Stomach this: Editorial on the global hunger crisis and India’s grim picture

 

n a country where 800 million survive on government rations, a reduced allocation to the PM Poshan scheme in this year’s budget represents a clear lack of political concern

Is the world losing its battle against hunger and malnutrition? A recent statement by the head of the United Nations-backed World Food Programme revealed that a shocking 783 million people — one out of every 10 human beings on the planet — go to sleep hungry every night. This alarming figure is not an exception; around 811 million people were victims of hunger in 2020 as the pandemic pushed more people into poverty. That embedded inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic have had a deleterious impact on the efforts to reduce hunger is not surprising but the global food crisis has also been aggravated by conflict. For instance, together with Russia, Ukraine accounted for about one-quarter of global wheat exports in 2019 but the invasion by Moscow and the subsequent blockading of Ukraine’s ports have led to a steep increase in the price of foodgrains worldwide and intensified the crisis in poorer countries. Libya, for instance, imported 88% of its cereals from the two nations now locked in battle. This begs an important question. At a time when geopolitical co-operation has taken centre stage and multilateral fora like BRICS and G20 are being projected as platforms capable of resolving several knotty issues, why is the international community or geopolitical blocs failing to work out ways of addressing the challenge of global hunger? The question is relevant because there are precedents of international cooperation addressing food shortages. The decline in the total number of people afflicted by hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, from 69 million in 1990-92 to 37 million in 2012-14, was largely due to the efforts of organisations like the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, underscoring the potential of regional blocs in tackling hunger and malnourishment effectively.

India’s picture continues to look particularly grim in this context. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, 973.3 million people in India were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2020. The Global Hunger Index of 2022 also classifies India’s level of hunger as “serious”. In a country where 800 million survive on government rations, a reduced allocation to the PM Poshan scheme in this year’s budget re­presents a clear lack of political concern. Go­v­ernments — including India’s — need to tackle hun­ger with a localised, piecemeal approach if the goal to eliminate global hunger by 2030 is to be met.

Food supply chains must be reimagined to end hunger

 Food wastage is an issue of concern in both developing and developed countries. Food wastage occurs more at the retail and consumer end in developed countries. In developing countries, post-harvest and processing losses are more prominent.

Nearly one in ten people worldwide suffers from hunger. Goal 2 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is to end hunger, but we are failing in our efforts. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), eight per cent of the world population will continue to suffer from hunger in 2030, the target year for achieving the zero-hunger goal. The world population suffering from hunger in 2015, when these goals were adopted, was also eight per cent.

Armed conflicts, climate change and Covid-19 are some key factors behind failing efforts to combat global hunger. With more than 800 million people going to bed on an empty stomach, the basic tenets of humanity are under question. The global hunger crisis is not due to lack of supply or food unavailability but is largely an issue of price, purchasing power and food wastage. The FAO estimates that one-third of the total food produced on the planet ends up in a landfill.

Food wastage is an issue of concern in both developing and developed countries. Food wastage occurs more at the retail and consumer end in developed countries. In developing countries, post-harvest and processing losses are more prominent. Wasting food is an ethical concern since large number of people suffer from hunger worldwide. It is also a key contributor to the global hunger crisis and is detrimental to environment and climate.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, there is more food in landfills than any other single material. Food scraps do not easily degrade in landfills and get tightly compacted creating anaerobic conditions around them. In the absence of oxygen, the degrading food waste releases methane which is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) more dangerous than carbon dioxide. The global warming potential of methane is several times that of carbon dioxide.

According to the FAO, GHG emissions caused by food waste account for about eight per cent of total anthropogenic GHG emissions. If food loss and wastage were a country, it would be the third largest GHG emitting country in the world. The food and agriculture industry consumes nearly 35 per cent of global freshwater and more than 30 per cent cropland. Large volumes of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides are sprayed on crops and soil for producing food.

In India, where close to 60 per cent land is under agriculture, food production contributes significantly to soil and water pollution. The groundwater table in the North Indian states of Punjab and Haryana has declined significantly due to intensive agriculture. Conflicts over water resources to meet agricultural demand are on the rise across India. Wasting one plate of food means wasting all the natural resources and efforts that have gone into producing it.

Despite these concerns, India is a large food waste generating country. According to the UN’s Food Waste Index report 2021, India wastes 68.8 tonnes of food every year. The Global Hunger Index 2022, although disputed by the Government on methodology, ranks India at 107 out of 121 countries. There is a need for reimagining food supply and accessibility since the current food system is not working for everyone.

Food supply chains in India need to be designed on the principles of circular economy beginning with the 3Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle. Food wastage at production level must be reduced by organising operations efficiently. Food industry standards need to be strengthened to minimize waste generation at all levels. Municipal agencies must lead awareness to prevent food wastage across cities and towns.

Reusing surplus edible food is critical for preventing food wastage. Pioneering initiatives by civil society organisations are needed to create platforms for redistributing surplus food. Government and municipal agencies can help by making feeding the hungry a priority. Donating extra edible food helps save resources that were utilized for food production and should become a regular practice. Surplus edible food can also be plugged into existing government schemes for feeding the poor.

Some food waste is bound to happen due to the nature of this industry. Recycling food waste and inedible byproducts will close the loop by avoiding landfill dumping. Encouraging start-ups that are working to convert food leftovers to compost or energy is a step in the right direction. The success of such initiatives will help promote segregation of waste at household level. Adopting waste segregation is a key step for preventing food waste from reaching landfills.

Goal 12 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals aims at achieving responsible consumption and production. One of its targets is to halve global per capita food waste by 2030. India has a rich past of generating minimal waste and maintaining sustainable lifestyle. Feeding the hungry is part and parcel of the traditions, culture and heritage of India. Revisiting the Indian value system and amalgamating it with the circular economy can help end hunger and food wastage.

(The writers are, respectively, a student and an associate professor at Jindal School of Environment & Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, Haryana, India.)

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, there is more food in landfills than any other single material. Food scraps do not easily degrade in landfills and get tightly compacted creating anaerobic conditions around them. In the absence of oxygen, the degrading food waste releases methane which is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) more dangerous than carbon dioxide. The global warming potential of methane is several times that of carbon dioxide.

According to the FAO, GHG emissions caused by food waste account for about eight per cent of total anthropogenic GHG emissions. If food loss and wastage were a country, it would be the third largest GHG emitting country in the world. The food and agriculture industry consumes nearly 35 per cent of global freshwater and more than 30 per cent cropland. Large volumes of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides are sprayed on crops and soil for producing food.

In India, where close to 60 per cent land is under agriculture, food production contributes significantly to soil and water pollution. The groundwater table in the North Indian states of Punjab and Haryana has declined significantly due to intensive agriculture. Conflicts over water resources to meet agricultural demand are on the rise across India. Wasting one plate of food means wasting all the natural resources and efforts that have gone into producing it.

Despite these concerns, India is a large food waste generating country. According to the UN’s Food Waste Index report 2021, India wastes 68.8 tonnes of food every year. The Global Hunger Index 2022, although disputed by the Government on methodology, ranks India at 107 out of 121 countries. There is a need for reimagining food supply and accessibility since the current food system is not working for everyone.

Food supply chains in India need to be designed on the principles of circular economy beginning with the 3Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle. Food wastage at production level must be reduced by organising operations efficiently. Food industry standards need to be strengthened to minimize waste generation at all levels. Municipal agencies must lead awareness to prevent food wastage across cities and towns.

Reusing surplus edible food is critical for preventing food wastage. Pioneering initiatives by civil society organisations are needed to create platforms for redistributing surplus food. Government and municipal agencies can help by making feeding the hungry a priority. Donating extra edible food helps save resources that were utilized for food production and should become a regular practice. Surplus edible food can also be plugged into existing government schemes for feeding the poor.

Some food waste is bound to happen due to the nature of this industry. Recycling food waste and inedible byproducts will close the loop by avoiding landfill dumping. Encouraging start-ups that are working to convert food leftovers to compost or energy is a step in the right direction. The success of such initiatives will help promote segregation of waste at household level. Adopting waste segregation is a key step for preventing food waste from reaching landfills.

Goal 12 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals aims at achieving responsible consumption and production. One of its targets is to halve global per capita food waste by 2030. India has a rich past of generating minimal waste and maintaining sustainable lifestyle. Feeding the hungry is part and parcel of the traditions, culture and heritage of India. Revisiting the Indian value system and amalgamating it with the circular economy can help end hunger and food wastage.

Prabhroop Kaur & Govind Singh

Source: The Statesman, 24/03/23

(The writers are, respectively, a student and an associate professor at Jindal School of Environment & Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, Haryana, India.)

Decoding hunger

 Global Hunger Index report highlights the chronic food and nutritional insecurity plaguing India

Some simple truths bear repetition: climate change is real and India is going to face the brunt of its impacts in the next few decades. A recent report by the International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that India would be facing a 16% drop in food production, with the number of those at risk for hunger increasing by 23% by 2030 due to climate change. This revelation is significant since it comes in the wake of India’s poor showing in the Global Hunger Index 2022 wherein it ranked 101 out of 116 nations.

Such sobering statistics highlight the chronic food and nutritional insecurity plaguing India. During the raj, the colonial government did little to reduce hunger or poverty because of a myriad structural constraints and fiscal irresponsibility. Poverty in British India came to be understood from the unidimensional lens of hunger, a notion that was challenged by Amartya Sen who sought to do away with the artificial distinction between social characteristics of poverty (such as education and health) and economic characteristics of poverty.

Having suffered devastating famines and starvation deaths under oppressive colonial regimes, after the 1950s, developing nations strove to do two things: first, they agreed to progressively realise the socio-economic right to food in the long term; second, State Parties agreed to secure for citizens a ‘needsbased’ minimum core of the said right. A needs-based minimum core essentially means that State Parties need to ensure that a minimum acceptable level of food is provided for citizens’ needs and survival. India complied with the second commitment by guaranteeing adequate daily calorie requirements to its populace through a judicious mix of legal and policy initiatives like the Green Revolution, the public distribution system, and the National Food Security Act 2013.

These efforts led many African and Latin American nations to view India as a model to emulate in matters of providing food and safeguarding food security. But India still has a long way to go. Domestic surveys like NFHS5 have revealed that every third child in India below five years is stunted (35.5%) and underweight (32.1%). Further, FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 concluded that India suffers from a 14% chronic malnutrition rate.

In practice, food security is not always understood comprehensively. There is thus an immediate need to rethink the current definitions of ‘right to food’ and ‘hunger’ so as to implement a multi-faceted approach. The correct question to ask is this: how does one ensure that food insecurity, starvation and malnutrition do not hinder the development of human capabilities in line with Sen’s vision? The answer lies in reconceptualising and realigning the domestic right to food laws and policies with a ‘value-based’ core approach as opposed to a need-based approach to the right to food and nutrition. A needs-based approach does not make a distinction between whether a person meets his pre-determined caloric intake, either by consuming one kilogramme of sugar in a day or through a balanced diet comprising necessary micronutrients and essential food groups. Per contra, a dignitarian value-based approach requires the State to secure the maximalist standards of dignity for citizens by broadening the ambit of what it considers to be ‘core’ obligations with respect to right to food. This is borne out when the State starts weaving into its legal fabric and policy formulations comprehensive dignitarian definitions of the right to food and hunger that cover such multi-faceted aspects of food security as safety, minimum nutrition value, means of access and control, differential dietary requirements and so on.

Even as India celebrates 75 years of Independence, it is unfortunate to note that official and judicial attitudes towards food security remain rooted in the outdated needsbased approach. With climate change set to exacerbate the food security situation in the country, a broader conceptualisation of the positive core obligations of the Indian State is the need of the hour.

Sushant Khalkho is with the National Law School of India University, Bangalore

Source: The Telegraph, 20/07/22

Global hunger calls for a collective action

The world system that feeds humankind has been under stress for the past two years. It began with the coronavirus pandemic, which created food insecurity by disrupting agricultural production, supply-chains and livelihoods. The cost of critical inputs for agriculture—energy and fertilizers—rose sharply, as crude oil prices trebled between late 2020 and early 2022. The Russia-Ukraine war strangled crucial sources of supply, as these two countries contribute 28% to world wheat exports and 15% to world maize exports. Exports from Ukraine are simply not possible, as Odessa port is blockaded by Russia and mined by Ukraine, while exports from Russia are squeezed by sanctions. Climate change has accentuated the problem for wheat in 2022. Untimely rains in China, the world’s largest producer of wheat, an unprecedented heat wave in India, the world’s second largest producer of wheat, and insufficient rain in the wheat belts of the US and France, have all reduced output. Drought in the Horn of Africa has severely hurt the production of wheat and maize.

In less than six months, world prices of wheat have risen by 60%. The prospects are worrisome.

Ukraine, ravaged by war, might not be able to store what remains of the harvest to come, or plant for the next season. Russia will inevitably experience constraints. Surging prices of energy, fertilizers and pesticides will either shrink profit margins or diminish their use, reducing agricultural yields and output everywhere, particularly for poor farmers in developing countries. The spectre of a global food shortage looms large on the horizon. In a statement on 18 May, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations’ Secretary General, said that: “Global hunger levels are at a new high. In just two years, the number of severely food insecure people has doubled from 135 million to 276 million." Going further, he warned that the present situation “threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years."

The availability of food grains for human consumption is constrained not only by output levels, but also by alternative uses. For one, the proportion of grains used to feed animals is alarmingly high. Estimates suggest that 33% of maize produced in the US and 40% of wheat produced by the EU is eaten by cows, while an enormous amount of maize grown in and imported by China is used to feed pigs. For another, a significant, albeit smaller, proportion of grains and vegetable oils are used to make biofuels—ethanol and biodiesel—which drive cars or trucks on roads, even if the objective is to reduce pollution.

There is a deeper structural problem in the world food system. Production and exports are concentrated in 10-12 countries, while consumption and imports of food, more widely distributed, depend on population and income levels. Moreover, a relatively small proportion of world output —25% for wheat and 15% for maize—is exported. It is appropriate to focus on wheat, the most important grain for human consumption, except in Asia, where it is rice.

Eleven countries account for 70% of global wheat production: China and India (the two largest producers) for 31%, Russia and Ukraine for 15%, the US, Canada, France, Germany and Australia for 19%, Turkey and Argentina for 5%. Just ten countries account for 86% of world wheat exports: the US, Canada, France, Australia, Germany and Poland for 50%, Russia and Ukraine for 28%, Argentina and Kazakhstan for 8%. Essentially, rich countries, which also use wheat for animal feed and biofuels, are the exporters. Similarly, just ten countries account for 83% of world imports, but in contrast, all ten are developing countries, listed in descending order of import volumes: Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, China, Algeria, Bangladesh, Morocco, Nigeria, Brazil and the Philippines. The regions that are dependent on wheat imports for food are North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Most of these countries and regions are vulnerable because Russia and Ukraine provide 25%-75% of their wheat imports.

More than two-thirds of the world’s population lives in countries that are net importers of food, largely in the developing world. The poor in these countries spend at least 40%, if not more, of their income on food. For the poorest, wheat and bread also provide a significant proportion of the calories needed to keep hunger at bay. And, when there are food shortages, it is the poor who go without.

Satyajit Ray’s portrayal of the 1940s Bengal famine in Distant Thunder, or Amartya Sen’s analysis in Poverty and Famines, both show that famine deaths are attributable to paucity of income among the poor rather than food shortages. In the present global context, it will be poor countries that cannot afford to buy scarce food at high prices, and hunger will be the fate of their poor.

Global hunger is a global problem. National actions in isolation, such as export restrictions, cannot suffice. International collective action, motivated by solidarity and implemented through cooperation, is the need of the hour. If the world cannot feed its people, the consequent hunger and starvation will feed conflict by unleashing economic, social and political tensions within countries, which could spill over across national boundaries.

Deepak Nayyar is emeritus professor of economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Source; Mintepaper, 10/06/22

Hunger isn’t about biology. It’s about politics

 

Shah Alam Khan writes: In the absence of an organised food security net and political commitment, India is being crippled by the challenge of pervasive hunger and malnourishment

A busy day ended and I started walking towards my car in the hospital parking lot. With the setting sun in my eyes, I saw this seven- or eight-year-old boy standing at the hospital entrance speaking to his younger sister. Their father and an old lady (probably their grandmother) sat on their haunches nearby. The little boy had returned after visiting his ailing mother, who was admitted in our hospital. The visit of the young boy had coincided with lunch being served to admitted patients. This stroke of luck had given him a chance of a lifetime. It was now his turn to describe the menu to his younger sister.

“There was dal. There was roti. There was dahi….” He spoke like a lover who has just won a duel. His sister listened in awe. Her half-open mouth and shining eyes had an element of surprise. “What else was there?” she asked nervously. Her golden-brown hair, a sign of malnutrition, added misery to her innocent face.

“And there was achaar,” he continued with a snick of the tongue. Every food item he mentioned widened the little girl’s eyes.

I kept listening to them. The click of his tongue, the warmth of the rotis, the precise salt in the dal — good food had turned him into a master storyteller. Her sister’s face was slowly falling apart, her excitement turning into anxiety. Her sparse eyebrows were raised like parentheses. She was beginning to realise what she had missed. The storyteller continued. By now, darkness had engulfed his face. His brittle voice followed me into the car park. I drove into the darkness promising myself to quickly forget hiA few months after this incident, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report ranked India at 101 out of a total of 116 countries. Despite my resistance, the two children returned to haunt me. Very unceremoniously, we were again labelled the republic of hungry citizens. To add misery to this horrible truth is the fact that in the crop year 2019-20 (July-June), the country’s foodgrain output was at a record 297.5 million tones. Hunger in India is thus a classic case of the crisis of capitalism, which Karl Marx, the best food theorist I know, had once warned us against.

In his book, Hunger: A Modern History, James Vernon has described hunger as a “timeless and inescapable biological condition”. Wrong. Hunger has always been political. The soul of hunger lies in the evil of the ruling class. The biology of hunger resides inside the coffers of the state and its cronies. In a 2008 paper, Hunger in the Contemporary World, Amartya Sen enumerated the interdependence of food deprivation and hunger on multiple factors. According to him, hunger involves much more than food. Different interconnections of food or lack of it are well-being of economic sectors, women’s education, public activism and social commitment, employment, military expenditure, political incentives and government policies, people’s income and inter-family food distribution rules. The complex diversity of these interconnections is what makes India vulnerable to pervasive hunger.

Having said this, it is interesting to note that in the current GHI, India has fared worse than neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. These are countries with a similar subset of factors and “food interconnections” as ours. It won’t be wrong to, therefore, conclude that we need to evaluate our responses in the fight against hunger in the backdrop of what these nations did right in standing up to the menace of hunger.

In the last decade or so, Bangladesh has shown significant progress on many socio-economic parameters. Infant mortality rate (IMR), which is considered to be one of the best indicators of overall health of the society, is 23.6 per thousand live births for Bangladesh as against India’s IMR of 28.7 per thousand live births. Female literacy in Bangladesh is 72 per cent, higher than that of India at 66 per cent. There is thus no surprise that they have done fairly well in the GHI. A study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on food security post the Covid-19 crisis in Bangladesh concluded that though the lockdown brought significant food insecurity, it quickly went back to the pre-pandemic levels with extensive government involvement. A similar conclusion for India will need a leap of imagination.s sister’s miserable face and the meagre food he described. I dreamt of them that night.

On the day that the GHI released its rankings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country’s goal under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign was to emerge as the most powerful military in the world. However, our expenditure on health over the last five years has either remained static or declined. Health is the single most crucial “interconnection of food”. Political will and commitment come a close second. In the absence of an organised food security net, particularly in urban India, our rank in the GHI will fall further.

India is a signatory to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). We need to achieve these 13 targets and 28 indicators by 2030. The SDG target 2.1 enumerates that by 2030 we need to end hunger and ensure access of all people, in particular the poor and vulnerable, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round. In 2020, we were ranked 94 (out of 107 countries) in the GHI. Our deterioration in 2021 is a grim reminder of our potential inability to achieve the SDG 2.1 target unless we do something drastically different; something more than committing ourselves to war, and a vulgar display of power. Unless that happens, we, the republic of hungry people, shall continue to find truth in what Charlotte Bronte, had written in Shirley, the Tale:

“Take the matter as you find it: ask no questions; utter no remonstrances: it is your best wisdom. You expected bread, and you have got a stone; break your teeth on it, and don’t shriek because the nerves are martyrised: do not doubt that your mental stomach — if you have such a thing — is strong as an ostrich’s — the stone will digest.”

Source: Indian Express, 12/11/21

Nobel Peace prize to World Food Programme recognises hunger as violation of human rights

 

Amidst all the media attention to the exceptional violence of wars, terrorism and genocides, we tend to forget the millions of hunger victims who die in a slower, less spectacular form of violence. Hunger is not inevitable: It is man-made and there are victims and perpetrators.

In May 2018, a remarkable addition was made to the UN Security Council resolutions on civilian protection in armed conflicts. Building on previous UN resolutions on humanitarian laws, human rights and protecting civilians and vulnerable populations, Resolution 2417, for the first time, recognised the need to “break the vicious cycle between armed conflict and food insecurity”. This pathbreaking resolution also added credence to the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating hunger adopted by the UN in 2015.

The recent announcement of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP), one of the largest humanitarian organisations addressing hunger and promoting food security, is a step forward in recognising the seriousness of the global food crisis. It draws attention to the sustained efforts to fight hunger and famine from the grassroots to the highest levels of global governance. While recognising those who struggle to ban nuclear weapons, restrict arms production and arms trade, and prevent conflict through diplomacy may seem directly relevant for the peace prize, putting focus on the consequences of war is also an important part of working towards peace and the well-being of people.

UNSCR 2417 had very clearly prepared the ground to focus world attention on the after-effects of war, including continued suffering of food-insecure people and severely undernourished children. The Nobel committee has further stressed the link between armed conflict and hunger — something that the WFP also recently reminded us of. Almost 80 per cent of all chronic malnourished children inhabit countries affected by armed conflict. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the problem of food insecurity and famines. It is anticipated that the number of hungry people could increase to 270 million under the impact of the pandemic, with the most acute suffering and starvation experienced in conflict zones.

Wars constrain people’s mobility, create black markets and restrict people’s access to food, making it either unavailable or too expensive. War-related displacement causes people to be removed from their cultivable land so that they cannot grow food, and it diverts resources from people’s welfare towards the war effort. War parties control what goes in and out of areas under their jurisdiction, and can use withholding of food as a weapon of war. Providing people with food in an emergency situation may seem like a very short-term measure. At the same time, providing for basic needs is necessary for promoting trust in society and for the focus to shift to education, work and rebuilding lives. This is also important for preventing the outbreak of new hostilities and armed conflicts.

Apart from the significance of the connections between war and hunger, we also believe that eradicating hunger needs to be a focus in its own right. Amidst all the media attention to the exceptional violence of wars, terrorism and genocides, we tend to forget the millions of hunger victims who die in a slower, less spectacular form of violence. Hunger is not inevitable: It is man-made and there are victims and perpetrators. Those perpetrators include — but are not restricted to — state actors who, through what they do or what they fail to do, contribute to starvation.

Hunger has been India’s bane in colonial times and also since Independence. While debates about the Bengal and other British-era famines are getting some attention now, we need to focus on the hunger threats and food insecurity that independent India continues to face. In 1947, India’s biggest challenge was to find enough grains to feed its population of around 300 million, when only 10 per cent of the cultivated area had access to irrigation, and mineral fertilisers were an unaffordable luxury. Though a modern, technology-driven economy was introduced, the lack of domestic food production continued to be supplemented by importing grains from all over the world — an embarrassing situation for a proudly non-aligned nation that became the largest importer of food aid, especially from the US.

The Green Revolution changed the situation drastically since the late 1960s but acute hunger crisis, famines and malnourishment are reported regularly, along with farmer suicides. State policies and accountability are the bigger part of the problem, along with the occurrence of frequent natural disasters and lack of public attention to this issue. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has further exacerbated the threat of hunger, ever since the lockdown was introduced and millions of daily-wage earners lost their livelihood, giving rise to massive reverse migration. To add to these known precarities, the impact of climate change on the future of crop production is not even fully known yet.

The World Food Programme has delivered food aid and worked to alleviate hunger in many parts of the world, including India. Recognising its work at this critical juncture is not only a much-needed act of appreciation, but an urgent warning that we all need to heed. The world faces a severe food crisis as the threat of famines and starvation is magnified during the ongoing pandemic. This slow violence on vulnerable populations will weigh on our collective conscience, if we do not recognise hunger as the ultimate violation of basic human rights and dignity, and join hands to eradicate it.

This article first appeared in the print edition on October 13 under the title “A prize for waging war on hunger”. Parashar is Associate Professor in Peace and Development Research at the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden. Orjuela is Professor in Peace and Development Research at the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden

Source: Indian Express, 13/10/20

India ranked 102 in Global Hunger Index, 8 places behind Pakistan

The report warned that the progress towards a 2030 zero hunger target that was agreed upon by leaders across the words was “under threat”.

India slipped to the 102 spot in the Global Hunger Index which features 117 countries, according to Concern Worldwide, an aid agency which compiles the report.

India was the lowest ranked South Asian country in Global Hunger Index even behind Pakistan which was ranked 94th. Indeed, India is also ranked below countries such as North Korea at 92.

The report warned that the progress towards a 2030 zero hunger target that was agreed upon by leaders across the words was “under threat”.

The report, topped by Central African Republic, said that it was becoming difficult to feed the world due to climate change.It said that while there has been progress in reducing hunger, but the gains are now being threatened and severe hunger persists in many regions across the world.

“Hunger stubbornly persists in many countries and is actually increasing in others. Multiple countries have higher hunger levels now than in 2010, and approximately 45 countries are set to fail to achieve low levels of hunger by 2030,” said Concern Worldwide US CEO Colleen Kelly.

Among the 117 countries, 43 have “serious” levels of hunger. The report said that the Central African Republic is in the “extremely alarming” level in the hunger index while Chad, Madagascar, Yemen, and Zambia were in the “alarming” level.

The Global Hunger Index also recommends various steps the countries could take to tackle this serious problem. Prioritizing resilience among the most vulnerable groups, better response to disasters, addressing inequalities, action to mitigate climate change are among measures suggested in the report.

Worldwide, the number of undernourished people - those who lack regular access to adequate calories - rose to 822 million last year from 785 million in 2015, with the greatest increase in sub-Saharan countries affected by conflict and drought.

Nine countries of concern were omitted due to lack of data, including Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria.

Source: Hindustan Times, 16/10/2019

How India can overcome the zero hunger challenge

The one-way movement of raw materials and finished goods between farmers and consumers must be transformed into a two-way movement of commerce and healthy, nutritious food

The way we frame a problem determines the solutions we get. Hunger is a global challenge. It is often erroneously assumed that hunger stems from lack of food. However, if we probe the root cause of hunger, the answer is far more complicated.

Though the global food production is enough to feed all human beings, still there are approximately 815 million people suffering from chronic undernourishment. India produces enough food to feed all its citizens, yet it is ranked 100 among 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index rankings. Though the country has been foodsecure for the past decade, its economic growth and the changing demographics are transforming patterns of food demand. In India, the problem is further complicated as the food basket differs from region to region. There is a growing need for the design and development of more efficient integrated systems of food production, processing, preservation and distribution that will feed the changing tastes of the nation.

India wastes about 7% of its total annual food production and almost 30% of the fruits and vegetables because of inadequate warehousing facilities and cold storages. The situation is similar in other countries too. In Africa, it is estimated that the food wasted can feed close to 40 million people. Hunger is increasingly a processing, storage, supply chain and logistics challenge. According to the International Institute of Refrigeration, if developing countries had the same level of refrigeration infrastructure as developed countries, they would save 200 million tonnes of food or around 14% of their food supply.

In India, the National Centre for Cold-chain Development (NCCD) estimates that country has only 15% of the required temperature-control transportation facilities and less than 1% of warehouse facilities dedicated for transporting pre-conditioned agricultural produce. This lack of infrastructure means that only 4% of the country’s food is moved through cold chains. Cold chains do not just reduce post-harvest losses but also allow farmers to earn more by tapping into well-functioning remunerative markets, while maintaining the quality of their produce. Moreover, with growing climate variability and extremes, resilient transportation infrastructure will allow food to be transported from surplus to climate stressed areas, thus contributing to achieving zero hunger, goal 2 under the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

India’s highly fragmented agricultural landscape makes the problem more complex. For example, despite being the world’s largest producer of banana, India has just a 0.3% share of the global trade. This is primarily because of the lack of large scale commercial farms and low consolidation among smallholders. Food loss and wastage is not only an issue of mismanagement of resources but also contributes to massive greenhouse gas emissions. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that food wastage accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Developing and upgrading rural infrastructure; training farmers in post-harvest practices that minimize losses; integrating small scale enterprises into value chains; organizing smallholder farmers into farmer producer organizations; customized financial services; investment in agricultural research; and last-mile marketing channels are extremely important to overcome the zero hunger challenge. They are also important for ensuring social equity, gender inclusiveness and reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint.

While this is an enormous challenge, it is an opportunity that compels action, especially for companies that are involved at various stages of the food value chain. Private companies have the competencies, insights as well as the resources to invest in potential solutions. Solving the problem of food loss and waste has the potential to have an enormous impact on society and on the company’s own performance. A report by the Boston Consulting Group estimates that solving the problem of food loss and wastage is a $700 billion opportunity for private companies.

Companies are also better positioned as they are better connected to the various stakeholders along the food value chains and have the ability to influence their behaviour. For example, the retail chain Tesco has started the ‘Buy one get one free—later’ programme wherein customers can buy certain food items and take the free product later when they actually need it, reducing the attraction to stock discounted products which often leads to food wastage. The problem of food waste is also intensified because of the lack of regulation around industry standards and policies. Companies can be advocates for industry standards that regulate food wastage and help increase general public awareness around the issue. The government, on its part, can have laws that penalize companies for wasting food within their supply chain and encourage repurposing and recycling of food items. For example, since 2016, France has been fining grocery stores for throwing away edible food.

American senator Daniel Webster once said, “When tillage begins, the other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” The agriculture sector is a laggard in the fast changing economic landscape of the country. The farmer, the first participant of the economy, has to be supported to achieve the highest production and productivity and must be ensured a larger share of profit along the value chain.

Currently, we have a one-way movement of raw materials and a one-way movement of finished goods. This flow must be transformed into a two-way movement of commerce and healthy, nutritious food between the farmers and the consumers to overcome the zero hunger challenge and address poverty in all its forms.

Source: Livemint epaper, 16/10/2018

Still seriously hungry and poor

Economic growth alone is not enough to achieve key Sustainable Development Goals. It must translate into jobs for the poor and marginalised

India is the fastest growing large economy in the world today. Despite this, one in every five Indians is poor. Multilateral agencies as well as governments are playing an active role in understanding problems relating to poverty and hunger and finding solutions to them. But these challenges are pervasive and weeding them out will require clear evidence-based data-driven solutions.

Goal 1 and 2 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envision eradicating poverty and ending hunger by 2030. A brief look at the statistics tells us the extent of the problem. An astounding 767 million people in the world are poor while the those who do not have enough to eat are estimated to be close to 800 million.

Poverty is a multidimensional concept, which involves reduction in choices to pursue freedom. So is hunger. Two recent reports try to clear the haze on measurement and yield some pertinent insights on poverty and hunger. These are the the Global Hunger Index (GHI) of the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Pathways to Reducing Poverty and Sharing Prosperity in India (PRPSPI) of the World Bank.

Improvement but not enough 

The GHI tries to capture the hunger level across countries. The index is constructed using four component indicators: percentage of undernourished in the population, percentage of wasting in children under five years old, percentage of stunting in children under five years, and under-five mortality rates. The index has been calculated since 2006 and the oldest back calculations on the index go back to 1992. The overall methodology is similar to development of other composite indices like the Human Development Index. The overall scale of the index is from zero to 100 where 100 represents ‘absolute hunger’ and zero represents ‘zero hunger’. Countries and regions are also classified in terms of the level of hunger. Those falling in the <= 9.9 category are classified as having a ‘low’ level of hunger, those in the 10.0-19.9 category are ‘moderate’, those in the 20-34.9 bracket are ‘serious’, those between 35 and 49.9 are classified as ‘alarming’, and those <50 are ‘extremely alarming’.

There are some pertinent points in this year’s global hunger report. First, developing countries have a major stake in reducing hunger levels. Overall hunger has come down by 29 per cent since 2000 in these countries. Second, there are distinct regions, the ones with the highest GHI scores, which can help in fulfilling the SDGs. On the 2016 index, Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia have the highest GHI scores (30.1 and 29.0, respectively). Thus they are placed in the ‘alarming’ category on the GHI. Third, India is placed at a dismal 97th rank among the 118 countries considered for the index. The country has improved its score from 46.4 in 1992 to 28.5 at present, which is considerable, but its overall level continues to be ‘serious’ on the index.

Decline in poverty

Related to hunger is poverty, which has been one of the most critical issues in international economic development. PRPSPI, the World Bank Group report, looks at India’s development experience. Four main points emerge.

First, the report notes that poverty in India has declined considerably from 1994 to 2013. Over the commensurate time frame, those below India’s official poverty line have reduced from 45 per cent to 22 per cent. This means that 133 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Despite this the report notes that India’s growth has not been very inclusive. It is because roughly two-thirds of the countries’ inclusive growth performance is better than India’s in the 2005-2012 period.

Second, some population groups in India are substantially worse off than other groups. These include the Scheduled Tribes (STs), 43 per cent of whom were below the poverty line in 2012, and the Scheduled Castes, 29 per cent of whom were below the poverty line. Poverty also seems entrenched among the STs, with the pace of poverty reduction slower than that witnessed in other groups between 2005 and 2012.

Third, poverty seems to be present in certain geographical locations. The top States for poverty in absolute terms in India are Uttar Pradesh (60 million poor), Bihar (36 million) and Madhya Pradesh (24 million). The top seven States account for roughly 62 per cent of India’s poor. Also important is the rural-urban divide in poverty. Almost one in five Indians is poor and out of every five poor people, four live in rural areas. Also, the poverty rate is just 7 per cent in big cities with a population of more than 1 million.

Growth and redistribution

Finally poverty has a bearing on choices and the well-being of individuals in a society. The poor also own fewer assets and spend more on food, fuel, and light. This reduces the percentage they have for spending on critical things like education and health, and it makes them prone to a vicious poverty trap. Another important insight is that for poverty levels to go down, the States will have to grow faster. The States which have lagged behind on growth rates are also the ones where there are low GSDP (gross state domestic product) per capita and in turn higher levels of poverty. Thus both growth and redistribution are necessary for poverty alleviation.

Over the next decade and a half, the goal of citizens and policymakers in India should be improvement in Goals 1 and 2 of SDGs. Growth alone will not be enough but must get translated into jobs for the poor and marginalised for it to become truly inclusive. This will not be easy considering the pressure that automation and newer technologies are putting on jobs and employment. Newer skills will hold the key for translating growth into jobs over the coming decade.

Amit Kapoor is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness and Editor of Thinkers. Sankalp Sharma is senior researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India. The views expressed are personal.

Keywords: Poverty, poverty line, sustainable growth

Source: The Hindu, 31-10-2016

Unless social infrastructure improves, India will not get out of the hunger trap

Hunger levels in developing countries may have fallen 29% since 2000, but unfortunately, India is still rated as a country with ‘serious’ hunger levels in 2016, says the Global Hunger Index (GHI), which was released on Tuesday. It also said that the country is slated to become the world’s most populous nation in six years, and it’s crucial that it meets this milestone with a record of ensuring that the expected 1.4 billion Indians have enough nutritious food to lead healthy and successful lives. Since 2000, the country has reduced its GHI score by a quarter and has a score in 2016 of 28.5 (rank 97 of 118 countries). Recent data show that almost 40% of Indian children under five years of age are stunted compared to over 60% in the early 1990s. The GHI ranks countries based on four key indicators: Undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting and child stunting.

The report brings back the focus on the implementation of the National Food Security Act. To date, several states and Union Territories have implemented the food security law and the basic entitlement s are being delivered. However, it will not be entirely correct to say that only implementation of the Act will solve the India’s problem. This is because hunger and malnourishment are closely linked to sanitation issues. According to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health professor Jean Humphrey, the stunting in children is not simply due to a lack of food. The constant ambush of germs and bacteria from their environment forces “these children’s bodies [to] divert energy and nutrients away from growth and brain development to prioritise infection-fighting survival,” Dr Humphrey told The New York Times.

Then there are other issues such as health, the anganwadi infrastructure and incomes of people. India’s health infrastructure is in a pitiable state and that has a direct impact on maternal health, which in turn impacts the health of children. As far as incomes are concerned, rural distress has been quite widespread in India for the last couple of years. In other words, unless and until the full social infrastructure improves, India will not be able to get out of the hunger trap.

Source: Hindustan Times, 12-10-2016