CBSE Book Class 9 Economics Food Security in India

Overview

• Food security means availability,

accessibility and affordability of food to

all people at all times. The poor

households are more vulnerable to food

insecurity whenever there is a problem

of production or distribution of food

crops. Food security depends on the

Public Distribution System (PDS) and

government vigilance and action at

times, when this security is threatened.

What is food security?

Food is as essential for living as air is for

breathing. But food security means

something more than getting two square

meals. Food security has following

dimensions

(a) availability of food means food

production within the country, food

imports and the previous years stock

stored in government granaries.

(b) accessibility means food is within reach

of every person.

(c) affordability implies that an individual

has enough money to buy sufficient,

safe and nutritious food to meet one's

dietary needs.

Thus, food security is ensured in a

country only if (1) enough food is available

for all the persons (2) all persons have

the capacity to buy food of acceptable

quality and (3) there is no barrier on

access to food.

Why food security?

The poorest section of the society might

be food insecure most of the times while

persons above the poverty line might also

be food insecure when the country faces

Chapter Food Security in India

a national disaster/calamity like

earthquake, drought, flood, tsunami,

widespread failure of crops causing

famine, etc. How is food security

affected during a calamity? Due to a

natural calamity, say drought, total

production of foodgrains decreases. It

creates a shortage of food in the affected

areas. Due to shortage of food, the prices

goes up. At the high prices, some people

cannot afford to buy food. If such calamity

happens in a very wide spread area or is

stretched over a longer time period, it

may cause a situation of starvation.

A massive starvation might take a turn

of famine.

A Famine is characterised by wide

spread deaths due to starvation and

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