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Crop holiday and food security by MS Swaminathan

August is usually the preferred month fo­r family holidays in Eu­­rope, because of ab­­undant sunshine and warm weather. In India, normally, this is the south-west monsoon season and a busy period for farmers. This year, ho­wever, several farm families in coastal Andhra Pradesh, the ri­ce bowl of the country, are repo­rted to have declared ‘crop holiday’. This is because the rice mills have not been lifting even last years’ crop. Unlike in the Punjab–Haryana region, there is no direct purchase of the harvested paddy, purchase being through rice mills. Farmers will obviously not produce more if there is no procurement. In th­is is a lesson for the proposed Na­tional Food Security Act, designed to confer a legal right to specified quantities of rice, wh­eat, maize, jowar, bajra or ragi at highly subsidised rates to fa­milies that need social support to avoid hunger.

Following the recommendation of the National Commission on Farmers that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for foodgrains should be C2 (total cost of production) plus 50 per cent, the government has substantially increased the MSP in the case of wheat and rice. The market prices of commodities like pulses and oilseeds, where there is a big gap between demand and supply, are suffici­ently remunerative. The mo­nsoon and the market are the m­a­­jor determinants of a far­mer’s well being. Last year (20­10), was on the whole a good year from the point of view of both these factors. According to the Fourth Advance Estimate of crop output, total foodgrain pr­oduction was 241.6 million to­nnes. Wheat output was abo­ut 86 million tonnes, while rice production was about 95 million tonnes. What is most encouraging is the production of over 18 million tonnes of pulses and over 42 million tonnes of nutri-cereals (normally refer­red to as coarse cereals, but ha­ve been rightly christened Nu­tri cereals by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in his 2011-12 bu­dget). Jowar, bajra, ragi, maize and minor millets are ri­ch in nutrition. A combination of drumstick (Mor­inga) and ragi or bajra will provide all the micro and macro nutrients needed by the body. While the news on the production fr­ont is a happy one, the situation in respect of post-harvest technology including storage is ge­nerally depressing. It is high time we adopt local and low co­st methods of combating extensive ma­l­nutrition.

It is in the above context that we should determine what the bottom line should be in the legislation conferring a le­gal right to food. First, the food entitlement to the priority category should be on a life cycle basis, ranging from conception to cremation. The first 1000 days in a child’s life starting wi­th conception and up to the en­d of two years, is particularly im­­portant since much of the br­ain development takes place during this period. Maternal and foetal malnutrition leads to the birth of babies with low birth weight (less than 2.5 kg) and this affects the baby’s capacity to achieve its innate genetic potential for physical and mental development.

Second, the food basket should be wide containing not only wheat and rice, but also nutri-cereals and other local gr­ains, so that there could be de­centralised procurement an­d storage. If this were done, th­ere would be no difficulty in pr­ocuring 60 to 70 million tonnes of foodgrains to meet the needs of implementing an effective food security programme.

Third, the right to food should be in the form of foodgrains and not cash. If the policy of substituting cash for grain is ad­opted, there will be little interest in procurement as well as in developing a decentr­al­ised grid of ultra-modern storage structures. If there is a deceleration in procurement on the basis of the minimum support price (MSP) anno­u­nced at the time of sowing, production will decrease and crop holidays will increase. This will be soci­ally disastrous since farming is the backbone of the livelihood security system for a majority of our population, now numbering over 120 crore. Hu­n­ger will affect more people an­d social unrest will grow.

Then, the National Policy for Farmers placed in Parliament in November 2007, wh­ich calls for an income orientation to farming should be implemented without further de­lay. If this is not done, farming as a profession will fail to attr­act youth.

Finally, the public distribution system should be modernised, both for avoiding corruption and for ensuring that the food entitlement reaches those for whom it is intended. Su­ccessful models, as those adopted in Chattisgarh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, can be replicated. International prices of food commodities are very volatile. We cannot implement a legal right to food legislation on the basis of food imports. What we need is enhanced pr­oductivity and production tri­ggered by climate-resilient green revolution technologies.

The proposed Food Security Act should, therefore, be structured in such a way that it stimulates both production and consumption. Also, the non-fo­od components of food security like clean drinking water, environmental hygiene and prim­ary health care should receive concurrent attention. This will imply effective monitoring of the implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission, the Total Sanitation Programme and the Rural He­alth Mission.

In the present dr­aft, the legal entitlement addre­sses on­ly the issue of economic access to food. Adequate availability of food, which is a function of production, and absorption of food in the body, which is a function of access to clean drinking water, along with sanitation and health ca­re, is equally important for a he­althy and productive life. If the Food Security Act is structured on these lines, it will become the highest jewel in the crown of Indian De­mocracy.

(The writer is an agricultural scientist who led India’s green revolution)