4 Livelihood and food security issues

The two main reasons why livelihood and food security issues remain critical for a country like India are (1) the heavy dependence of the majority of the population on the agricultural sector for employment and as a source of income and (2) the large number of undernourished people, the majority of whom are below the poverty line and spend a considerable proportion of their total income on food. About 72 percent of the population of the country lives in rural areas (Census Report, 2001) and the agricultural sector provides employment to about 60 percent of the country’s total labour force (GOI, 2002).

A recent FAO study shows that about 225 million people (23 percent of the total population) are undernourished, and about 260 million people (24 percent of the total population) are below the poverty line (GOI, 2002). Although the number of people who are below the poverty line has reduced significantly between 1993-1994 and 1999-2000 (Table 12), it is striking that the number of undernourished people has increased during the period between TE 1992 and TE 1999 (Table 13). The poverty numbers are based on the national data that are generated by the National Sample Survey Organization, and these numbers take into account the actual changes that have occurred in the distribution of consumer expenditure between 1993-1994 and 1999-2000. The food insecurity numbers from the FAO are based on the old data set and do not capture these changes.

Table 12. Changes in poverty status

Source: Government of India (2002).

Table 13. Population, per capita dietary energy supply and prevalence of undernourished people in India

Source: FAO (2001).

Changes in the country’s key food security indicators that have occurred during recent years are summarized in Table 14. Per capita food production increased at a much slower pace between TE 1994 and TE 2000, at roughly half the level of growth exhibited during the period from TE 1988 to TE 2000. The supply of food for direct human consumption increased by only 2 percentage points between TE 1994 and TE 2000. This increase in the supply of food was lower in relation to both the extrapolated trend value for the period TE 2000 as well as the level of growth witnessed between TE 1988 and TE 1994.

Table 14. Food production, food supply, food imports and food prices in

Source: Computed from FAOSTAT database and GOI.

Note: E is the extrapolated value based on the log linear trend for the period 1985-1994.

^a Weighted wholesale price index of primary food articles and food products deflated by the wholesale price index of all commodities.

The other indicators such as per capita food imports and food imports as a ratio of total merchandise exports have also shown significant increases between TE 1994 and TE 2000, after having posted a negative growth between TE 1988 and TE 1994. The growth in the real prices of food products was also more than double the growth observed between TE 1988 and TE 1994.

To a certain extent, some of these changes in imports of food products and food prices were expected after the liberalization of trade in agriculture during the 1990s. But what is more worrying is that there are now signs of declining productivity growth, which, if not addressed, may have adverse implications for the future (Table 15). For these reasons, food self-sufficiency, price stabilization and employment programmes continue to remain the most important objectives of agricultural development policies.

Table 15. Annual rates of growth for selected crops

Source: Government of India (2002).