Class: 9th Social Science

ECONOMICS
Lesson: 4 Food Security in India

1. Fill in the blanks

1. To make available food at affordable prices to poorer section government has started Public
distribution system.
2. A big famine occurred in 1943 in Bengal state of India.
3. The malnutrition prevails more among women and children.
4. Antyodaya Card is issued to the very poor people.
5.Minimum support price is the price announced by the government for agricultural products.

2. Multiple Choice Questions:-

1. Which card is issued to people living below poverty line?

(a) Antyodaya Card (b) BPL Card
(c) APL Card (d) CPL Card
Ans: BPL card
2 .______ is an indicator of food security.
(a) Milk (b) Water (c) Hunger (d) Air
Ans:Hunger
3. What is the Price announced by the government for agricultural products known as?
(a) Minimum support price (b) Issue price
(c) Minimum Price (d) Fair Price
Ans: Minimum support price
4.Besides Bengal Famine in which other state did famine occur?
(a) Karnataka (b) Punjab (c) Odisha (d) Madhya Pradesh
Ans: Odisha
5. Which Cooperative provides milk and milk products in Gujarat?
(a) Amul (b) Verka (c) Mother Dairy (d) Sudha
Ans: Amul

3. True / False

1. Availability of food means there is no food production within the country. (False)

2. Hunger is an indicator of food security. (True)

3. Ration shops are also known as Fair Price Shops. (True)

4. Markfed, Punjab is India's largest marketing cooperative (True)

4. Very Short Answers type Questions:

Q1. What do you mean by food security?

Ans: Food security means accessibility, availability and affordability of food to all people at all
times.
Q2 Explain the need for food security?
Ans: There is a need for food security due to continuous and rapid growth in population.
Q3 What do you mean by Famine?
Ans: Famine means severe shortage of food and starvation.
Q 4. Give two examples of epidemics.
Ans: Famine and Drought.
Q 5. In which year Famine of Bengal occurred?
Ans: In 1943.
Q 6 How many people were killed during the famine in Bengal?
Ans: About 3 million people.
Q7 Who were the main sufferers during famine?
Ans: Women and children.
Q 8. Who gave the term' entitlement'?
Ans: Dr. Amartya Sen
Q 9. Who are food insecure people?
Ans: Landless people, artisans, petty self employed workers, casual labour, women and
children etc.
Q10 Name the states where food insecure people exist in large numbers.
Ans: Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and
Maharashtra etc.

B) Short Answer type Questions:

Q1 What do you mean by Green Revolution?

Ans: Green Revolution means increasing the production of food grains by adopting new
strategies in agriculture in 1968s. Wheat and rice production in India increased tremendously
during the Green Revolution.
Q2 What do you mean by Buffer stock?
Ans: Buffer stocks is the stock of food grains namely wheat and rice procured by the
government through food corporation of India (FCI).Buffer stock is created by the government
to distribute food grains in the deficit areas and among poorer section of society at a price lower
than the market price. Buffer stock helps to resolve the problem of shortage of food during
adverse weather conditions and during the periods of calamity.
Q3.What do you mean by Public Distribution System?
Ans: The food procured by the FCI is distributed through government regulated Ration Shops
among the poorer sections of the society. This is called the Public Distribution System(PDS).
Ration shops are now present in most localities, villages, towns and cities. Ration shops are also
known as ‘Fair Price Shops’.
Q 4 What is Minimum Support Price?
Ans: The farmers are paid a pre announced price called Minimum Support Price(MSP) for their
crops. The MSP is declared by the government every year before the sowing season to provide
incentives to the farmers for raising the production of these crops.
Q 5. What do you mean by Seasonal hunger and chronic hunger?
Ans: Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting. This is common in
rural areas because of the seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in urban areas because
of the casual labouring. On the other hand Chronic hunger is a consequence of persistently
inadequate diets in terms of quantity or quality. Poor people suffer from chronic hunger
because of their low income and inability to buy food for their family even for survival.
Q 6.Why buffer stock is created by the government?
Ans: Buffer stock is created by the government to distribute food grain in the deficit areas and
among poorer sections of society at a price lower than the market place. It helps to resolve the
problem of shortage of food during adverse conditions.
Q 7. What do you mean by issue price?
Ans: When the food grains stored in buffer stocks are distributed in the deficit areas and among
the poorer sections of the society at a price lower than the market price, this price is known as
Issue Price.
Q 8 Explain the problems of the functioning of ration shops.
Ans:1. PDS Dealers sometimes resort to malpractices like diverting the grains to open market to
get better margin.
2. Poor quality grains are sold at ration shops.
3. Ration shops are opened irregularly.
4. It is common to find that the ration shops regularly have unsold stocks of poor quality grains
left. This has proved to be a big problem as a large stock of food grains piles up with the FCI.
Q 9. Explain the role of cooperatives in providing food.
Ans: The cooperative societies set up shops to sell goods at low price to the poor people. For
example, in Tamil Nadu, around 94% of total fair price shops are being run by the cooperatives.
In Delhi, Mother Dairy making Commendable contribution to the consumers by providing milk
products at controlled rates decided by government of Delhi. Amul is another success story of
cooperative in milk and milk products from Gujarat. Similarly in Maharashtra, Academy of
Development Sciences (ADS) has facilitated a network of NGOs for setting up grain banks in
different regions.

PREPARED BY: Vetted by:

BALJIT KAUR, S.S. MISTRESS RANJIT KAUR, S.S. MISTRESS
GSSSS MAGARMUDIAN (GURDASPUR) GSSSS TIBBER (GURDASPUR)