• India may be the fastest-growing economy of the world, but it is also facing accelerating food price inflation.
• Food Price inflation is an increase in the price of food and related goods over a specific period of time.
• This rise in India first accelerated sharply in 2019 and increased in later years.
• The annual inflation (23%) exceeded the highest in the decade by 2023.
• The continuing high food-price inflation increased the hardship in consuming food of adequate nutritional value.
• India has a prevalence of 16.3% undernutrition (Global Food Security Index 2022).

State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report:

• It was a report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to estimate the proportion of population across countries unable to afford a healthy diet.

Key highlights of the report:

• Around 74% of the population in India (about 1 billion) could not afford a healthy diet in 2021.
• There is shrinking ability of households to finance their food requirement.
• For example, the price of food in Mumbai rose by 65%, as compared to average wage of a manual worker rose by 38% and that of a salaried worker by 28%.
• The implied reduction in purchasing power affects food consumption and leads to rise in prevalence of anaemia induced by nutrient deficiency (National Family Health Survey, 2019-21).
• Over 50% of adult women were estimated to be anaemic, suggesting that over half of India cannot afford a healthy diet.
• This is larger than the population of all other countries of the world, except China.
• The macroeconomic policy of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) failed to control inflation due to lack of supply side targeting of food inflation.

Significance of the Green Revolution:

• India engineered a successful Green Revolution in the 1960s, and tackled supply-side response by providing farmers with high-yielding seeds, cheap credit, and assured prices through procurement.
• But the rampant use of chemical fertilizer, fuelled by subsidy, caused degradation of soil, reliance on procurement prices rather than increase in productivity or farm income.
• It was focused on cereals rather than pulses, the main source of protein for most Indians.
• Though India was self-reliant in food production, but the cost of producing food and nutritional issues were not targeted.
• Procurement prices, cash transfers, Public Distribution System, and priority lending required from public sector banks are not sufficient.

Suggestions:

• Leasing: The ongoing fragmentation of small land holdings that lowers capacity for productivity could be tackled by mechanisms for leasing.
• Land use and irrigation: As agricultural yield is lower in India than in East Asia, irrigation must be extended to 100% of the net sown area, and restrictions on leasing of land must be ended.
• Research: Research and the re-institution of extension for public agricultural research institutes need to be energized to resume their sterling during the 1960s.
• Grassroot reach: The position of gram sevak who played a crucial role in the dissemination of best practices, must be revived.
• Role of States: They are responsible for spread of new technology and work closely with the central government by a spirit of cooperative federalism.
• Implementation: The initiatives should be dovetailed into a programme for the increase of protein production.
• Agricultural productivity must be enhanced rather than relying on food allocations to Public Distribution System from the central pool.
• A non-ideological approach would be needed at both Centre and States, along with reliance on private enterprise.

The strategy for Green Revolution made the first dent in poverty in India. The current problem can be dealt with an approach consistent with ecological security to ensure that all Indians have permanent access to a healthy diet.