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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | How did economic reforms change the average Indian’s diet? -Roshan Kishore

How did economic reforms change the average Indian’s diet? -Roshan Kishore

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published Published on Jul 27, 2016   modified Modified on Jul 27, 2016
-Livemint.com

Economic reforms have diversified Indian diets, but there is still not enough on the plate

It has been 25 years since economic reforms in India. What has been liberalisation’s effect on the average Indian’s diet? Is it any different today than what it was in 1991? Which of the periods saw more changes in our food plates: Independence to economic reforms or the post-reform period?

Food Balance Sheet prepared by FAOSTAT, Food and Agricultural Organisation’s (FAO) database, allows such a comparison for India from 1961 to 2013. To be sure, the database does not tell us whether or not we are eating more pizzas than chapatis. But what it does tell is how much of what food item (in raw form) is being used for food purposes.

The parameter to look at is per capita food supply (kg per year). This variable accounts for two factors which can create a gap between production of a particular crop and the amount which is available for consumption. First is the effect of trade and addition to stocks. And second is the amount diverted to non-food use such as feed, seed, or waste. So, for a given population, net imports or depletion of stocks would increase the per capita supply, while an increase in use for seed or feed purposes would reduce it. To be sure, these are average figures and do not imply that all individuals are consuming the same amount. FAOSTAT data gives these estimates for broad groups as well as individual items. We have taken 17 broad groups out of the 21 sub-categories which have been given. Sugar crops and oil crops have been excluded to avoid an overlap with sugar and sweeteners and vegetable oil categories, while other aquatic products and miscellaneous have been left out because of negligible values.

The conclusion: the average Indian is consuming more after reforms.

Total per capita food supply (for above-mentioned categories) increased from 305 kg per year to 368 kg per year between 1961 and 1991. It went up to 478 kg per year in 2013. Given that data for post-reform period is for 22 years, compared to 30 years for the pre-reform period, annual increase in per capita food supply has been higher in the period after 1991.

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Livemint.com, 26 July, 2016, http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/en62CmHAtCixKKqy3GV2RI/How-did-economic-reforms-change-the-average-Indians-diet.html


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