Minor Project Report

Food Security & Its Media Coverage
Minor Project
For
Paper Code: MMJN 255
Master of Mass Media
GGS IP University
Delhi
Name: MAMTA
Enrolment No.:0202034008
MMM III Semester
Certificate
This is to certify that _MAMTA_, a student of Master of Mass media Guru
Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, enrolled for the batch 2008-10, with
Enrolment no. _0202034008_ completed her Minor Research Project ‘Food
Security and Its Media Coverage’ as part of Course Code: MMJN– 255.
Mr. Sarvesh Dutt Tripathi Dr. Ambrish

Saxena
Faculty Member Consultant-

CMS
Lecturer CMS GGSIP

University
GGSIP University
New Delhi
Date: 1.12.2009
1
Declaration
I, _Mamta_, a student of Master of Mass Media (MMM), with enrolment
number _0202034008_, batch_2008_, at Centre for Media Studies (CMS),
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Delhi, have undertaken Minor
Research Project (Course Code MMJN– 255) as prescribed in the third Semester.
This report based on my research and is submitted herewith for evaluation in the
Third Semester.
I reaffirm that the Minor Project submitted by me is an original piece of

writing and expression, and nothing has been lifted or copied from anywhere.
Date: 1.12.2009
Mamta
2
Preface
This report is based on the research which I have undertaken as prescribed
in the syllabus of the third semester of Master of Mass Media.
In the first part of the report a brief introduction of the topic, objective of
the research and the research methodology adopted is given. In the next section
complete description and analysis of the collected data is provided. Third section
of the report is about the results of the research. In the last I have tried to discuss
the topic and various aspects related to it and its contemporary relevance.
3
Acknowledgement
I am really grateful to Mr. Sarvesh Dutt Tripathi who gave me his guidance
in completing this project. This project is part of our paper Minor Project in
which we had to conduct a minor research study on a topic of current relevance.
It helped us in analysing, investigating and organising the data and writing the
paper on the basis of the research conducted.
I am also thankful to Dr. Ambrish Saxena who gave me his valuable

guidance and directions while selecting the topic.
4
Contents
Certificate
Declaration
Preface
Acknowledgement
1. Food Security and Its Media Coverage /6-9
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Research Methodology
2. Content Analysis /10-14
• Table 1
• Table 2
3. Conclusion /15-16
4. Discussion /17-29
• Global Food Situation
• Effect of Economic Crisis on Food Security
• Campaigning for Right to Food in the World
• Right to Food
• Right to Food Campaign in India
• Public Distribution System (PDS)
• Malnourishment
• Issues of BPL
• Public Investment in Agriculture
• Effects of Floods and Draught
5
• Green Revolution
• Decline in Agricultural Production
• Unemployment
• Purchasing power of people
• Growing Indebtedness and Farmer’s Suicides
• Growing Landlessness
• Impact of Neo-liberal Reforms
• Green Revolution
• National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NERGA)
5. Bibliography/30
6
Food Security and its Media Coverage

Abstract
When our country was faced with severe food scarcity in the 1960s media
played a big role in popularising the Green Revolution and made it a big success
with our country becoming self sufficient in food production. Over past few years
agricultural crisis with rising food prices has resulted into food insecurity. There
have been several reports and discussions on food security and right to food law.
After taking charge for the second term the United Progressive Alliance
government promised to enact the National Food Security Act as part of its 100
day’s agenda. However, the government could not present its draft in the
Parliament within 100 days leading to delay in the implementation of Food
Security Act. But this development sparked off a debate in the media about the
need for Food Security and other issues related to it in the wake of draught like
situation in the country and rising food prices. The poor monsoon and prevailing
drought conditions in large parts of the country have once again turned the
attention of policymakers to the problems of agriculture and food security.
Against this backdrop the purpose of this research is to find out how Indian print
media is covering the issue.
Introduction
Food security refers to its availability and access to all. The right to food for
the citizens is considered to be a basic human right in any welfare state or society.
Food security exists when the population does not live in hunger or fear of
starvation. United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization describes food
security as “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life.” According to United States
Department of Agriculture “Food security for a household means access by all
members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security
includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and
safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially
7
acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies,

scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).”
The right to food is a part of the founding human rights texts of the post-
world war II era, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (UDHR), the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1976 (ICCPR) and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 19761 (ICESCR).
Other international legal instruments that incorporate the right to food include
human rights treaties on the rights of women, children, refugees, disabled
persons, and instruments relating to the conduct of states during armed conflict.
In the last decade the number of undernourished people has increased

slowly but steadily. The most recent FAO under-nourishment data covering all
countries in the world show that this trend continued into 2004–06. Despite
technological advances that have modernized the conditions of production and

distribution of food, hunger and
malnutrition still threaten the health and
well-being of millions of people around the
world.
Many people still consider that access

to food is a privilege rather than a basic
8
human right. It is estimated that about 35,000 people around the world die each
day from hunger and a large number of people (mainly women, children, and the
elderly) suffer from malnutrition.
In case of food shortage, it becomes a moral obligation for governments in

developing and developed countries to provide minimum dietary supplements to
their citizens, especially to poor and vulnerable sections. Being a democratic and
socialist republic, India has enshrined the right to life among the Fundamental
Rights in the Constitution. Besides this the right to food is included in the
Directive Principle of State Policy.
Objectives
The objective of this research is to find out how much coverage newspapers
are giving to the issues of food security. Some questions were formulated and
through the research process I tried to find out answers to them.
1. Are newspapers giving coverage to the issue of food security?
2. How much coverage they are giving to food security?
3. Are newspaper reports covering the food security, raising other issues
related to
o Unemployment
o PDS
o Storage of food grains
o Minimum support price (MSP)
o Effect of draught and flood
o Malnourishment
o Need for monitoring mechanism
o Adverse impact of Globalisation on agriculture
9
o Irregularities in the method of identifying poor and fixing BPL

beneficiaries
o Decreasing production of food grains
4. Are they discussing the problems in Targeted Public Distribution System

(TPDS)?
5. Are they discussing the role of existing policies like ICDS, Antodaya Anna
Yojana and NREGA in providing food security to the poor?
6. Are they raising the point that most of the people don’t have BPL cards
and other aspects related to it?
Research Methodology
For conducting content analysis two national daily newspapers, namely, The
Indian Express and The Hindu were selected. Articles related to food security
were collected from the two newspapers published from August 15 to September
15, 2009. After collecting the data qualitative and quantitative content analysis
was done. A list of issues related to food security was made and on the basis of the
list how many issues were covered in the reports were determined. For
conducting quantitative content analysis I tried to find out how many reports
appeared in both the newspapers in a month’s time and how much print area has
been dedicated to them in the whole newspaper. To measure the print area of a
report in the whole newspaper total percentage area of a report was calculated.
Supplements are excluded while calculating total percentage area of a news
report or feature.
10
Content Analysis
The data was collected from the two daily newspapers, The
Indian Express and The Hindu, published from August 15 to
September 15, 2009.
Table 1
The Indian
Issues Date Express The Hindu
1. Raising of the quantity Aug. 20

of food grain to be
Aug. 27
provided under National
Food Security Act
(NFSA) to 35 kg
2. Demand of cutting of Aug. 20

price from Rs 3 per kg to
Aug. 27
Rs 2 per kg under NFSA
3. Method to identify poor Aug. 20
Aug. 27
4. NREGA Aug. 15
Aug. 27
5. Need for a monitoring Aug. 15

mechanism and fix
Aug. 18
accountability
6. BPL Aug. 21
11
Aug. 27
Sept. 14
7. Problems with TPDS and Aug. 21

reforms
Aug. 27
8. Elimination of APL from Aug. 18

the PDS and the
Aug. 21
proposed law
9. PDS (Universal) Aug. 21
Aug. 27
10. Malnourishment, Aug. 21

hunger and starvation
Aug. 27
deaths
11. Storage Aug. 21
12. Direct cash Transfer to Aug. 18

the beneficiaries
Aug. 21
13. Antyodaya Anna Yojana Aug. 18
Aug. 21
Aug. 27
14. Rising food prices Aug. 27
Aug. 31
15. Livelihood Security Aug. 18

(Right to work, Social
Aug. 27
security, etc.)
12
16. Criticism of draft of the Aug. 15

Right to Food Bill
Aug. 27
17. People’s access to food Aug. 21
Aug. 27
13
Table 2
The Indian Express The Hindu
Length:45cm one page Length: 56.8cm one page
Breadth: 36cm Breadth: 35.5cm
Total Number of reports: 4 Total Number of reports: 3
1. Date: August 15 Date: August 21
Title: Whose right is it anyway? Title: States oppose centre’s

Proposal, insist on food for all
Feature on Op-ed
Report –page 12
4 column
5 column
Length of the report: 28.8cm
Length of the report:16.5cm
Breadth of the report: 22.5cm
Total pages: 24 (minus supplements)
Total pages: 20(minus
Total %age area of report: 1.66% supplements)
(minus supplements)
Total %age area of report:
0.86%(minus supplements)
Title: Govt. considers tribunals for Title: Legislating against hunger

better food security
Feature –Page 10
Report – page 16
4 column
3 column
Length of the report: 26cm
Breadth of the report: 25cm
Total pages: 22 (minus
14
Total pages: 20 (minus supplements) supplements)
Total %age area of report: 0.71% Total %age area of report:

14.65%
Title: Food Security Act likely to be Title: Right to Food Act a

delayed gimmick: Karat
Report – page 4 Report –page 6
2 column 2 column
Length of the report: 12.8cm Length of the report:14cm
Breadth of the report: 8.5cm Breadth of the report: 16.8cm
Total pages: 24 Total pages: 20
Total %age area of report: 0.27% Total %age area of report:

(minus supplements) 0.58% (minus supplements)
4. Date: September 14
Title: Food security as per govt’s

Poverty Estimates: EGoM
Report on Business Page: page 15
3 column
Total pages: 20
Total %age area of report: 0.61%

(minus supplements)
15
Conclusion
The analysis of the data shows that

the newspapers are giving coverage to
the issue of food security and the other
aspects related to it. After conducting a
study of two newspapers, The Indian
Express and The Hindu, from August 15
to September 15 it was found that The
Indian Express published four reports
and The Hindu published three reports
(see the chart and Table 2).
The following charts show the total print area dedicated to the reports in
each newspaper.
Table 1 gives the list of various aspects related to food security covered in
the reports of both the newspapers. Overall seventeen of them were covered in
the two newspapers out of which eleven were covered by The Indian Express and
16
sixteen by The Hindu. However, the number of reports published in The Indian
Express was more.
Aspects related to food

security like need for universal
PDS, monitoring mechanism,
malnourishment and hunger,
etc. were covered frequently.
On the other hand, aspects like
unemployment, lower
minimum support price (MSP),
decreasing production of food
grain, etc were not covered in
the reports.
TPDS and other welfare schemes and their role in providing food security
are also being discussed in the news reports. The flaws in their implementation
and problems with the targeted schemes were also mentioned in the reports.
All the reports in which the issue of BPL appeared raised the points that
there is need to identify the population afresh and state governments have issued
BPL cards to only few families.
17
Discussion
Global Food Situation
Unfortunately, a number of global economic and ecological problems

continue to limit the prospect of global food
security. World per capita cereal production
(62% of least-developed countries’ [LDCs’]
food consumption), for example, has been
increasing only marginally in recent years. In
fact, it has even been on the decline in sub-
Saharan Africa and in Latin America and the
Caribbean, particularly in low-income
countries struck by economic reforms, natural
and other disasters, and other factors. The
LDCs’ dependence on net food imports has
been growing and is set to continue to grow; currently, 104 of 132 LDCs are net
importers, although imports have brought little relief overall (Singer 1997). In
sub-Saharan Africa, the number of chronically undernourished people more than
doubled in 1970–91, notwithstanding that this region depended on food aid for
half its total food imports. The population of this region is expected to more than
double by 2020 (de Haen and Lindland 1997).
Regional and global economic crises and chronic problems of

underdevelopment make the situation particularly bad in the developing world.
Economic informalization clearly accompanies an economy’s disintegration. Real
prices in domestic food markets have increased over the last few years and are set
to increase further. To improve food security and global food supplies, policy
scenarios of the 2020 Vision Initiative require increased exports of staple foods
from industrialized countries to the LDCs (von Braun 1997). But insufficient
18
purchasing power among the world’s poorest 800 million people remains a
primary obstacle to such strategies.
Multilateral agreements in trade and investment further threaten the

availability and accessibility of food for large segments of the world’s population.
Many experts agree that the reduction in world surpluses and the increase in
international prices encouraged by the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade pose an immediate threat to regions already suffering severe
food insecurity. The duration of this threat is unknown.
Global prospects for improving food security are further threatened by

environmental limitations, even in Green Revolution countries, and by growing
poverty. In Asia, a large share of the population will soon be without access to
adequate food supplies (Zarges 1997). So, despite the technical modernization of
food production and distribution, hunger and malnutrition still undermine the
health and well-being of millions of people and actually seem to be worsening,
particularly among low-income urban residents. This led Dr Uwe Werblow (1997)
of the European Commission in Brussels to recommend favouring production of
more traditional food crops in rural areas and developing non-land-using
production in peri-urban and urban areas.
2009 has been a devastating year for the world’s hungry, marking a
significant worsening of an already disappointing trend in global food security
since 1996. The global economic slowdown, following on the heels of the food
crisis in 2006–08, has deprived an additional 100 million people of access to
adequate food. There have been marked increases in hunger in all of the world’s
major regions, and more than one billion people are now estimated to be
undernourished.
Prompted by rising food prices in 2008, riots and demonstrations erupted

in over 40 countries around the world. Unable to afford adequate food, many of
the poor in these countries and others are at higher risk for malnutrition, which
19
can have devastating and long-lasting impacts on those suffering now and future
generations. Food security is a foundation for building social and economic
development. It depends on agriculture to provide sustenance, incomes and
livelihoods for the world’s rural poor – 2.1 billion living on less than $2 per day.
Effect of Economic Crisis on Food Security

The impact of the economic crisis on the poor and food insecure is likely to
be substantial, especially in the light of negative impact of soaring food and fuel
prices already experienced by the most vulnerable population groups during
2006–08. The more difficult global economic environment has a significant
influence on national food security in a number of poorer countries, many of
which have become increasingly dependent on grain imports over the past
decade. This reliance on food imports was spurred by trade liberalization policies
and the expansion and improvement of the global transportation system.
Increased reliance on grain imports has helped keep prices more affordable for
consumers, but the lack of domestic agricultural growth that drove the imports
has exposed many countries to volatility on international markets.
Campaigning for Right to Food in the World
Right to food campaign has been taken up worldwide at the behest of UN
and civil society of various countries. Even the likes of Bill Gates and Warren
Buffet have adopted tiny African nations to ensure the farmers grow more food.
In recent years, a number of countries have begun drafting legislation

designed to realise the right to food. Draft bills on the right to food are making
their way through the legislative process in South Africa, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru
and Uganda (FAO 2009: 66-68). In 2005, Guatemala became the first country in
Latin America to pass a law incorporating the right to food. Brazil has followed,
passing the Federal Law on Food and Nutritional Security in 2006. In India, civil
society has successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to enforce the
government’s commitments under various food and nutrition schemes.
Right to Food
20
There are some important points that need to be noted in any discussion of
food security. First, a targeted approach that seeks to restrict food security to
some defined poor households is cumbersome, expensive and ineffective. There
are the well known errors inherent in targeting, of unjustified exclusion of the
genuinely poor and unwarranted inclusion of the non-poor. The proportion of the
population that is nutritionally deprived is significantly larger than the "poor"
population, and in many states they are not completely overlapping categories
either. And in any case, households — and people within them — can fall in or out
of poverty, however defined, because of changing material circumstances.
Similarly they can also go from being food-secure to food-insecure in a short
time. The reasons can vary: crop failures, sharp rises in the price of food,
employment collapses, health issues that divert household spending, the
accumulation of debt, and so on. Monitoring each and every household on a
regular basis to check whether any of these or other features has caused it to
become food-insecure is not just administratively difficult, it is actually
impossible.
Second, the notion that a universal scheme that provides subsidised food to
all households is too expensive is not tenable either. Consider the maximal
possible estimate of such spending. If all households in the country are provided
35 kg of food grain per month, that would come to around 90 million tonnes. At
current levels of subsidy this would cost around Rs. 120,000 crores. This may
seem a lot, but the current food subsidy already amounts to around Rs. 50,000
crores, so this is an additional Rs. 70,000 crores — or around 1.5 per cent of the
gross domestic product.
Surely, this is not too much to allocate so as to ensure that no one goes
hungry in what should be a civilised society? In any case, compare the amount of
Rs. 70,000 with the huge amounts (nearly Rs. 300,000 crores) that have been
given away as tax benefits and other concessions to corporates over the past year,
and it becomes a trivial amount.
21
Third, any programme of national food security must be combined with a

concentrated focus on improving food grain production in the country, so that we
are not dependent upon imports in a volatile global market. This requires much
more attention to the requirements of farmers, and speedy implementation of the
many reforms that have already been suggested by the Farmers’ Commission to
improve the productivity and financial viability of farming, particularly of food
crops.
Fourth, to make this successful it is also necessary to avoid instability in

domestic prices of food grain and curb speculative tendencies. This doesn’t
simply mean only cracking down on hoarders, which is part of the official
publicity around any period of price rise. It also requires preventing speculative
activity in futures markets, which means that there must be a ban on futures
markets in all essential commodities.
"Food security has three components," says Prof M S Swaminathan. "The

first is food availability, which depends on food production and imports. The
second is food access, which depends on purchasing power. The third, food
absorption, is a function of safe drinking water, environmental hygiene, primary
health care and education."
According to Prof Swaminathan, a community food and water security

movement, coupled with a universal public distribution system - characterised by
common and differentiated entitlements, will help achieve the goal of a hunger-
free India. “It has been 40 years since the Green Revolution and yet we don’t have
adequate storage facilities. There is an urgent need to set up safe and hygienic
grain storage facilities in at least 50 locations in the country, each capable of
holding a million tonne of food grains.”
Several national programmes — Targeted PDS, Mid-Day Meal Scheme,

National Food for Work Programme, Antyodaya Anna Yojna, Integrated Child
Development Scheme, etc., — are already operational in the country to help
achieve the target of food security.
22
Availability and maintaining continuous stock of rice and wheat for

distribution may prove to be a hindrance in meeting the aims and objectives of
the proposed Act. As production and procurement have been fluctuating in the
country along with poor price policies the desired procurement is not guaranteed.
The price received by the farmer is usually not good enough to cover the cost of
production. This is a big disincentive for the farmers to sell the produce to the
government.
23
Right to Food Campaign in India
THE right-to-food (or RTF) campaign was formally launched in 2001 with
an innovative mix of strategies, merging streams of social activism that had
produced positive results in their own domains. The campaign depended in part
on formally petitioning the judiciary for the enforcement of the right of every
Indian to adequate nourishment. In this, it was inspired by preceding rulings of
the highest court, which held that in cases of Fundamental Rights, it was willing
to give little latitude to governmental pleas of financial stringency. Another tack
that the RTF campaign adopted was awareness building, to bring moral pressure
to bear on the administration at its interface with the people most vulnerable to
food insecurity. Typically, the method employed - borrowed from the closely
related campaign on the right to information - was the "jan sunwai" or public
hearing, at which official claims of funds disbursement and assets creation were
matched against the realities perceived by the supposed beneficiaries.
A number of hearings of the RTF petition have been held in the Supreme
Court since July 2001 and a series of orders of far-reaching significance issued. In
November 2001, the Supreme Court directed all States to introduce a mid-day
meal scheme (MDMS) for students in government and government-aided
schools. It also ordered that the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
which was patchy and extremely selective in its coverage, be extended to provide
universal coverage for all children below the age of six. From figures that had
been submitted by commissioners appointed to assist in its deliberations, the
Supreme Court concluded that at the minimum, this required that the number of
anganwadi centres administering the ICDS needed to be increased from 600,000
to 1.4 million.
Public Distribution System (PDS)
In the post-Independence era, the country faced a problem of constant

poverty and food insecurity in different regions of the country and more stress
24
was laid on poverty alleviation strategies, which in turn was supposed to have a
positive impact on food security. The food crisis in the mid-sixties demanded a
much wider government intervention to solve the problem, and therefore a Public
Distribution System (PDS) was established. The major achievement of the PDS
has been coverage of a substantial population of the country under its network,
although there were significant cross-state variations in the volume of off-take.
The PDS was criticised for its urban bias and its failure to serve effectively
the poorer sections of the population. However, the PDS has been subjected to
various systemic problems. One of the major problems was inefficiency in
functioning of the Food Corporation of India machinery, resulting in a huge
increase in operational cost. Other things like leakage through widespread
corruption, illegal sales, creation of false ration cards, accession of ration facilities
by relatively well-off households, etc. made the situation worse.
However, the working of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)

introduced in 1997 has often come under fire. There is growing concern that the
food security scenario is actually worsening in the country. The experience since
1997 suggests that the system seriously compromises the achievement of the
goals of household and individual food and nutrition security. There has been a
significant fall in per capita levels of food consumption and calorie intake. There
has also been a significant decline in per capita daily availability of food grains.
Malnourishment
According to National Family Health Survey (NFHS), conducted in 2005-

06, in India 46 per cent of children below three years are underweight; 33 per
cent of women and 28 per cent of men have a body mass index (BMI) below
normal; 79 per cent of children aged six to 35 months have anemia, as do 56 per
cent of married women aged 15-49 years and 24 per cent of married men in that
age group; 58 per cent of pregnant women have anemia.
25
Issues of BPL
There are many flaws in identifying poor and ascertaining the BPL
households. There are as many poverty figures as the number of entities that have
undertaken this exercise. So, the government, represented by the Planning
Commission, says 27.5% people are below the poverty line. But other entities,
related and unrelated to the government, put it somewhere between 42% and
77%. Even among those that adopt the same methodology, there is wide variance.
Fact remains, in all government lists till date, there has been a reasonable
component of inclusion of the non-poor and exclusion of the very poor. “There
are two main reasons,” says development economist Jean Dreze. One, any scoring
method to identify poor families is bound to be a “hit and miss” affair. The causes
of poverty are diverse and cannot be reduced to a simple arithmetic formula, he
says. Two, even a theoretically perfect method would involve errors at the
implementation stage because of mistakes, cheating, social exclusion, etc. “This is
particularly the case when the scoring system is based on unverifiable criteria, as
happened in 1992, making it easy to cheat,” points out Dreze.
According to an estimate, of those classified as poor under the NSS, only

52% were BPL card-holders.
Public Investment in Agriculture
Public investment in the field of agriculture has also decreased from 3% of GDP
to 1.7%. With the expansion of industries and increase in population the area of
agricultural land has been decreasing.
Effects of Floods and Draught
Apart from this our food grain production is continuously being affected
either by flood or draught. There has been a sharp decline in crop productivity.
During 2008-09, agricultural growth dropped to a dismal 1.6 per cent.
26
Our agriculture is largely dependent on the monsoon. The Economic Survey

has projected the food output in 2008-09 at 230 million tonnes. It was 230.8
million tonnes in 2007-08. The scenario for 2009-10 is far from encouraging not
least because of the inadequate monsoon in certain states.
Green Revolution
The Green Revolution in wheat and rice has now reached a dead end; it has
not made an impact on cultivation in the rain-fed area and in respect of coarse
grains and pulses. Indeed, it has had an adverse effect on agricultural
environment. Both qualitative and quantitative has been the degradation of land,
water and bio-resources; water-logging and excessive salinity have rendered
fertile lands uncultivable. Post-harvest losses have been substantial.
A second Green Revolution through genetically modified (GM) technology

referred to as “gene revolution” is being advocated to improve productivity. But it
must be ensured that crop biotechnology products are safe; GM food poses the
risk of organ abnormalities. This technology has, however, been accepted by
farmers the world over.
Decline in Agricultural Production
There has been a sharp decline in the agricultural growth rate and
stagnation in agricultural production. The Planning Commission’s document The
Agricultural Strategy for the Eleventh Plan shows that the agricultural GDP
growth declined from 3.62% during 1984-85 to 1995-96 to 1.85% during 1995-96
to 2004-2005. The state wise trends indicate that the larger declines in
agricultural growth have occurred in states that are predominantly rain fed.
The most disturbing feature is the stagnation in the production of food

grains, which has resulted in a decline in the per capita production of food grains.
The per capita annual production of cereals has declined from 192 kg in 1991-95
to 174 kg in 2004-07 and pulses from 15 kg to 12 kg. Available data on fruits and
27
vegetables production also suggest that there is a sharp deceleration in recent

years. National Horticultural Board data shows growth slowing from 5.5% per
annum during the 1990s to 2.5% during 2000-01 to 2005-06.
Unemployment
The NSS 61st Round on Employment and Unemployment Situation in

India, 2004-05 estimates the proportion of the workforce employed in
agriculture and allied activities to be around 58.5%. This was around 62% in
1993-94. Aggregate employment growth in the rural areas had fallen from 2.03%
during 1987-88 to 0.66% during 1993-94 to 1999-00. However, the data shows
some increase in the rural employment growth rate to 1.97% during 1999-00 to
2004-05.
Purchasing power of people
One fourth population of the country doesn’t have the purchasing power to
buy food. Per capita annual food grain demand has fallen in 2004-05 to 157 kg,
the colonial average during 1937-41.
According to NSS 59th round Survey the average expenditure of a farmer is

Rs 503. The average for Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa is even less
than Rs 400. The poverty line is Rs 425 per month. According to P. Sainath
(March 2006 lecture in Jaipur) crores of people are living at Rs 8 per day.
Growing Indebtedness and Farmer’s Suicides
The NSS 59th round Survey on Indebtedness of Farmer Households

conducted in 2003 reported that 48.6% of farmer households were indebted. A
similar survey in 1991 found only 26% of farmer households to be indebted. Due
to the squeeze in farm incomes and dwindling employment opportunities, there
has been a phenomenal rise in the level of indebtedness within the peasantry.
28
According to unofficial figures, the number of suicides by peasants has gone

up to more than 2 lakhs across the country since the mid-1990s. A major cause of
such suicides is the inability of peasants to pay the debt. In most cases, the debts
are taken from private moneylenders as there is a massive decline in agricultural
credit from banks and co-operatives has reduced access especially of small
cultivators to institutional credit. A large number of farmers have no access at all
to formal credit as a result debt relief packages don’t work. Rural banks had
increased their branches from 16% to 60% by 1991 but by 2006 their number
declined to nearly 48% and more than 3000 branches had closed down leaving
the farmers dependent on moneylenders for credit.
Growing Landlessness
The proportion of rural households that did not have access to land for
cultivation in India has increased by 10.6 per cent between 1993-94 and 2004-05.
The data show that the incidence of households that do not cultivate land has
increased in almost all Indian States in the previous decade, Kerala, Jammu &
Kashmir and Assam being the only exceptions. The increase in the share of
households without access to land for cultivation is higher for Adivasi households
and non SC/ST households than for Dalit households.
Impact of Neo-liberal Reforms
The focus on deficit reduction through expenditure reduction by successive

neo-liberal governments at the Centre has led to a large input costs. The removal
of quantitative restrictions of agricultural imports and the maintenance of
imports tariffs at levels well below the bound rates by government has led to a
huge increase in agricultural imports and consequent fall in domestic prices of
agricultural outputs, especially during the period of global decline in prices of
agricultural commodities from the late 1990s to the early part of the present
decade.
29
The financial liberalization served to both limit access to institutional credit

for the peasantry and other small products as well as raise the cost of credit
through higher interest rates in the formal sector as well as through forcing
increased reliance on high cost informal sector credit. The deflationary
macroeconomic policies led to a significant decline of purchasing power as well as
a collapse of rural infrastructure, thus impacting both supply and demand
conditions in the rural economy negatively. The collapse of the public distribution
system (PDS) in most parts of the country due to the switch overt to targeting
system worsened the rural economic crisis and increased the extent and depth of
rural deprivation.
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NERGA)
Though there are problems in implementation and lack of awareness of

working people of their rights under the Act, the NREGS has made a difference to
the lives of the rural labouring population. The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar
Yojana operating in 586 districts in 2005-06 generated 82 crore person days of
employment. But the NREGS operating in 200 districts in 2006-07 generated 91
crore person days of employment.
To conclude the discussion the following points needs to be given a due

consideration and media should also raise these issues.
In order to enhance food grain availability, recognising that the majority of

agricultural holdings in India are small in extent, the focus must be on enhancing
production and viability of smallholdings. For this purpose, we need to step up
public investment in irrigation and rural infrastructure and provide other forms
of State support including credit, post-harvest storage facilities such as rural
warehouses and processing.
Government must expand the minimum support price (MSP) system, based
on the cost of production including reasonable rate of return on investment and
ensuring prompt and open-ended purchase for all major crops.
30
Following up on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)

and recognising that the right to food and the right to livelihood are intimately
related, we need to move towards a comprehensive “Food and Employment
Guarantee Act”.
The TPDS must be replaced by a universal PDS with uniform prices

affordable to the poor. The centralisation that took place under the TPDS should
be reversed and state governments should, in the first instance, have the right to
determine the required allocation under PDS for their state.
31
Bibliography
• Frontline
• Economic and Political Weekly
• Outlook
• Sablog
• Social Scientist
• http://www.mssrf.org/fs/atlas/atlas.htm
• http://www.righttofoodindia.org/orders/sc_judgment_revision_nutrition
al_and_financial_norms09.pdf
• www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Food_security_in_India.ppt
• http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2009
/MDG_Report_2009_En.pdf
• http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/ess/documents/food_security_s
tatistics/country_profiles/eng/India_E.pdf
• Documents of All India Kisan Sabha and All India Agricultural Workers
Union
• Food Security: Indicators, measurement and the impact of trade openness
edited by Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, Shabd S. Acharya, Benjamin Davis -
2008
• Indian agriculture in the new millennium: changing perceptions and
Development Policy edited by N. A. Mujumdar, Uma Kapila, Academic
Foundation (New Delhi, India), Indian Society of Agricultural Economics
– 2006
• Poverty and food security in India: Problems and policies edited by M.S.
Bhatt- 2004
• Economic reforms and food security: the impact of trade and technology in
South Asia edited by Suresh Chandra Babu, Ashok Gulati
32

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Food Security & Its Media Coverage

Mr. Sarvesh Dutt Tripathi Dr. Ambrish

Faculty Member Consultant-

Lecturer CMS GGSIP

I reaffirm that the Minor Project submitted by me is an original piece of

I am also thankful to Dr. Ambrish Saxena who gave me his valuable

1. Food Security and Its Media Coverage /6-9

• Campaigning for Right to Food in the World

• Right to Food Campaign in India

• Public Distribution System (PDS)

• Public Investment in Agriculture

• Effects of Floods and Draught

• Decline in Agricultural Production

• Purchasing power of people

• Growing Indebtedness and Farmer’s Suicides

• Impact of Neo-liberal Reforms

• National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NERGA)

Food Security and its Media Coverage

acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies,

In the last decade the number of undernourished people has increased

technological advances that have modernized the conditions of production and

Many people still consider that access

In case of food shortage, it becomes a moral obligation for governments in

1. Are newspapers giving coverage to the issue of food security?

2. How much coverage they are giving to food security?

o Storage of food grains

o Minimum support price (MSP)

o Effect of draught and flood

o Need for monitoring mechanism

o Adverse impact of Globalisation on agriculture

o Irregularities in the method of identifying poor and fixing BPL

o Decreasing production of food grains

4. Are they discussing the problems in Targeted Public Distribution System

1. Raising of the quantity Aug. 20

2. Demand of cutting of Aug. 20

3. Method to identify poor Aug. 20

5. Need for a monitoring Aug. 15

7. Problems with TPDS and Aug. 21

8. Elimination of APL from Aug. 18

9. PDS (Universal) Aug. 21

10. Malnourishment, Aug. 21

11. Storage Aug. 21

12. Direct cash Transfer to Aug. 18

13. Antyodaya Anna Yojana Aug. 18

14. Rising food prices Aug. 27

15. Livelihood Security Aug. 18

16. Criticism of draft of the Aug. 15

17. People’s access to food Aug. 21

The Indian Express The Hindu

Length:45cm one page Length: 56.8cm one page

Breadth: 36cm Breadth: 35.5cm

Total Number of reports: 4 Total Number of reports: 3

1. Date: August 15 Date: August 21

Title: Whose right is it anyway? Title: States oppose centre’s

2. Date: August 18 Date: August 27

Title: Govt. considers tribunals for Title: Legislating against hunger

Total pages: 20 (minus supplements) supplements)

Total %age area of report: 0.71% Total %age area of report:

3. Date: August 20 Date: August 31

Title: Food Security Act likely to be Title: Right to Food Act a

Report – page 4 Report –page 6

Length of the report: 12.8cm Length of the report:14cm

Breadth of the report: 8.5cm Breadth of the report: 16.8cm

Total pages: 24 Total pages: 20