Food Security and issue of buffer stock

World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future- World Bank, UN Environment Programme and UN Development Programme.

• Status of food security and nutrition report by UN info on moderate and severe food insecurity
• More than 820 million people in the world are still hungry challenge of achieving the Zero Hunger target by 2030.  
• Global level undernourishment level slightly below 11 percent.
• Southern Asia is the highest sub region with almost 15% of prevalence of undernourishment.
• Over 2 billion people (26.4 percent of world population) do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food and these live in low- and middle- and high-income countries
• 17.2 percent of world population, or 1.3 billion people, have experienced food insecurity at moderate levels.  
• 9.2 percent of the world population (or slightly more than 700 million people) were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2018, implying reductions in the quantity of food consumed to the extent that they have possibly experienced hunger.
• Women have a higher chance of suffering from food insecurity than men, with the largest gender gap being in Latin America.
• WRI’s Report Feeding 10 billion people sustainably by 2050 requires closing three gaps: Food Gap, Land Gap & GHG Mitigation Gap.
• 56 percent food gap between crop calories produced in 2010 and those needed in 2050.  
• 593 million-hectare land gap (an area nearly twice the size of India) between global agricultural land area in 2010 and expected agricultural expansion by 2050;
• 11-gigaton GHG mitigation gap between expected agricultural emissions in 2050 and the target level needed to hold global warming below 2 C (3.6°F), the level necessary for preventing the worst climate impacts.
• Food security : Situation under which everyone in the population has affordable access to food, availability and affordability of food grains. 

Roadmap for a Sustainable Food Future

• Reduce Growth in Demand for Food and Other Agricultural Products:  Shift towards more sustainable diets
• Achieve replacement-level fertility rates: would close the land gap by one quarter and the GHG mitigation gap by 17 % while reducing hunger.
• Increase livestock and pasture productivity: Enhance the Fisheries Management
• Improve soil and water management: boost crop yields in degraded soils by improving soil and water management practices-agroforestry, or incorporating trees on farms and pastures
• Link productivity gains with protection of natural ecosystems
• Limit inevitable cropland expansion to lands with low environmental opportunity costs.
• Reforest agricultural lands with little intensification potential. Conserve and restore peatlands.
• Reduction of GHG’s emissions from agricultural production: livestock emissions, the largest source is “enteric methane,” or cow burps.
• Increasing productivity of ruminants also reduces methane emissions
• Increasing nitrogen use efficiency 
• Adopt emissions-reducing rice management and varieties as rice paddies contributed at least 10 percent of agricultural production emissions, 
• Increase agricultural energy efficiency through shift to non-fossil energy sources and reduced emissions through improved manure management.

Shanta kumar committee 2014 to address food management in india and restructure FCI - suggested reforms in procurement, procurement payments systems, buffer stocks, storage reforms, transport reforms, MSP policy Pro active liquidation policy for excess buffer stocks

Issues affecting price of food crops

• Mis match in demand and supply
• Short fall in prod - weather cond. Seasonality
• Increase transport cost
•  Supply chain constraints lack of storage facility
•  Artificial shortage by hoarding and black marketing 

Manifestation of food security issue in India

In rural and tribal areas

• Lack of improvement in agricultural productivity owing to inadequate resources and markets needed to obtain agricultural stability
• For the tribal communities, habitation in remote difficult terrains and practice of subsistence farming.

In Urban population

• Large proportion of informal workforce resulting in unplanned growth of slums and around 50 % of the urban slums are not notified, thus deprived of the government schemes.
• Labour class dependence on daily wages which variable on different days of the month.

In children and mothers

• Children are food insecure because of overpopulation, poverty, lack of education and gender inequality. 
• Lack of adequate knowledge amongst mothers regarding nutrition, breast-feeding and parenting is another area of concern.
• Issue of wage differentials as females are at a more disadvantaged position compared to men in the rural labour market.

Faulty Food Distribution and poor storage system

• Inaccurate classification, under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), as above poverty line (APL) and below poverty line (BPL) categories decline in the off take of food grains.
• Low quality of grains and the poor service at PDS shops
• Almost 62,000 tons of food grains were damaged in Food Corporation of India warehouses between 2011 and 2017. 

Unmonitored nutrition programmes

• Although a number of programmes with improving nutrition but these are not properly implemented.
• For instance not providing quality food under the Mid Day Meal Scheme.

Lack of intersectoral coordination

• Lack of coherent food and nutrition policies along with the absence of intersectoral coordination between various ministries such as Ministry of Women and Child Health, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance etc

Other issues

• Low GDP per capita, water scarcity, small landholdings, inadequate irrigation, low public expenditure on R&D and protein quality etc.

How can food security issue be resolved in India? 

• Measures to improve agricultural productivity and food storage
• Facilitate increased use of irrigation and newer farming techniques like availability of better quality seeds, fertilizers and credits at lower interest rates.
• Focus on rationale distribution of cultivable land, improving the size of the farms and providing security to the tenant cultivators.
• Adopt successful strategies for food storage from other countries. For example, China system of grain storage education and research.
• Ensuring food availability and accessibility to below poverty line (BPL) candidates
• more accurate targeting of the BPL population so that they get food at substantially low price.
• Restrictions on food grains regarding inter-State movement, stocking, exports and trade financing should be removed.
• Public Distribution System must be made transparent and reliable
• Improving purchasing power through employment generating schemes
• holistic schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
• Poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes need to be re-oriented and up scaled to improve purchasing power of the lower socio-economic section
• Focus on workers in the informal sector by providing decent wages and healthy working conditions.
• Crop diversification, establishing food grain banks and promoting household gardening
• Higher profitability and the stability in production  e.g., legumes alternative with rice and wheat.
• Creation of decentralized food grain banks in each village or block improve the delivery of food grains and eliminate corruption
• concept of home gardening.
• Community awareness through information, education and communication (IEC) activities and social marketing
• Monitoring and timely evaluation of nutritional programmes
• Annual surveys and rapid assessments surveys
• Evaluations must be timely performed and should provide relevant information
• Use of information technology to improve program monitoring

Initiatives taken in India

• National Food Security Mission
• Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)
• Integrated Schemes on Oilseeds, Pulses, Palm oil and Maize (ISOPOMJ
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the e-marketplace.
• Massive irrigation and soil and water harvesting programme to increase the country’s gross irrigated area from 90 million hectares to 103 million hectares by 2017.
• steps to combat under- and malnutrition through mid-day meals at schools, anganwadi systems to provide rations to pregnant and lactating mothers, and subsidised grain for those living below the poverty line through a public distribution system.
• National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, aims to ensure food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable through its associated schemes and programmes, making access to food a legal right

Public Procurement

Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 was amended to give more preference to local suppliers.

Key highlights of the amended order

• Enables nodal Ministries/ Departments to notify higher minimum ‘local content’ requirement for Class-I & Class-II local suppliers
• Specifying foreign certifications/ unreasonable technical specifications/ brands/ models in the bid document is considered restrictive and discriminatory practice against local suppliers.
• Entities of countries which do not allow Indian companies to participate in their government procurement for any item, shall not be allowed to participate in government procurement in India.
• All administrative Ministries/ Departments whose procurement exceeds Rs. 1000 Crore per annum shall notify their procurement projections for the next 5 years on their respective website.
• upper threshold value of procurement beyond which foreign companies shall enter into a joint venture with an Indian company

Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017

• under General Financial Rules 2017 to promote domestic value addition in public procurement.
• Under this only Class-I and Class-II local suppliers are eligible to bid in procurement of all goods, services or works, and with estimated value of purchases less than Rs. 200 crores.
• It is applicable on procurement of goods, services and works by a Central Ministry, Department, attached, subordinate offices, autonomous bodies controlled by the Government of India, Government companies, their Joint Ventures and Special Purpose Vehicles
• For the verification of the local content, self-certification would be necessary. Nodal Ministries may also constitute committees with internal and external members for independent verifications of the self-declarations.
• committee in Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade will oversee the implementation of this order.

Issues faced by local suppliers

• Some departments and PSUs impose mandatory eligibility clauses, such as a minimum turnover limit and the number of purchase orders previously executed for the procurement of materials.
• The time, cost and effort required for the tendering process, inadequate opportunities for buyer-seller interactions, inadequate information, complex vendor registration processes acts as obstacles to domestic suppliers.
• Many MSMEs complain that several traders have become vendors through GeM platform, which is hurting the interests of genuine MSEs. 

Public procurement from MSE has been growing 3-4% year-on-year. From 23.11% in 2017-18, the procurement went up to 30.95% in 2019-20.

Some suggestions to further improve this are:

• digitised, easily-accessible central database of MSE vendors. Authorities must also relax the qualification criteria of MSMEs vis-a-vis their large corporate counterparts to level the playing field.
• The major procuring ministries undertake measures for training MSE vendors as well as PSUs and their procurement officers to inculcate greater knowledge of the sector and markets to encourage better cooperation and efficiency.
• Semi-independent testing labs in every state to ensure fair and quick testing of the products.
• A feedback and grievance redressal portal, as well as an on-ground team, shall be set up.

Other measures for promotion of local supplies in public procurement

• Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) Order, 2018.
• under Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006.
• every Central Ministry /Department / PSUs shall set an annual target for 25% procurement from MSE Sector
• A sub-target of 4% and 3% out of 25% is earmarked MSEs owned by SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs respectively.
• 358 items are also reserved for exclusive purchase from MSE sector.
• Government eMarketplace (GeM).
• launched in 2016 as an end-to-end e-portal for procuring common-use goods and services by Central and State Government Departments, PSUs, autonomous institutions and local bodies.
• aims to bring in transparency, promote ease of doing business, simplify the process of procurement.
• The purchases through GeM by Government users have been made mandatory by Ministry of Finance.
• Defence Acquisition Procedure (DPP) 2020
• proposes increasing the Indigenous Content (IC) stipulated in various categories of procurement by about 10% to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
• also proposes, New Category Buy (Global – Manufacture in India) with minimum 50% IC on cost basis of total contract value..