Bhattacharjya, A., (2014), Food Security and Ecology in India. Indian Botanists Blog-o-Journal. http://www.indianbotanists.com/2014/03/food-security-and-ecology-in-india.html
In India, last year, there was an intense debate on the proposed Food Security Bill. It centered mostly around the impact on the national budget and the mechanism of distributing extra supplies of food grains to consumers throughout the country. Parliament eventually passed the Bill but the question remains: is this really the food security initiative that will serve people best? For the rural population, which is primarily involved in agriculture, food security is not merely a matter of entitlement to a certain amount of cash or food grains; but is reflected in the existence of an available, accessible and assured source of food that will hold steady in the face of stresses and shocks to the food system. It is not just about hunger, it is about the ability to rely on a source of food in a stable way.
A recent World Bank report underlined that India would have to “value its natural resources, and ecosystems to better inform policy and decision-making” (World bank Report, 2013). This seems to be in accordance with what the Environmental Policy Report of 2006 which explained that “the dominant theme of this policy is that while conservation of environmental resources is necessary to secure livelihoods and well-being of all, the most secure basis for conservation is to ensure that people dependent on particular resources obtain better livelihoods from the fact of conservation, than from degradation of the resource.”
In terms of providing support to deal with stresses and shocks without further intensifying ecological degradation; the Food Security Act can be effective. If farmers could rely on this as a source of food, there would be less pressure to draw on an already threatened or depleted environment. This concern is brought into sharper focus as we face the challenge of climate change. All the effects of a policy that is blind to ecosystems will be further magnified by climate change. It has been estimated that there will a ten per cent extra increase in malnourished children world wide, as a result of climate change. India is particularly vulnerable, according to UNICEF, 1 in 3 malnourished children in the world live in India that makes future projections accounting for climate change of great concern. If food security policy assures them of at least a meal a day at school, that could have a big impact (www.unicef.org).
For an effective food security policy, ensuring access to ecosystem resources is crucial; it is not simply a matter of handing out grains/cash through a public system. An effective food security policy would view people and the ecosystem as integrated and design measures that work across sectors; so conservation/environmental policies would be devised in step with rural food security policy. It would recognize that food security also needs to be climate resilient and stresses brought on by climate change such as drought, and flood which impact access to food can be better managed by ensuring that production policies and conservation efforts are framed with the entire ecosystem in mind.
References
India: Green Growth Necessary and Affordable for India (2013). Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/07/17/india-green-growth-necessary-and-affordable-for-india-says-new-world-bank-report
Mohammed-Katerere, J.C. and Smith, M (2013). The Role of Ecosystems in Food Security. Unasylva 241, 64, Food and Agricultural Organization.
National Environment Policy (2006). Retrieved from http://prod-http-80-800498448.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com//w/images/2/2a/India_National_Environment_Policy_2006.pdf
UNICEF India: Nutrition. Retrieved 3/14/2014 from http://www.unicef.org/india/children_2356.htm
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