Meaning of Food Security

Concept of Food Security:

 World population now is about 7 billion and about 925 million people do not have enough food to eat. About Two-thirds of the world’s hungry people lives in just seven countries - China, India, Bangladesh Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Pakistan. The concept of food security, as understood now, has been evolved over the last quarter century. Food security concept has been considered at a number of levels: global, regional national, state, household and individual. While the ultimate concern may be at the individual level it is important to realise that food security at the levels outside the preview of the individual and households have strong bearing at the performance at the individual level.

According to FAO (1983)  the basic concept of food security implied that “all people at all times have both physical and economic access to the basic food they need”.

The World Bank (1986) indicates that food security is “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Its essential elements are the availability of food and the ability to acquire it”.

M.S Swaminathan says, “Food security implies livelihood security at the level of each household and all members within and involves ensuring both physical and economic access to balanced diet, safe drinking water, environmental sanitation, primary education and basic health care.

On the basis of the above definitions providing enough food to all population at all times in a country like India is a challenging task. Further the population in India is growing fast so the demand for food is growing every day. Besides this the improved purchasing power among poor will further enhance the demand for superior food and balanced diet. It has also been recognised that physical availability  of food grains alone will not ensure the eradication of hunger from the country. Economic access to food for all population especially the poor and the vulnerable sections will have to be ensured through appropriate income transfer to the poor. The 12^th Plan approach paper says, “The challenge is how to feed India’s growing population with rising incomes, but limited land and water resources. The economy is expected to grow strongly and pressure on food demand is likely to remain strong over the 12^th plan period.” In the light of these observations it is essential to grow enough food because this is the essential condition for ensuring the food security. Although the production of food grains have increased over the years but experts say it is slowing down. For any programme of food security the rate of growth of food grains must be above the rate of growth of population.