started evolving various systems to ensure foodgrains for its people. Ration shops
where people go and buy food grains at subsidised prices, mid-day meals that many
of you have been eating, anganwadis where young children are taken care of, including
meals during the day are some ways in which government today ensures food security.
In this chapter, we will look at some issues associated with food security.
The first section will focus on the issues of overall food security: the issue of
production and availability of food for the country as a whole. The second section
would discuss the access people have – how does one ensure that the available food
reaches people. Finally, we need to look at the nutrition levels among families to
know whether these schemes and methods are effective.
Producing sufficient amount of foodgrains is an important requirement for
food security. In India, for example, it means, the government creates conditions
so that farmers are able to produce increasing
amount of foodgrains.
We know that the area under cultivation has been roughly unchanged since the
last few decades. Yield then becomes a crucial variable. Look at Graph 2.