CBSE Class 9 Economics Food Security In India Worksheet

Long Answer Type Questions

Queston : How is food security ensured in India?
Answer :  Food security is ensured in a country when the three dimensions of food security are taken care of. The three dimensions are:
Availabilityof food - Presence of enough food for all the persons
Accessibilityof food - Absence of barrier on access to food
Affordabilityof food - Capability of all persons to buy food of acceptable quality Food security has been ensured in India because of the following factors.
(i) Self-sufficiencyof food grains - India has become self-sufficient in food grains (as was its aim since Independence) during the last thirty years. This has been because of a variety of crops grown all over the country.
(ii) Food-security system- The availability of food grains has been ensured by the government with the help of a carefully designed food-security system. This system involves the maintenance of a buffer stock of food grains, and the distribution of this food among the poorer sections of the society with the help of a public distribution system.
(iii) Implementation of several poverty-alleviation programmes having an explicit food security component - Apart from the distribution of food through fair-price shops, the government has come up with several poverty-alleviation programmes that enhance food security; for example, mid-day meals and food-for-work.
(iv) Involvement of cooperatives and NGOs- In addition to the role of the government in ensuring food security, various cooperatives and NGOs are also working intensively towards this direction. Mother Dairy and Amul are two examples of cooperatives involved in ensuring food security.

Queston :  Write a note on the role of cooperatives in providing food and related items.
Answer : Along with the government, cooperatives are also playing an important role in ensuring food security in India, especially in the southern and western parts of the country. The cooperative societies set up shops to sell low-priced goods to the poor. Out of all fairprice shops running in Tamil Nadu, around 94 per cent are being run by cooperatives. Mother Dairy, in Delhi, is involved in providing milk and vegetables at controlled rates decided by the government. Amul, responsible for the White Revolution in India, is a cooperative involved in providing milk and milk products. The Academy of Development Science (ADS) in Maharashtra has been involved in the setting up of Grain Banks in different regions. It organises training and capacity-building programmes on food security for NGOs. Its efforts are also directed towards influencing the government's policy on food security. Thus, through these examples, it can be seen that cooperative are playing an active role in the distribution of food and related items.

Queston :  A section of people in India are still without food. Explain.
Answer : The food insecure: A large section of people in India suffer from food and nutrition insecurity. This group of 'the food insecure' includes landless agricultural labourers and small farmers, casual labourers in the urban areas, people belonging to the backward social sections such as the SCs, STs and OBCs, people belonging to the backward regions, migrants and a large proportion of pregnant and nursing mothers, and children under the age of five years.
Government's efforts: The government has played a key role in ensuring food security for the poorest sections of society through various schemes such as the public distribution system, mid-day meals, food-for-work and rural employment guarantee.
However, due to certain failings, a number of people still go without food.
Three dimensions of food security: Food security is ensured by ensuring food availability, accessibility and affordability. When either of these dimensions of food security is neglected, the overall system of food security gets adversely affected.
Negative effect on food availability: Through the Food Corporation of India, the government purchases food grains from states with surplus production. These food grains are stored in granaries and distributed in the food-deficit areas and among the poorer strata of society under the various government schemes. However, instances of hunger are prevalent despite overflowing granaries. The storage of massive food stocks has more often than not led to wastage of grains and deterioration in their quality. As a result, the availability of food grains is affected.
The increase in the minimum support prices (prices at which the government buys food grains from farmers) of rice and wheat has induced farmers to divert land from the production of coarse grains - the staple food of the poor - to the production of these crops. This again affects the availability of food.
Indian agriculture is largely dependent on the unpredictable monsoons. Only a small part of the national cultivable land is well irrigated. During times of delayed or low rains, the overall productivity and availability of food grains gets negatively affected. Negative effect on food accessibility and affordabilityThe food procured by the government is distributed via the fair-price shops at a price lower than market price.
However, most public-distribution-system dealers resort to malpractices like diverting food grains to open market to make profits, selling poor quality grains at ration shops, irregular opening of the shops, etc. Such actions make safe and nutritious food inaccessible and unaffordable for many of the poor.
Lack of proper monitoring of schemes: The lack of proper implementation and proper targeting of many of the poverty-alleviation programmes have led to their lack of effectiveness in ensuring food security. Despite good intentions, many of the schemes of the government have not reached the deserving poor. Hence, a great number of people are still food insecure.

Question. Write notes on:
(a) Minimum support price
(b) Buffer stock
(c) Issue price
(d) Fair price shops
Answer : (a) Minimum Support Price: It refers to the price at which the government secures food grains (wheat and rice) through FCI from the farmers in states where there is surplus in production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops.
The minimum support price is declared by the government every year before the sowing season. The purchased grain forms the part of the buffer stock and is stored in FCI granaries.
(b) Buffer Stock: It refers to the stock of food grains namely wheat and rice secured by the government through Food Corporation of India. The FCI purchases wheat and rice from the farmers in states where there is surplus production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops. Which is called minimum support price.
(c) Issue Price: It refers to the price at which the government sells the food grains in poor sections of society though several welfare schemes to ensure food security. This price is essentially kept lower than the market rates so that all the economic sections have access to the food grains.
(d) Fair Price Shops: It refers to the ration shops which are regulated by the  government and through which the food grains secured by the government through FCI is distributed under various welfare schemes. This is called the public distribution
system. Ration shops are now present in most localities, villages, towns and cities.
There are about 5.5 lakh ration shops all over the country. Ration shops are known as fair price shops.

Suggested Activity 

Question.

(a) What do you see in picture 4.1?
(b) Which age group is seen in the first picture?
(c) Can you say that the family shown in the picture 4.2 is a poor family? Why?
(d) Can you imagine the source of livelihood of the people, (shown in two pictures) before the occurrence of famine? (In the context of a village)
(e) Find out what type of help is given to the victims of natural calamity at a relief camp.
(f) Have you ever helped such victims (in the form of money, food, clothes, medicines etc.)?
Answer : (a) In the picture we can see that the starvation victims are arriving at relief centre in 1945. Because of the hunger people were dying and then these centres were opened for them.
(b) In the first picture we can see the old age group. They seem like victims of malnutrition; their appearance is very weak and they are to die without food availability.
They are even unable to walk without support and their bones are visible through their thin flesh.
(c) In the picture 4.2 the family seems poor because they are leaving the village due to scarcity of food, and the poor are the first affected due to the food scarcity. They are not able to buy food on high rates and thus move to other places to find better livelihood chances.
(d) Before the famine, the source of livelihood of the people could be agriculture and allied activities. Until there was famine people were totally dependent on agriculture, each and every farmer used to cultivate its land and grow grains for personal
consumption and some sale but as the famine struck, they were not able to produce enough to feed themselves.
(e) Food, clothes, medicines etc. are given to the victims of a natural calamity at a relief camp. Calamities like flood and cyclone are very devastating so food, clothes and medicines are provided to them to keep them safe till it stops.
(f) Yes, I have helped such victims in the form of money. Last year there was a flood in the state of Assam and people were suffering a lot. We saw the news about it and were very worried. My father suggested to donate some of our savings to the victims through the Prime Minister Relief Fund which funds the relief work of those stranded in calamities.

Question. A section of people in India is still without food. Explain.
Answer : A section of people in India is still without food and the main cause of this is that many poor families don’t have enough money to buy required food items for self and their families. Food items are generally available in the market but as the incomes of the poor are very less, thus they are not able to buy those grains at the market rates. Many a times, the families have insufficient resources to even buy necessary food items and thus the idea of buying nutritious food is a heresy.

Question. Write notes on:
(a) Minimum support price
(b) Buffer stock
(c) Issue price
(d) Fair price shops
Answer : (a) Minimum Support Price: It refers to the price at which the government secures food grains (wheat and rice) through FCI from the farmers in states where there is surplus in production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops. The minimum support price is declared by the government every year before the sowing season. The purchased grain forms the part of the buffer stock and is stored in FCI granaries.
(b) Buffer Stock: It refers to the stock of food grains namely wheat and rice secured by the government through Food Corporation of India. The FCI purchases wheat and rice from the farmers in states where there is surplus production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops. Which is called minimum support price.
(c) Issue Price: It refers to the price at which the government sells the food grains in poor sections of society though several welfare schemes to ensure food security. This price is essentially kept lower than the market rates so that all the economic sections have access to the food grains.
(d) Fair Price Shops: It refers to the ration shops which are regulated by the government and through which the food grains secured by the government through FCI is distributed under various welfare schemes. This is called the public distribution system. Ration shops are now present in most localities, villages, towns and cities. There are about 5.5 lakh ration shops all over the country. Ration shops are known as fair price shops.

Question. Which states are more food insecure in India?
Answer : Uttar Pradesh, Bihar Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra are the few states which are more food insecure in India. A large section of people suffer from food and nutrition insecurity in India, the worst affected groups are landless people with little or no land to depend upon, traditional artisans, providers of traditional services, petty self-employed workers and destitute including beggars. The above mentioned states have the largest number of people from these economic and vocational categories and thus are the most food insecure.

Question. Write a note on the role of cooperatives in providing food and related items.
Answer : The cooperatives play a vital role in providing food and other related items, and have proved to be effective especially in the southern and western parts of India.
(i) It has been found that around 94% of the ration shops are run by the cooperatives in Tamil Nadu.
(ii) The mother dairy is supplying milk and other milky products like butter, ghee, curd etc. to the people at much subsidized rates in Delhi.
(iii) Amul is doing the same job of supplying milk and milk products to people at much cheaper rates in Gujarat. In a way these dairies have brought White Revolution in country.
(iv) The academy of development science (ADS) has facilitated many NGOs to set their own grain banks in various parts of the state, which have proved a great asset in providing food security to people, especially the poor section in Maharashtra.

Question. What happens to the supply of food when there is a disaster or a calamity?
Answer : When there is a disaster or a calamity like earthquake, flood, drought, tsunami, wide-spread failure of crops that causes famine, then:
1. Food supply declines because of the less availability of grain.
2. Food requirement increases because many people are ailing or hurt owing to the calamities.
3. To supply the food grains buffer stocks are used.
4. The victims have to rely on government support and relief programs to make the ends meet.

Question. How is food security secured in India?
Answer : Measures of food security in India:
1. Buffer stock: It is created to distribute food-grains in deficit area among the poor section of the society at low prices. It helps in solving the issues of scarcity of food to an extent during adverse weather and other calamities. This stock is refreshed every year by buying the grains from the farmers.
2. Public Distribution System: It was introduced for the distribution of food stored in buffer stock among the poor. Fair shops have been opened which are known as government regulated ration shops. Now ration shops are present in most localities, villages, towns and cities. These ration shops keep stock of food grains, sugar, kerosene oil for cooking, and these items are sold at a price lower than the market price.
3. Other Programmes: Integrated Child Development Services, Food for work, Mid-day meals etc. have been launched for ensuring food security. In Maharashtra, Academy of Development Science has facilitated a network of NGOs for setting up grain banks in different regions. Grain banks are now slowly taking shape in different parts of Maharashtra. This ADS Grain Bank programme is acknowledged as a successful and innovative food security intervention.

Question. Differentiate between seasonal hunger and chronic hunger.
Answer : Difference between seasonal hunger and chronic hunger

Question. What are the problems of the functioning of the ration shops?
Answer : Problems of the functioning of the Ration Shops:
1. Poor quality of items because of some malpractices and incompetency shown at the time of procurement.
2. To get better margin the shop owners divert the subsidized grain to open market which renders the supply highly irregular.
3. Cheating the illiterate customers by measuring less using fraud weights and measures.
4. Three types of ration card distribution also cause some issues.
5. The opening schedule of the ration shops is highly irregular which causes issues.
6. There is very little interest showed by the families above poverty line because they don’t get much discount and the quality too is questionable.

Question. Do you believe that green revolution has made India self-sufficient in food grains?
Answer : Yes, I believe that Green Revolution has played a crucial role in making India self-sufficient in food grains by raising the production of wheat and rice.
1. India has hardly faced famine like situation and has largely become self-sufficient in food grains since the advent of the Green Revolution.
2. The import bills for the food grains have greatly went down and that money is used in other economic activities.
3. Less dependence on food grain import has helped us attain some diplomatic independence as well.
4. Increase in the production of food grains has also helped in increasing the export earnings over the years.

Question. Why is buffer stock created by the government?
Answer : Buffer stock is the stock of grains that is stored by the government in the granaries of Food Corporation of India. This stocking is done by buying grains directly from the farmers and even from the market in case of any emergencies. The stock is used for distribution of grains to the poor at subsidized rates through the public distribution system. This grain is also used in case of any calamities like flood, drought, war etc.

Question. Which are the people more prone to food insecurity?
Answer : People who are prone to food security:
1. Landless people with small piece of land or no land at all.
2. Traditional artisans.
3. Self-employed workers.
4. Impoverished people including beggars.
5. Other than the economic division, the women and elders are more prone to food insecurity.

Question. What has our government done to provide food security to the poor?
Discuss any two schemes launched by the government.
Answer : Provision of food security to the poor by our government: Availability of food grains at the security system has been ensured by the government through the establishment of fair price shops and also the subsidy distribution through the PDS card system.
There are two schemes launched by the government:
(i) Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS): Under this system in 1700 blocks of a country, it was targeted to provide the benefits of PDS to remote and backward areas. The price which was determined for wheat and rice was Rs. 2.80 and Rs. 3.77 per kg respectively. This was introduced in 1992.
(ii) Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY): The scheme was introduced in 2000, and is meant for the poorest section. It was decided to give 35 kg of food grains every month to this section of society. The price of wheat and rice was Rs. 2.00 and Rs. 3.00 per kg. respectively. The scheme has been further expanded twice to additional 50 lakh BPL families in June 2003 and in August 2004. With this increase, 2 crore families have been covered under this scheme.