Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. A region may be food surplus but all its citizens may not be food secure due to inadequate purchasing power. On the other hand even in a food deficit country every person can have either direct or indirect access to required food.
It is now well established that availability of foodgrains especially at macro-level is not a real problem; it is prevailing poverty amongst a large number of households that comes in the way of achieving households’ food security. Bihar produces average annual foodgrains production of 19 million tonnes. If allowances of 12.5 per cent for wastage, seeds and animal feeds is deducted from total food grain production, the net availability for consumption is worked out at about 16.6 million tonnes which is above than our annual consumption requirement of 15.1 million tonnes of foodgrains. Further, annually about 2.1 million tonnes of foodgrains is distributed through PDS. It appears that in spite of abundance of food in the state, millions of poor households are not able to get adequate intake even the basic requirement of calories.
PDS is one of the most important programmes to ensure food security in India. But, functioning of PDS is not uniform across states and PDS used to be perceived as an irreparably dysfunctional scheme in many of the Indian states.
However, in recent years, many state governments have undertaken a series of measures that have improved the functioning of PDS. By providing assured supply of foodgrains at subsidized prices, the PDS has emerged as an important source of food security especially for poor households in India. Bihar was one of the states, where PDS used to be bye and large dysfunctional. But, the PDS seemed to have exhibited a remarkable improvement in Bihar in the last few years. From a coverage of less than 1% households under the PDS in the early-1990s to about 43% outreach in 2011-12, depicts a remarkable story of turnaround of PDS in Bihar.
This revival or turnaround is not only about the enhanced coverage of population under PDS but also its contribution to the household cereal consumption, both in urban and rural pockets. The increased share in cereals consumption is vividly reflected in the trends of calorie intake. The contribution of PDS grains in calorie intake has increased from less than 2% in 1993-94 to over 11% in 2011-2012, with larger benefits accruing to the rural households (approximately 20%).
However, there is still no assurance of deliverance from hunger unless those charged with the tasks of governing the poor take conscious and deliberate steps to channel that abundance in his directions that he can absorb the little he needs.
Little attention has been paid to the virtual turnaround in the expansion and outreach of PDS in a state like Bihar. Understanding the improved functioning of PDS in Bihar would be helpful in developing a strategic food security framework to tackle the challenges of food and nutrition security in the State. It assumes added importance as Bihar is still the most poverty stricken state of India (after Odisha) and effective functioning of recently enacted National Food Security Act (NFSA) is critical to improve the status of food security in India.
In this backdrop, a study on Public Distribution System has been initiated by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to understand and assess the functioning of PDS in Bihar. IFPRI- a constituent of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, based in Washington D.C. and works to provide research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrion in developing countries.
This study is being carried out in partnership with local experts and institutions. In this study, the coverage of procurement operations, the existing state-of-affairs with the PDS administration, coverage of FPS and reach of subsidized food grains to the beneficiaries, etc. will be investigated. The drivers for the revival (if any) of PDS would be identified. Further, policy prescriptions that are derived based on the observations and data analysis will be articulated for improving the performance of food grain management in the state. Also, the debate between direct cash transfer versus improvement in existing PDS system would be deciphered.
Anjani Kumar, Agriculture economist, IFRI, New Delhi.. Dr RKP Singh., former advisor, state farmars commission, Bihar
