“To be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd”
– Wendell Berry
Let’s start with the Food & Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) (1999) definition of Food Security – “Food Security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, to meet the dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
When we talk of food security, we generally ask – Are we producing enough? But, we tend to ignore whether this food is “physically and economically” being accessed by all. Here lies the first issue related to food security – making it available to all, including the poor and the hungry, even if they cannot pay for it. Next comes “sufficient, safe and nutritious” food. Are we sure, the food that we get through our Public Distribution System (PDS) or the private markets is safe and nutritious? Have all our efforts to increase food production through “Grow More Food” or “Green Revolution” improved its nutrition and safety? Clearly, after the Green Revolution and modernisation of the food industry, food has become less nutritious, unsafe with pesticide residues, processing chemicals such as colourants, additives, preservatives, flavouring agents and so on, many of them unnecessary. Today, there is an increasing population asking for natural, pure or organic food. The last of the criteria is “meeting the dietary needs and food preferences”. Here the question is about localisation and diversity. Obviously our food preferences and dietary needs are not the same as those in the Mediterranean or the Arctic regions!
Food preferences are local in character. Food has evolved along with the culture, environment and the geography of a region. Our ecosystem, climate, culture and environment have evolved a food system and agricultural system suitable for us. However, there has been an intervention into this system, and it is not a natural intervention. The global movement of products and people has led to a cultural influx into our system. We have not been able to discern and filter the suitability of this. Hence, there is a mix of food, culture and technologies in us. We can be open towards technology, but the moment we see that it can be unsustainable or unhealthy or a general threat to ecosystems or to cultural systems, as it is turning out to be, we must take a precautionary approach. We should think of whether this technology will do good or bad for us, or whether it will sustain us. Will it help us evolve into a better and healthier society?
When Green Revolution was introduced in the 1960s through high yielding varieties, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, the big issue facing the nation was the supposed food insecurity. India was depending on what is called the “ship-to-mouth” existence, where the ships from the United States filled not the godowns, but literally the hungry Indian mouths! The aftermath of this was an increased production, grain productivity (primarily rice and wheat) and some reduction in poverty and the percentage of hungry. But after all these efforts, whereby in 50 years we quadrupled the total grain production in India, (and also globally), why is such a large population still hungry? Still deprived of their daily food needs?
Are India and the world, food secure ?
It’s always a NO, that this question receives. There is nothing more farther from truth and it’s surprising that most of us have been tricked into this wrong answer.
The world population as in 2012 was around seven billion, the chronically undernourished were about 870 million, of which 250 million are from India. Total food grain production in the world was 2239 million metric tonnes (mMT). All the other supplementary food items including pulses, vegetables, fruits, wild edibles etc., are not counted in the food security basket. Food security is calculated as the availability and consumption of grains all around the world. The WHO defined the family intake of food for a healthy life to be 35 kg per family per month. In India, the Food Security Act has fixed it at the same. If we compare the total food grain production of the world and the requirement of food for the actual population, it can be seen that the total population of the world can be fed with just 504 mMT, and that’s less than one-fourth of the total production. Yet, why does such a huge population go hungry? It’s because the issue addressed by all nations globally is only about increasing production and not about distributing it equitably to all, especially the needy. Moreover, the FAO estimates the wastage of food to be 33%. The International Institute for Mechanical Engineers, a U.K based institution estimates the wastage of food at 50%. Clearly, it’s not a question of production or productivity; rather, it is post-production issues such as wastage, distribution, that leads to food insecurity.
Now, let’s look at the situation in India. In 2012, India’s total production of food grains was around 250 million metric tonnes, and our total population was around 1.2 billion. According to the Food Security Act, 50% of India’s urban population and 75% of rural population will be entitled to a subsidised food supply. This is estimated to be the average Below Poverty Line (BPL) sector. Every such family is entitled to 35 kg of rice per month. Now, suppose we assume that the country decides to feed 100% of the population (we will call it UPDS-100) directly with the same formula, only 100 million metric tonnes of grains are required. We already produce 2.5 times what we need. We have been misled by academicians and food experts that there is a food shortage in the country, when we really do not have one.
In fact, India even during the Independence period never had a food production issue. Even in the 1950s, and throughout after that, we were producing for more than 2.5 times the population. Still, lakhs of people were kept in perpetual hunger. Why? Because food was never produced for equitable distribution, instead it was produced for the markets, and those who had money bought it. Sometimes, it was for the hoarders, sometimes for the rich in India, sometimes it was the army, and sometimes even for export, but never for the really deserving. And today, the situation is worse. According to the government’s own admission, at least 30% food produced and stored for supply is eaten by the rats. And that’s the quantity needed to feed its chronically undernourished population. So we have a nation feeding its rats but not its poor!
The corrupt economics of food
Actually, food is going through a process of a corrupt economy – appropriation, commercialisation, hoarding, smuggling etc., which has had its impact on prices as well as food availability. The sudden spurt in global food prices all over the world is also because food grains have either gone into the meat industry as fodder, or into the biofuel industry.
In the last 50 years, there has been an intensive change in the way of cultivation that the pesticide and fertiliser companies have become millionaires. Everyone in the food-trade chain has reaped the benefits of this system except the real farmer. The average monthly income of the farmer still remains at less than ` 3000. More than three lakh farmers have committed suicide in India in just a decade. Farming has become non-remunerative and the people who provide us with food security are dying. This needs to be addressed. The M.S. Swaminathan Commisison for Farmers in 2004 had recommended a higher payment of Minimum Support Price for the farm products, but even the present Government refuses to implement it. Recently, the 7th Pay Commission for government employees has fixed the lowest entry pay at Rs. 21,000, but the farmers’ average income lingers seven times below this. Last year, the largest grouping of farmers’ organisations, together representing 40 crore people, came together under the banner of Kissan Ekta, and demanded that a Farmers Income Commission be constituted, before such huge dole outs are paid to already wealthy employees. After all, they are not killing themselves in chronic debt, like farmers!
What is also needed is to develop and revive a system which is safe and sustainable. Farmers who are life givers have themselves been made murderers through the excessive use of pesticides and chemicals. They themselves are getting eliminated through this system of farming. The entire food chain is poisoned and the accumulated impact of this on the environment is very high. The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in America has found on their research on newborn babies that 287 chemicals are found on an average in an American newborn baby. If that’s the situation in a well-regulated developed nation, imagine what would a blood analysis of all of us in India reveal. Looks like we are all a living, ticking bomb, waiting for the next cancer or endocrine disorder to happen.
Science of safety has progressed over time, and the world has banned many pesticides, but In India, we still continue to use them. In 2011, out of the 229 pesticides registered for use in India, 67 were banned in other countries. We continue to use them, thanks to a dangerously corrupt regulatory mechanism. It’s just not the chemicals that are hazardous, our regulatory system is itself criminally hazardous!
The Green Revolution that wasn’t
In a recent report, the Planning Commission had also accepted the fact that the Green Revolution did not deliver. What it actually did was to poison the entire ecosystem we are living in. Our biodiversity and agro-biodiversity have been lost due to the overuse of chemicals and pesticides which are being banned all over the world. Our best seeds, locally evolved, many even high yielding, many medicinal in value, many with potential even in a monetary sense, have all been wiped out and we are left with a few unsustainable high yielding varieties and hybrids. Imagine, in rice alone we had 1.5 lakh indigenous varieties, today we are left with a few thousands.
Genetically modified and engineered seeds are now the next new threat. After the biosafety data on Bt brinjal was revealed, and after lakhs of Bt cotton farmers killed themselves in India, we have realised two things – One, these seeds are much more expensive than the native varieties available. Second, these seeds have serious health effects, many well documented. And worse, the Multi National Companies (MNCs), or even the public sector agencies refuse to divulge the truth about the impacts of the seeds. The most recent question asked in the Indian Parliament, also got us the same answer – that genetically modified crops are not known to have any adverse impacts. Even the minister-in-charge is forced to lie in the Parliament, inspite of a compilation of 400 studies showing adverse impacts available with his Ministry!!
And what’s the argument that these scientists or governments or even the MNCs put forth for promoting pesticides or even GM crops – food security! The argument is that India will not achieve food security if we do not adopt such technologies.
India is four times food secure! It’s delivery and safety that matters now!
Adequate food production has been achieved. In fact, for feeding the nation (food security), India Government only procures about 25 to 30% of its food grains from farmers. The rest of the farmers are forced to sell their produce in the markets, and get swindled many a times by the market hawks and cartels. So, the focus needs to now shift to see how the farmer’s livelihood can be enhanced with a better income. This is why the need for the Income Commission for Farmers becomes important.
We must also now refocus agriculture in India, and the world. Our focus should be to revitalise the small farmer, the small land holding, to enhance productivity through reducing cost with a low external input, in short, sustainable agriculture. We need to bring back our native varieties of seeds which had natural resistance and resilience to our soil and climatic conditions. This is the only sustainable hope for economic development, combined with climate resilience. Hence, a total revamping of the system is required at the operational, administrative and spiritual level.
Organic farming/natural farming – the viable option
The face of organic farming has changed globally. From the conventional organic farming to a more intensive, but simpler system, which is optimising the use of inputs. One example is the use of cow dung and cow urine. Earlier, these were used directly in the farms, but now farmers have developed their own biotechnology – Panchagavya, Amruthpani, Beejamruth, Jeevamruth, five-leaf pest repellants and many such mixtures are all cow-based, and have become the sustainable farmers’ mantra. There have been major changes in the agronomic practices, which has made agriculture at par with normal chemical agriculture, but more sustainable, safe and most important, sovereign. It’s also been clearly demonstrated that small-scale agro-ecological farms are the most effective, and the world can be provided enough food by this method.
In a study by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Right to Food, 289 projects in 57 countries covering 37 million hectares were evaluated and it was found that agro-ecology increased productivity on an average 79%. According to the study – agro-ecology does not rely on chemical insecticides or GM crops for pest control, instead fosters beneficial biological interactions. Agro-ecological approach raises productivity at field level, reduces rural poverty, contributes to improving nutrition and also contributes to adapting to climate change.
Obviously, the need of the hour is to revive and maintain agriculture sustainably and food security in a safe way and ensure the sovereignty of our nation’s agriculture. The political system has changed in such a way that our ecosystem, culture and lifestyle are being designed by agents of poison and profits, with whom we have got into trade relationships, rather than cultural and scientific relationships. This has to be addressed, and today a large group of individuals and institutions are addressing this in a collaborative way, globally and nationally. Hundreds of organisations in India are doing deep rooted work to change the face of this nation through sustainable agriculture. Sikkim is the best example. Recently, launching Organic Sikkim, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to all states to adopt organic farming, and said the winds of organic is now going to take over the nation!! It’s a dream, let us as consumers and farmers be a part of this wind of change.
Let me conclude with another Wendell Berry quote – “When going back makes sense, you are going ahead.”