Food Security Schemes and Dalits in Andhra Pradesh

Dr. T. Hanumantha Rao Selection Grade Lecturer in Economics G B R Degree College ANAPARTHI – 533 342 East Godavari district, A.P.

Introduction

The concept of food security is multidimensional in nature and is determined by whole

range of issues such as domestic production of food, import and exports of food, purchasing

power of people to access food as well as factors that influence absorption of food in the body. It

is a complex of sustainable development issue, lined to health thorough malnutrition, but also to

sustainable economic development, environment, and trade.To achieve food security in India, the

central government as well as state governments have been implementing various food security

schemes. The project will study the impact of this food security schemes on dalits.

Meaning of Food Security

The issue of food security came into force in the 1970’ s in the discussion of international

food problems at the time of global food crises. Food security means regularly having enough

food to eat, not just for today or tomorrow, but also next month and next year. Food security was

defined in the year 1974 world food summit as ‘ availability at all times of adequate food supplies

of basic food stuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in

production and prices1.

The 1994 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report

promoted the construct of human security, including a number of component aspects of which

food security was only one2’

The 1996 World Food Summit adopted a still more complex definition: ‘ Food security, at

the individual, household, national, regional and global levels is achieved when all people, at all

times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutrition’ s food to met their

dietary need sand food preference for an active and healthy life3’.

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utilisation, and Food stability. Food availability address supply side of the food security and

expects sufficient quantities of quality of food from domestic agriculture production or import.

Food access address whether the households or individuals have enough food resources to access

appropriate quantities of quality of food. Food utilisation is another dimension of food security

which address not only has much food the people eat but also what and how they eat. Stability is

about assurance of continuation of fore-nutrition dimension.

Any of the above-mentioned factors can cause food insecurity.

Indicator of Food Security

Based on the dimensions of food security, a committee on World Food Security recommended

number of food security indicators. Of which the main indicator so food security are: average value of

food production, average protein supply, domestic food price index, share of food expenditure of the poor

etc.

How to Assess Food Security

Food security assessments are no different from general assessments in their aim, but look more

specifically at how people try to maintain a secure food environment for themselves, and whether they

succeed. The focus of a food security assessment will be on evaluating the food security situation for

various groups of people. In addition, food security assessments can help to predict upcoming food

insecurity or can predict the duration of an insecure food period. We need to understand how people make

their living, whether through food production, or working for a salary or a mixture of both. More

specifically we need to know how they meet their food needs.

Food security is not necessarily static; there are likely to be normal fluctuations in the year in

terms of food availability, access and utilization. It is important to assess which changes are normal and

which are due to a hazard or a chronic crisis. The following information needed during a food security

assessment.

■ How do people make their living?

■ How do people meet their food needs?

■ What resources do they have?

■ Who accesses these resources over time? IJRAR19J1383 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 561

■ Can people manage without assistance from the National Society?

■ If not, how can the National Society support coping strategies?

Challenges to Food Security

October 16 is World Food Day. It offers the opportunity to strengthen national and international

solidarity in the fight to end hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Control of arable land and water resources

is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security. Here are some challenges to consider.

1. Rising population is one of the main challenge to food security. There will be 2,19,000 people at

the dinner table tonight who were not there last night, many of them with empty plates.

2. Rising incomes changing diets. As income goes up people tend to eat more potential and calorific

food.

3. Water supply is not the principal constraint on efforts to expand world food production. During the

last half of the 20th century, the world’ s irrigated area expanded from some 250 million acres in

1950 to 700 million in 2000.

4. Climate is changing with each year and leads to the agricultural system is more out of sync.

Food Security and World scenario

The latest FAO estimates indicate that about 795 million people are estimated to be chronically

undernourished in 2012– 14and 209 million lower than in 1990– 92. In the same period, the prevalence of

undernourishment has estimated at 11.3 percent globally and 13.5 percent for developing countries.

Since 1990-92, 63 countries have reached the hunger target of MDG-1 and 25 countries have

achieved the more stringent WFS target. Of the 63 developing countries, 11 already had undernourishment

levels below 5 percent (the methodological limit that can assure significance of the results different from

zero) in 1990-1992 and have been able to keep it in that interval, and are therefore not the prime focus of

the 2014 report.

The figures demonstrate that the hunger target of the Millennium Development Goal – of halving

the proportion of undernourished people in developing countries by 2015 – is within reach. Despite

overall progress, marked differences across regions persist. Latin America and the Caribbean have made

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© 2018 IJRAR January 2019, Volume 06, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) the greatest overall progress in increasing food security with modest progress in sub-Saharan Africa and

Western Asia, which have been afflicted by natural disasters and conflict.

The global food security crisis jeopardizes the lives of millions of people in vulnerable

community, particularly in Africa and Asia, where poverty, malnutrition and death from hunger are life. In

the dev