by 10 million hectares, while rice and wheat cultivation has increased.
• This has reduced dietary diversity for the average Indian, which negatively affects overall nutrition.

Metrics for Sustainability

• Important metrics like soil biological activity, water-use efficiency, and biodiversity must be mainstreamed.
• Examples include the inclusion of soil organic carbon in soil health cards and Telangana’s AI-powered ‘Saagu Baagu’ project, which provides real-time data to improve farm management.

Measuring Diversity and Resilience

• New metrics should also measure farm and landscape diversity, as well as income diversification.
• A diverse crop landscape is more resilient to economic and environmental shocks than monoculture farming.

Conclusion: Moving Beyond Yield

• While yield maximisation helped India overcome famine, it cannot remain the sole focus in today’s context.
• With increasing climate threats and depleting natural resources, agriculture should focus on nourishing people, sustaining livelihoods, and protecting the environment.
• A new paradigm in agriculture is needed, focusing on multiple outcomes that address nutrition, sustainability, and resilience for future generations.

PYQ: What are the major reasons for declining rice and wheat yield in the cropping system? How crop diversification is helpful to stabilise the yield of the crop in the system? (250 words/15m) (UPSC CSE (M) GS-3 2017)

Practice Question:  Discuss the challenges posed by India’s traditional focus on agricultural yield maximisation. How can integrating new agricultural indicators help promote sustainability and improve nutritional security? (250 Words /15 marks)