CBSE NCERT Notes For Class 9 Economics Chapter 4 Food Security in India

NCERT Notes for Class 9 Social Science Chapter 4 Food Security in India

Food security refers to the system’s capacity to ensure, over time, that the whole population has access to a timely, reliable, and nutritionally sufficient supply of food. CBSE Class 9 Economics Chapter 4 – Food Security in India discusses the significance of food security, those who are food insecure, and government initiatives to combat food insecurity, among other issues. Students in Class 9 will gain an understanding of how our nation addresses food insecurity by reading this chapter. The CBSE Class 9 Economics notes for Chapter 4 are provided here to assist students in more efficiently preparing for their exams. Subject matter specialists have created these notes in accordance with the most recent curriculum. Students may swiftly review the whole chapter with the aid of these CBSE Class 9 Economics notes. The notes cover all of the chapter’s critical points.

CBSE Class 9 Social Science notes will assist students in studying the topic thoroughly and clearly.

These CBSE Class 9 Social Science notes were written by subject experts who made the study material very basic, both in terms of language and format.

Meaning Of Food Security

Poor people are more likely to have food insecurity because they don’t have enough money to buy food at all times. Food security is mostly dependent on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the government’s efforts to help the poor get enough food. All people should be able to get enough food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, the 1995 World Food Summit said.

“Food security” means that all people can get enough food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences at all times. The declaration also says that “poverty must be eliminated in order to improve access to food.”

Dimensions Of Food Security

Food security is made up of three main parts.

Availability of Food: It includes how much food the country makes, how much food it imports, and how much food is stored in government granaries from last year.
Accessibility: It means everyone can get food.
Affordability of Food: It implies that someone has enough money to buy enough, safe, and healthy food to meet their dietary needs.

The above factors show that food security can be kept in a country only if

Enough food is available for everyone.
All people have the ability to buy food of good quality.
There is no limit on how much food you can get.

The Necessity Of Food Security

There must be food security in a country to make sure there will be food at all times. It is important to make sure that no one in a country dies of hunger.

Effect Of Natural Calamity On Food Security

Most of the time, the poorest people in society might not have enough food. If there is an earthquake, drought, flood, tsunami, widespread failure of crops, or famine in the country, people who are above the poverty line may also be unable to get enough food.

If the disaster spreads to a large area or lasts for a long time, it could lead to starvation. If there is a lot of starvation, it could turn into famine. Natural disasters, on the other hand, have a negative effect on food security.

Famine And Starvation

A famine is when a lot of people die because they don’t have enough food or because they have to drink dirty water or eat food that has gone bad. This weakens their bodies and makes them more vulnerable to disease. A famine that killed a lot of people was the famine of Bengal in 1943. Thirty million people died.

When there was a famine in Bengal in 1943, people who worked in agriculture, fisheries, transportation, and other jobs were the worst hit. India hasn’t had a famine since it became an independent country.

Some places in Odisha, like Kalahandi and Kashipur, don’t have enough food. Starvation deaths have also been reported in Rajasthan’s Baran district, Jharkhand’s Palamau, and many other places that are hard to reach.

Food Insecure People

In India, a lot of people have been affected by food and nutrition insecurity. But the people who are most affected in the rural areas are landless farmers, traditional artisans, and small-time workers. In cities, the people who are most affected are beggars and the homeless. Construction migrants and other seasonal workers, casual labourers and others are some of the people who work here.

Indian society is also made up of people who don’t have enough food. As an example, the SCs, STs, and some parts of the OBCs who have either poor land-base, very low land-base, or low land productivity are in need of food.

Migrants who left their home because of a natural disaster in search of work are also among the least likely to have enough food. People who are pregnant or nursing, as well as people who are under the age of five, are also hungry. The second National Health and Family Survey (NHFS) was done in 1998-99 and found that about ll crore women and children in India don’t have enough food.

Hunger

People who don’t have enough food to eat are also at risk of hunger. To make sure there is enough food, current hunger should be eliminated and the risk of future hunger should be reduced. Hunger comes in two different forms, chronic and seasonal.

These are in that order.

Seasonal Hunger : It has to do with how food grows and is harvested at different times of year. It mostly affects people who work on farms without land in rural areas. In cities, casual construction workers have to deal with this when they don’t have any work, which can be very hard.

In 1983, 16.2 percent of households in rural areas were hungry at least once a year. By 1999-2000, that number had dropped to 2.6 percent. It has dropped from 5.6% to 0.6% in urban areas during the time period.

Chronic Hunger : Because they don’t have enough money to buy food, they eat a diet that isn’t enough in quantity or quality. Chron hunger has gone down in rural areas from 2.3% of households in 1983 to 0.7% in 1999 and 2000. In cities, it has gone from 0.8 percent to 0.3 percent over the same time.

Measures For Self-Sufficiency In Foodgrains

India has been trying to be self-sufficient in food grains since it became a country. India has taken all the steps it can to become self-sufficient in foodgrains. The Green Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s played a big role in this, but the success was different from region to region.

During this time, wheat and rice High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) were grown in many states. It was Punjab and Uttar Pradesh that saw the fastest growth, but other states also saw growth. In Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Assam, and Tamil Nadu, foodgrain production has dropped, which means less food is being made.

Indira Gandhi, who was then the Prime Minister of India, made sure to record how far the Green Revolution had come by releasing a stamp called “Wheat Revolution” in July 1968. It worked well with wheat, and it worked even better with rice.

Wheat grew the fastest in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where 44.01 million tonnes and 30.21 million tonnes were grown in 2015 and 2016. In 2015-16, there were 252.22 million tonnes of foodgrains made.

Food Security In India

There was a Green Revolution in the early 1970s. Due to the wide variety of crops that are grown in India, it has become self-sufficient in food grains since then. The government has made sure that foodgrains will be available even in bad weather thanks to a food security system that includes keeping a buffer stock of foodgrains, as well as a Public Distribution System (PDS) for foodgrains and other important items.

Programmes For Food Security In India

In the mid-1970s, the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) said that a lot of people were living in poverty. Because of this, three very important food intervention programmes were put in place.

In addition to foodgrains, there is the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the Food-For-Work programme, which helps people who don’t have enough money to buy food.

Public Distribution System (Pds) : The food bought by the FCI is given to the poorest people in society through government-run ration shops. This is called the “Public Distribution System,” and it helps people get their (PDS). The ration shops are now found in almost every town, village, and neighbourhood. There are about 5.5 million ration shops in the country. They are all over the country.

Ration shops are also known as “fair price” stores because they charge less than other stores. They have food grains, sugar, and kerosene oil for cooking. These items are sold to people for less than the market price.

Everyone in the family can buy these things (like 35 kg of grains, 5 litres of kerosene, and so on) every month from the nearby ration shop with a card. The ration cards come in three different types, each with a different colour to make it easier to tell them apart.

Antyodaya card for the poorest of the poor.
BPL card for families below the poverty line.
APL card for all others.

Current Status Of Public Distribution System : In the beginning, PDS coverage was equal for everyone, with no difference between the poor and the rich. This is how it worked: RPDS was started in 1992 in 1,700 blocks of the country to make sure that people in remote and poor areas could still get the benefits of PDS.

Public distribution systems were set up in 1997 to help the “poor in all areas,” with a lower price for foodgrains for them than for people who aren’t poor. This system was called a Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

Finally, two special programmes were started in the year 2000. They were called AAY and APS, and they helped people who couldn’t afford to buy their own homes.

AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) is a programme for the “poorest of the poor.” Launched in December 2000: AAY One million of the poorest BPL families covered by the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) were found to be the most in need under the scheme. In order to figure out which families were poor, each state’s rural development department did a survey called “Below the Poverty Line (BPl).”

Each eligible family was given 25 kg of food grains at a very low price of 2 per kg for wheat and 3 per kg for rice. This amount grew from 25 kg to 35 kg from April 2002.

The Annapurna Scheme (APS) for the “indigent senior citizen.” It gives 10 kg of food grains to senior citizens who don’t get a pension, don’t have any other money, or don’t have a family to help them, which means they are poor.

Rationing: It is a term that refers to government-controlled distribution of resources and scarce goods. It limits how much people can buy or consume at a certain time or in a certain period. Indian rationing started in the 1940s, when the Bengal famine was in full swing. When there was a severe food shortage in the 1960s, it was brought back. This was before the Green Revolution.

Malpractices In Pds: Many parts of the country have also lost their ability to use the PDS because the people who run the ration shops are doing illegal things.

The dealers do things that aren’t right all the time.

Moving the grains to the open market to get a better profit.
Selling low-quality grains at ration shops, which are places where people can get food for free
Shops that don’t open on time, and so on.

People in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha are buying less foodgrains from the ration shops than the rest of the country. In the Southern states, where the shops are run by cooperatives, people buy a lot more than the rest of the country.

Since the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), which has three prices for three different income levels, was put in place, the Above Poverty Line (APL) families don’t have much of a reason to buy food grains from the ration shops. The prices for these families aren’t very different from the prices in the market.

Food-For-Work (FFW) Programme : The main goal of the Food for Work Program is to create jobs that pay extra money. It is open to anyone who lives in a rural area and needs a job that pays the minimum wage for people who don’t have any abilities.

Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAPs) : There have been many more Poverty Alleviation Programs (PAPs) started in the last few years. Most of them have been in the countryside. Some of them have also been changed. Some of these programmes have very specific food parts.

Others are programmes that help the poor get more money so they can eat more food. For example, there is the Rural Wage Employment Program, the Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Sampurna Grameen Rozgar Yojana, and the Mid-Day Meal.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDs) : In 1975, it was tried out for the first time. Its goal is to help kids who are up to 6 years old get extra nutrition, immunizations, health checks, referrals, non-formal pre-school education, and nutrition and health education for their mothers.

Buffer Stock

It is the food grains (wheat and rice) that the government buys. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) buys wheat and rice from farmers in those states that have extra. People who grow crops are paid a minimum support price (MSP) for their work.

The MSP is announced at the start of the sowing season to give farmers a reason to grow more crops and make more money. These food grains are kept in granaries as a backup stock. This stock is kept so that foodgrains can be given out through the PDS in parts of the country where production isn’t as high.

It is given to people who can’t afford it at a lower price than the market price, which is called the “issue price.” The buffer stock also helps to solve the problem of not having enough food because of a disaster or bad weather.

Role Of Cooperatives In Food Security

People in India’s southern and western parts need cooperatives to make sure they have enough food. To help poor people, the cooperative societies set up shops where they sell cheap goods. There are many cooperatives in Tamil Nadu that run fair price shops. Out of all of them, about 94% are run by the cooperatives.

Cooperatives in India have been able to help make sure that there is enough food for everyone. When it comes to milk and vegetables, Mother Dairy is making progress in Delhi. Amul is another cooperative success storey in milk and milk products from the state of Gujarat. People in the country have had a white revolution because of it.

Grain banks have been set up across Maharashtra by the Academy of Development Science (ADS). This network of NGOs has been set up by the Academy of Development Science (ADS). NGO training and capacity building programmes on food security are run by ADS. The ADS Grain Bank programme is thought to be a good and new way to keep food safe.

NCERT questions & answers from Chemical Reactions and Equations

How is food security ensured in India?

Answer : Food security is achieved when all residents have adequate access to nutritious food, everyone has the financial means to purchase food of acceptable quality, and there are no barriers to food availability.

Which are the people more prone to food insecurity?

Answer :

The following people are more vulnerable to food insecurity:

Individuals who are landless and rely on little or no land.
Craftspeople who have been traditionally trained.
Providers of traditional services, small self-employed individuals, and the poor, including beggars
Seasonal operations are performed by urban migrant workers.
Certain segments of the OBC, SC, and ST.
Individuals who have been impacted by natural disasters.

Which states are more food insecure in India?

Answer: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (eastern and south-eastern sections), Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and portions of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have the country’s highest proportion of food insecure people.

Do you believe that Green Revolution has made India self-sufficient in food grains? How?

Answer: India has achieved food self-sufficiency as a result of the Green Revolution. Since the early 1970s, when the Green Revolution began, despite adverse meteorological conditions, the country has avoided famines. The Green Revolution has resulted in the cultivation of a diverse array of crops throughout the country.

A section of people in India is still without food. Explain.

Answer : Due to the seasonal nature of agricultural labour, a segment of the population faces insecurity during their unemployed period. They work seasonal jobs and are compensated inhumanely low wages that barely cover their basic needs. At times, they may have to go without food.

What happens to the supply of food when there is a disaster or a calamity?

Answer: When a crisis or natural disaster strikes, food grain production in the affected areas plummets. As a result, the neighbourhood is experiencing a food shortage. Prices increase in response to food shortages. The ability of many people to purchase food has been harmed by rising food prices. A catastrophe that affects a large area or occurs over an extended period of time can result in famine. Famine is a particularly severe form of mass starvation.

Differentiate between seasonal hunger and chronic hunger.

Answer: When a crisis or natural disaster strikes, affected areas’ food grain production plummets. As a result, there is a food shortage in the neighbourhood. Prices rise as a result of food shortages. Many people’s ability to purchase food has been harmed as a result of rising food prices. Famine can result from a disaster that affects a large area or occurs over an extended period of time. Famine is a form of mass starvation that is particularly severe.

What has our government done to provide food security to the poor? Discuss any two schemes launched by the government.

Answer: The government has carefully developed the food security system to ensure that food is available to all members of society. The system is made up of two parts, namely,

Buffer stock
Public Distribution System (PDS)

Additionally, the government has established a number of Poverty Alleviation Programs (PAPs) that include a component on food security. These include Mid-day Meals, Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), and Food For Work (FFW).

The government has launched two projects in this direction:

Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) :This programme was launched in December 2000. One crore BPL families who are poorer than the poverty line have been selected for this scheme and will be covered by the Public Distribution System. Each qualifying family received a total of twenty-five kilogrammes of food grains at a heavily subsidized rate. After approximately two years, the quantity was increased from twenty-five to thirty-five kilogrammes. The scheme admitted a total of fifty lakh families twice, in June 2003 and August 2004. In this manner, approximately two crore families have been brought under the AAY..

Annapurna Scheme (APS) : It was launched in 2000 with a specific target group in mind: “indigent senior citizens.” The operation of the scheme was inextricably linked to the PDS’s existing network. They received ten kilogrammes of food grains for free as part of this programme.

Why is buffer stock created by the government?

Answer: To ensure that food is available to all members of society, the government establishes buffer stocks. It contributes to the resolution of the food scarcity problem during inclement weather or natural disasters.

Write notes on:
(a) Minimum Support Price (b) Buffer Stock
(c) Issue Price (d) Fair Price Shops