Food security in India: feeding a billion mouths; Stantard Chartered Bank

Abstract

India is often considered to be an agrarian economy. With more than 50% of arable land, India is one of the highly fertile economies in the world. Although agriculture now accounts for only 14% of the country’s gross domestic product, it is a main source of livelihood for the majority of the rural population. There are some important structural changes that have been observed within the sector. As we face rapid industrialization and urbanization, land under agriculture faces growing threat. The National Sample Survey Organization data brings out that rural labourers are shifting to non-agricultural activities, thereby tightening the labour market in agriculture and putting an upward pressure on the farm wages. However, the dependence on agriculture remains unchanged among the rural self-employed whose average farm size continues to decline with population growth. A shift in the dietary habits of people has been observed, which is increasing the demand for a certain type of food products. An important question which arises here is that being a self-sufficient economy, do we have the resources and ability to keep ourselves food secure even in the future? Is the low growth rate figure in the agricultural sector ringing an alarm bell for the future? Is there sufficient supply of food to meet the demand? These are some main questions that I have tried to answer through my research project. With the increase in supply-side bottlenecks, productivity has been impacted to a great extent. This has led to a demand-supply mis-match, the result of which, food inflation has been on the rise. The frequency and severity of risks in agriculture have also increased on account of climate variability and this has been accompanied by much greater variability of world prices and their quicker transmission into the domestic economy. It is therefore important that we safeguard ourselves from these potentially harmful situations and ensure that agriculture receives its due importance. This research project is an attempt to look at these issues revolving around food security and their possible solutions.