A flawed approach to food security

With India continuing to be plagued by malnutrition, it is foolhardy to use the changed food production situation in the domestic economy as a reason for dismantling the FCI

Within months of assuming office, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government set up a High Level Committee (HLC) in August 2014 to restructure, reorient and reform the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The eight-member HLC was chaired by senior BJP leader, Shanta Kumar, and included prominent economist Ashok Gulati. On January 22, 2015, the HLC submitted its report to the government and made its recommendations public.

In the short run, the committee recommends that the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 be curtailed. In particular, the NFSA entails providing subsidised food to about 67 per cent of the population, and the committee recommends that the coverage be brought down to 40 per cent. In the medium run, the committee recommends that the current public distribution system (PDS) be replaced by a cash transfer system. This will mean that the state will no longer have to be responsible for distributing food to vulnerable sections of the population. Hence, the state will no longer need to procure food from farmers, and store it. Since the current system of procurement, storage and transportation is primarily managed by the FCI, the medium term vision of the HLC implies that the FCI can, in due course, be folded up.

The overall thrust of the HLC’s recommendations, if implemented, would whittle down the operation of the FCI in the short run and completely dismantle it in the medium run. The HLC has advanced two broad set of arguments as justifications for its recommendations. Critical scrutiny shows that both are fallacious.

Changed situation

The first set of arguments of the HLC relates to changes in the situation in the country as regards food production and consumption since the crisis period of the mid-1960s. Today, India produces more food grains than it consumes, even exporting substantial amounts to the world market. It has a large public stockholding of food grains and is comfortably placed as regards foreign exchange reserves. All this is in stark contrast to the situation in the mid-1960s. Moreover, consumption patterns of households have displayed a shift away from cereals. This changed situation, in the opinion of the HLC, calls for a change in the role of the FCI.

“Excessive stocks of food grains on the one hand, and prevalence of widespread hunger and malnutrition on the other, call for an expansion of the PDS operations”

The HLC, however, has ignored the fact that India continues to be plagued by large scale hunger and malnutrition. Data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) shows that in 2009-10 the vast majority of the population was consuming less than the 2010 Indian Council of Medical Research calorie norms. If we look at trends over time, the same data also shows that average calorie and protein intake have declined over the past few decades. Evidence on more direct measures of under-nutrition – like the proportion of underweight and stunted children – are equally grim.

Fulfilling its objectives

Given these well known facts and trends on hunger and malnutrition, it seems foolhardy to use the fact of a changed production situation in the domestic economy to argue for the dismantling the FCI. A more sensible route would be to use increased domestic production to directly address the problems of hunger and malnutrition. In this strategy, the FCI is bound to play a more rather than less important role.

The second set of arguments given by the HLC as justification relate to the claim that the FCI has not been fulfilling its three key objectives in recent years: providing price support to farmers, delivering food through the PDS, and reducing volatility of food prices (and addressing food security) through public stockholding. According to the HLC, failure to meet the objective of providing price support is shown by the fact that in 2012-13 only six per cent of agricultural households sold any food grains to procurement agencies. Failure on the PDS front is attested by massive leakages from the system. Food grains rotting in FCI warehouses highlight the failure of the system of public stockholding.

The fact that only six per cent of agricultural households sold paddy or rice to any procurement agency in 2012-13 is really striking. The Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation during the 70th Round (2013) of the NSS – the data source that allowed the HLC to compute the figure of six per cent – shows why. The NSS data reveals that the vast majority of agricultural households were not aware of the existence of minimum support price (MSP), and an even larger proportion were not aware of procurement agencies (about 80 per cent for paddy and 70 per cent for wheat). Of the households that were aware of MSP but did not sell to procurement agencies, a large proportion did so for lack of procurement infrastructure at the local level. Moreover, if we go back 10 years and look at data from the previous (and first) Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers in 2003, we see a large variation across States in awareness of MSP, with Haryana, Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu showing high awareness.

One can see that the reason for low use of procurement is lack of information. The other reason is lack of enabling infrastructure at the local level. States which have managed to put such infrastructure in place and disseminate information about procurement saw greater participation. Thus, the HLC’s conclusion that the procurement system is not working is misleading.

The second claim of the HLC is that the PDS is a failure because of massive leakage. But, what do we know about the extent of leakage, its spatial and temporal patterns?

The existing literature on PDS in India has highlighted three important patterns. First, there is a secular decline in leakage over the past decade. Second, there is a large variation in the extent of leakage across states with some States like Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu consistently reporting low leakage. Third, and more interestingly, many States like Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, have improved considerably over time with respect to leakage from the PDS. The conclusion that would be consistent with the findings of this literature is not that the system needs to be dismantled but that the strategies adopted by successful states are replicated in the other States.

The third claim of the HLC is that the FCI has ended up with excess stocks of food grains. Since storage of food grains is costly, it represents a waste of resources that could have been used elsewhere and in more productive ways. We agree with this and would go further to argue that excessive stocks of food grains on the one hand, and prevalence of widespread hunger and malnutrition on the other immediately call for an expansion of the PDS operations.

To sum up, neither the changed situation with respect to domestic food production nor the functioning of the FCI with respect to meeting its key objectives lends credence to the argument that the FCI, and with it the whole food management system, needs to be curtailed.

(Deepankar Basu is assistant professor in the Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, U.S., and Debarshi Das is associate professor in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.)

Keywords: National Sample Survey, Food Corporation of India, Food Security Act, High Level Committee, PDS operations, National Food Security Act 2013

The menace of plastic waste

If there is one type of municipal solid waste that has become ubiquitous in India and most developing countries, and largely seen along the shores and waterways of many developed countries, it is plastic waste. Much of it is not recycled, and ends up in landfills or as litter on land, in waterways and the ocean. For the first time, researchers have estimated the amount of plastic that makes its way into the oceans. While the estimate of eight million tonnes of plastic being dumped into the oceans by 192 coastal countries in 2010 may appear staggeringly high, in reality the quantity would be many times more. Besides estimating the total quantity, a paper published recently in the journal Science has identified the top 20 countries that have dumped the most plastic waste into the oceans. At twelfth position, India is one of the worst performers. It has dumped up to 0.24 million tonnes of plastic into the ocean every year; the amount of mismanaged plastic waste per year is 0.6 million tonnes. In the case of China, the No. 1 polluter, the coastal population sends up to 3.53 million tonnes of plastic waste into the oceans each year. Besides the 11 Asian and South East Asian countries, the U.S. figures in the list.

A study published in December 2014 estimated the quantity of plastic floating in the ocean at nearly 270,000 tonnes. This is but a fraction of the total that finds its way into the oceans. Other studies suggest that the surface of the water is not its final resting place. Alarmingly, an unknown quantity of degraded plastic in the form of particles enters the food chain. Besides affecting marine life, plastic that gets into the food chain has serious health implications for humans. With the latest study estimating that the annual input into the oceans is set to double by 2025, there is an urgent need to tackle the problem. A two-pronged approach has to be adopted by the worst polluters to reduce per capita plastic waste generation and cut the amount of mismanaged waste by employing better waste management practices. Recycling is the best available way to tackle the waste, though it is not the ideal solution. India, which hardly recycles plastic waste, has its task cut out. It dumps a huge quantity into the ocean although it generates a relatively small amount of this waste per person — 3 per cent of 0.34 kg per person a day of all solid waste generated. The huge population offsets the advantage of low plastic consumption in the country. Cutting down on the use of plastic should also begin in earnest, and the first item that has to be targeted is the single-use plastic bag. The Union government recently refused to ban the manufacture of single-use plastic bags; the least it could do to reduce consumption is to make such bags expensive, employing the same rationale that has been applied for tobacco products that are taxed heavily to reduce consumption.

Keywords: municipal solid waste, plastic waste recycling, tobacco products consumption, environmental pollution, low plastic consumption

3 Indians in 100 shortlisted for one way trip to Mars

Three Indians, two women and one man, have made it to the list of 100 applicants who will move on to the next round of an ambitious private mission that aims to send four people on a one-way trip to Mars in 2024.

From the initial 202,586 applicants, only 100 hopefuls have been selected to proceed to the next round of the Mars One Astronaut Selection Process, The Netherlands-based non-profit organisation Mars One has announced.

The project aims to set up a human colony on Mars and eventually around 40 people will be sent to the red planet on a permanent basis. The finalists will train for seven years and Mars One will begin sending out four at a time from 2024.

The Mars 100 Round Three candidates include 50 men and 50 women with 39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, 7 from Africa, and 7 from Oceania.

The Indian candidates include 29-year-old Taranjeet Singh Bhatia, who is studying Doctorate in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida.

The other two are Ritika Singh, 29, who lives in Dubai, and Shradha Prasad, 19, from Kerala.

The second round of the application process last year had shortlisted 44 Indians, of whom 27 were men and 17 were women.

The third round has selected 100 candidates from a pool of 660 after they participated in personal online interviews with Norbert Kraft, Chief Medical Officer.

During the interviews the candidates had a chance to show their understanding of the risks involved, team spirit and their motivation to be part of the life changing expedition.

“We were impressed with how many strong candidates participated in the interview round, which made it a very difficult selection,” said Norbert Kraft.

The next selection rounds will focus on composing teams that can endure all the hardships of a permanent settlement on Mars.

The candidates will receive their first shot at training in the copy of the Mars Outpost on Earth and will demonstrate their suitability to perform well in a team.

Keywords: Mars One, Space Mission

India pumps 0.6 tonnes of plastic waste into ocean annually: researchers

n 2010, around 8 million tones of plastic waste made its way into the ocean — nearly the total amount of plastic produced across the world in 1961

For the first time, researchers have quantified the amount of plastic waste entering the ocean from land. In 2010, an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic waste made its way into the ocean; it is nearly the amount of plastic generated globally in 1961. The results of the study were published in the journalScience on February 13, 2015.

Most of the plastic waste that enters the ocean is on account of plastic litter and mismanaged plastic waste systems in several countries. The total amount that ended up in the ocean would have been much higher as the study did not take into account the contribution from other sources like fishing activities or at-sea vessels.

Twenty countries accounted for 83 per cent of mismanaged plastic waste that entered the ocean. The list of countries that pumped the greatest amount of waste into the ocean was arrived at by taking into account the population and quality of waste management systems in place.

India, with 0.60 million tonnes per year of mismanaged plastic waste, is ranked 12th. China ranks no. 1 with 8.82 million tonnes per year of mismanaged plastic waste. There are 11 Asian and Southeast Asian countries in the list, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Burma.

The cumulative amount of plastic debris that would enter the ocean in the next decade will be more than double the 2010 figure in the absence of any improvement to waste management systems in the 192 coastal countries. In 2010, 275 million tonnes of plastic waste was generated in the world’s 192 coastal countries. It is very unlikely that a global “peak waste” will be reached before 2100.

With a 50-per-cent improvement in waste disposal in the 20 top-ranked countries, the mass of mismanaged waste will fall by 41 per cent by 2025.

Alternatively, a 26-per-cent decrease in waste can be achieved by 2025 if per capita waste generation is reduced to the 2010 average (1.7 kg per day) in the 91 countries that exceed it.

Keywords: mismanaged plastic waste, Science journal, environment

Why rural children in India die of diarrhoea and pneumonia

The reason why a large number of children under the age of five years die of diarrhoea and pneumonia, generally in rural India and especially in Bihar, has become clear.

Diarrhoea and pneumonia are the biggest killer diseases in children in India. With 55 per 1,000 live births, Bihar has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. But 340 health care providers in rural Bihar rarely practice what little they know about treating children suffering from these two diseases.

“Vignette” interviews with the providers were conducted to assess their knowledge of diagnosing and treating children with these diseases. Later, the actual treatment offered by the health care providers was assessed by sending “patients” pretending to suffer from the same symptoms as in the interviews.

If the providers’ exhibited “low levels” of knowledge about the two diseases during the interviews, it was even worse in practice. Though during the interview 72 per cent of them correctly reported they would prescribe the cheap, life-saving oral rehydration salts (ORS) to children suffering from diarrhoea, in practice, none prescribed the correct treatment — only ORS.

In practice, almost 72 per cent did not give ORS. Instead, they prescribed harmful drugs or antibiotics. The 17 per cent providers who did prescribe ORS also added antibiotics to the regimen, which is unnecessary, says a Duke University release. Antibiotics were prescribed despite the “patients” not asking for them.

Eighty per cent of providers in the study did not have a medical degree. While those with medical training did have large gaps between what they knew and what they practiced, they were “significantly less likely” to prescribe harmful drugs.

The results were published on Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Keywords: rural children, diarrhoea, pneumonia, health care providers, harmful drugs

Power Training Institute to be set up in Andhra Pradesh 

Report by India Education bureau, New Delhi: Piyush Goyal the Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy has said that the government is contemplating the bundling of coal block allotment with the commitments to renewable energy production. 

Speaking at the side event of the RE-INVEST 2015, Renewable initiatives in Andhra Pradesh, at Vigyan Bhawan here today, he said if a thing like coal block allotment through auction can happen in four months under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, then the targets of 100000 MW in Solar and 60000 MW in Wind and 10000 MW in Bio-mass could be achieved far quicker than the target dates. The Minister also announced the setting up of a Power Training Institute in Andhra Pradesh where it will have mining engineering, study on transmission and distribution losses and renewable energy as subjects. The Central PSUs will give all support to this initiative. 

Responding to this, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu who chaired the session said that land will be made available immediately for this purpose. Shri Goyal said this is an example of what Prime Minster had said about Team India to work as an organic unity. It is not about political parties or political ideologies, this will exactly the spirit with which the Central government will work with government’s across India for all the states and Union territories. 

Shri Chandrababu Naidu said Andhra Pradesh will achieve single digit power transmission and distribution loss by next year. He said Andhra Pradesh being one among the three states to attain 24/7 power for all will become a model state in this regard. The Chief Minister pointed out that aim should be to achieve quality, cost effective and sustainable energy round the clock for all. 

Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Insecure, Underpaid and Unsafe

Vol - L No. 7, February 14, 2015 

• Editorials

India's vast informal sector workforce is entitled to a minimum wage and job security.

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