INDIA’S FOOD CRISIS

Some Selected Social, Political and Economic Factors

Moore, Raeanne T – 587 7352

DEVS 100 – Section G
March 10, 2010
Laura Macfarlane
 The objective of this paper is to highlight some of the major

social, political, and economic factors, which have helped to bring

about the current food shortage in India. In October 2008, I traveled to

India for five weeks with a team of other students from various

universities across Canada. What I noticed on my experience was the

extreme famine in the rural cities we visited, just outside of Bangalore.

All the more, I saw that this issue was even apparent in the more

urbanized centrals such as Madurai and Mysore. I witnessed young

children begging, and mothers only getting by with a couple of items

to feed a whole family. The crisis has affected the country drastically

and India now accounts for a quarter of the world's undernourished

people. This problem is not simply technical in nature, but also

involves opinionated differences that have slightly hindered progress

towards a possible solution. The food crisis in India is a critical issue at

this time, particularly in light of the Bengal Famine in the 1900s and its

economic changes such as the result of high demand for un-skilled

labour. The failure to increase food production threatens millions of

lives and the political stability of the whole country. Current attitudes

to the problem range from the extremely pessimistic to very optimistic.

Dr. Suman Sahai of the Gene Campaign (2008) believes that the

current food crisis in India is beatable:

The first step to tackle the food crisis will be to radically overhaul
institutions like the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR),
Agriculture Universities and the food distribution systems. It is
disappointing that the agriculture scientific community has so far
 made no statement no revealed any plans on how it proposes to
tackle the impact of climate change on agriculture.
Most experts feel that there is room for some optimism but that

solutions are hard to find. This paper will attempt to point out issues of

a more personal nature, which make the food shortage largely

unsolvable in the long term.

In recent years there has been an increased deviation of

viewpoints on matters affecting the third world underdeveloped

nations of the east and the industrialized nations of the west. NGOs

like the World Food Programme, United Nations and the IMF have

taken measures to improve the current situation in India. The IMF has

provided financial assistance such as loans throughout the years, in

order to advance the country’s economy. As Utsa Patnaik (2009)

writes, it has also advocated a free trade economy and so, declares the

following:

The objective of promoting free trade under IMF/World Bank-guided

economic reforms, strengthened by the WTO discipline, has been to
bring about an intensification of the international division of labour
in agriculture, where tropical lands are increasingly required to
produce the relatively exotic requirements of advanced country
populations, keeping the supermarket shelves in the North well-
stocked with everything from winter strawberries to edible oils and
flowers.

These loans have proved to be successful in boosting the economy’s

growth rate to 6.7%. The United Nation’s ‘World Food Programme’ has

also been involved in slowing the food shortage progress. This NGO

has set up a country food program to target the most helpless groups,
especially young women and those who live in the most food insecure

regions of rural India. The country plan for India (2008–2012) is

consistent with WFP’s Strategic Plan (2006–2009), the prime concern

of India’s 11th Five Year Plan and the United Nations Development

Assistance Framework (2008–2012).

Although there has been help directed to India, many countries

are not supportive of current U.S. government aid policy, and feel as

though much of it is directed towards ensuring U.S. interests. In some

regards this may be true, and the fact that U.S. aid is such a small

portion of total GNP does little to disprove the argument. For countries

like India, that depend heavily on U.S. provisions to keep its population

alive, this is a powerful bargaining tool. Developed western nations,

through coordination of food exports, effectively control the fate of

vast numbers of individuals in the starving nation. Nominal food

exports keep India alive and make the country more cooperative to

western political policy, and so, the use of food in such a manner does

not help to improve the current food crisis.

Much of the gain in the lifestyle of individuals living in the western

world is due to their ability to develop positive markets for their

exported products. For the most part, these products are finished

manufactured goods that western nations have developed a

comparative advantage in producing. India, who does not have the

manufacturing capability to produce these items domestically, is

forced to purchase these goods from foreign suppliers. In order to pay

for the goods, the country exports raw materials, some food items and

a variety of cheap hand made items. The result of this scenario is a

slow development of manufacturing capability. The critical factor of

this issue is the disagreement that India needs to develop industrial

production. In most western nations like England, France, U.S. and

Canada, industrial production has been the “engine for growth”. The

conclusion to this factor is a slow economic growth, poverty, and

overpopulation. Without technical help from the west, food production

will proceed accordingly. On this note, economic factors, instead of

relieving the current food crisis in India, may only ensure that it is

prolonged.

In order to produce food in an efficient manner, a nation must

have the funds necessary for irrigation projects, artificial fertilizers, and

farm machinery. Without wealth, a country’s food output and its ability

to import are restricted. According to Co-Director of Ag Marketing

Resource Center at the Iowa State University, Don Hofstrand (2008),

most of the world’s crops are consumed in the country of production,

and less than 35% is traded on the international market. This suggests

that the dominant concern of each developing country should be self-

sufficiency in food productivity given their limitations to fund imports.

Professor of Economics, Danny Quah (1997) from the London School of

Economics, reveals that the greatest contributors to world income

inequality are the large countries of the North, with inhabitants earning

an income of more than $11,500 while those living in many Eastern

countries earn a meager income of less that $1000. The unequal

distribution of financial resources is a factor in India’s current food

crisis, and the successful transfer of funds from the rich to the poor

nations requires resources, which are not available.

There have been efforts to improve the food shortage in India, so

the country will never again fall to once was known as the Bengal

famine in 1943, where close to four million people died. The Green

Revolution in India has claimed the period from 1967 to 1978, and

aimed to expand farmlands, double-cropping and introduce new strains

of high yield value (HYV) seeds, developed by Indian Council for

Agricultural Research. Nevertheless these endeavors to improve food

security in India, the Green Revolution has not proved to be one

hundred percent successful. Although it did help economically and

politically in the short run, the FAO still estimates that 61% of children

under the age of five are malnourished in India (FAOSTAT Database).

The underlying problem with the Green Revolution is that the Western

countries that did feel the need to help nations with massive famine

did so incorrectly. They supplied better tools to increase and improve

agriculture, however, did not teach the farmers how to use the tools in

order to produce efficiently. Furthermore, another cause for

pessimism when one looks for solutions to India’s food crisis is the
attitudinal characteristic of wealthier nations known as the “lifeboat

ethic”. A metaphor proposed by ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1974, the

“lifeboat ethic” essentially means resource distribution. Many

westerners believe that helping nations when massive famine strikes

may result in the destruction of all of mankind. In a sense, the added

burden of the starving nations would swamp the survivors’ lifeboat and

drag all to the bottom.

The environmental implications to the issue of food shortage in

India are largely to blame. The importance of agricultural growth is

incredibly significant in determining the poverty line. It directly

minimizes poverty by increasing incomes, and indirectly lowers food

prices by means of labour markets. The effect of climate changes on

the country has impacted the lives of people, and has economically

altered the production market. William Cline (2007), from the Center

for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International

Economics, articulates that India will most likely see a fall of 30-40% in

agricultural productivity. He justifies this by saying the high carbon

dioxide levels in the atmosphere provides much of a fertilization effect

and you can see this more so in the countries closest to the equator.

Damages are greatest for countries like India and of its close proximity

to the equator, because temperatures are already at high levels, and

going to higher levels hinders the crop tolerance levels. North India has

more of a decline in productivity, which is affected by the unusual

heavy distribution of rainfall. The poorest countries in South Asia are

expected to be most impacted by climate change says Richard

Damania (2007), World Bank Senior Environmental Economist for the

South Asia Region. He says that the rainy parts of India are only going

to get wetter, causing floods, and the arid areas are only to turn drier.

The impacts of high temperatures and natural disasters such as floods,

cyclones, sever droughts, and sea level rise have already touched

South Asia and will only continue to intensify.

The large-scale measures that have been undertaken by western

supported aid agencies to institute birth control programs in the third

world have proven to largely unsuccessful. There was at the outset

initial acceptance of the program but recent criticism of this western

approach illustrates a major social phenomena that reduces the

effectiveness of this type of measure. In more developed countries

there usually exists some degree of social welfare program that assists

individuals later on in their lives. Due to a variety of factors, primarily

the maintenance of the economy and the subsequent inability to save

for later years, inhabitants of India have no financial security for their

old age. In order to ensure survival, it becomes crucial for families to

have greater numbers of children, hopeful for support from their

children, as they grow older. Failure to level population growth in India

leads to a continual cycle of starvation and population growth that is

almost self-fulfilling, however, this does not mean to neglect the

Malthusian theory on the ultimate limit to population growth. The cycle

is as follows; greater population leads to greater starvation, which in

turn creates the need for more security (in the form of children), which

leads to more people and more hunger. Individuals in India will not

reduce their desire for more children until they feel that progress is

being made that will ensure more minimum standard of living in the

future. For several countries, particularly India, the signs of progress of

the food crisis are simply not apparent.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

as of October 14 2009, malnutrition affects 1.02 billion people. The two

major types, kwashiorkor and marasmus bring anemia, diarrhea,

dehydration, and possible brain damage. The children, necessary for

the future of the country, are affected in greatest numbers because of

their need for protein. The very ones who could lead the country out of

its predicament never really have the chance to make any valuable

contribution. The lower protein intake also takes its toll on the society’s

overall attitudes. Poor nations like India suffer from a vicious cycle that

almost inhibits their ability to improve their desperate state. Long-term

foreign assistance would appear as the only method of breaking this

negative feed back loop. Other factors such as increased population

and availability of aid indicate that improving nutritional standards is

indeed a long-term proposal.

Another major cause of the increase in malnutrition in India is the

abandonment of breast-feeding. Hari Mohan Swami MD FIAPSM (2008)

acknowledges that the desertion of breast-feeding has led to the

deaths of around 3000-4000 infants every day in the country. Experts

contend that mothers’ milk is the best and safest of all foods, and that

the use of substitutes would consume 25 to 50% of a labourer’s

income. The economic loss to India is substantial, and reduces

available financial resources to develop other areas of the economy.

For India, and some other third world countries affected by western

tradition, the bottle is almost a status symbol. Rural individuals who

migrate to the cities are most likely to be affected by this new ideal.

The widespread malnutrition only serves to heighten India’s food crisis.

Without the necessary motivation and strength, these countries cannot

elevate themselves beyond their current state. The problem is

particularly aggravating in the sense that food aid is usually divided

among so many people and is delivered sporadically, thereby reducing

the positive impacts of the aid on nutritional levels.

India was originally colonized by the foreign power of England and

became a British empire in 1857. The foreigners infused the country

with their culture and educational systems. Education, however, was

not dispensed equally among the population. Instead, it served to

create great disparity between income levels and promoted a society

fractured by class distinctions. Individuals who were lucky enough to

become educated were largely trained to hold office and clerical type
jobs rather than being trained in technical skills. They were to become

government bureaucrats, and much of their technique for government

operation was derived from the foreign system of government. As India

was inflicted with food shortage, problems would logically be

agricultural technology.

The British did not suffer the critical food problems that their

unlucky neighbours had. The attitudes of these individuals persisted

through the generations as individuals passed a lifestyle onto their

children. The end result was that little effort was made to promote the

appropriate educational programs to get the country progressing

forward in agricultural production. Research in the area of agricultural

efficiency and grain development is currently being performed at

universities and government operated research centres. It is hard to

imagine how the situation would have changed had steps been taken

earlier. The increased population has made success in agricultural

production urgent and critical. It may, however, have been a case of

too little, too late.

Another major cause of the current food crisis is the government’s

inability to design the appropriate programs necessary to handle the

food shortage. For example, the Indian government had a policy that

encouraged poor distribution of available food. Government run shops

in the cities sold wheat and rice at prices for below the existing market

levels. Farmers were encouraged by law to sell part of their crop to

government shops. In order to extract the maximum revenues from

their crops, the farmers stored their crops and sold them to the highest

bidder on the black market. The result was that people who needed it

most, the urban poor, never received the food.

Domestic governments are often susceptible to dramatic changes

in the political climate. Violence and corruption, often triggered by food

shortage, has led government in India to adopt a dictatorial regime.

With the rapidly changing government, comes increased bribery and

corruption among government officials. The effect of these changes is

a lack of progression in government policy making. What may be good

programs may not be politically convenient for the next political party.

Long-term goals designed to alleviate the food crisis may not be

advised because of the continual upheaval in the bureaucracy. Stability

is the key to success of these objectives and current situations do not

suggest this prime ingredient is present.

The ideas presented in this report suggest that the solution to

India’s present food crisis does not necessarily reside in the areas of

science and technology, but also in the economic, political, and social

fields. This paper only touched upon several of the possible

explanations for the current situation, although probably hundreds of

others exist. The current crisis requires international cooperation and it

is this factor that causes so much of the pessimism. Past historical

events and the current positioning of the world powers in regards to

wealth and economic lifestyle do not suggest a quick and easy solution

to the food problem. Individuals in developed nations will want to

continue living in their present manner, and there is little incentive to

feed and provide for less fortunate individuals half way around the

globe. Economic problems in the developed nations only serve to

substantiate this opinion. Why would individuals who are enjoying a

moderately successful way of life give it up to eliminate the starvation

and poverty that exists in other areas of the world? For many, the

moral question is not only why should I do it, but also, would it be

successful if I tried. Is it possible for all of mankind to live in such a

state?

The questions that are raised are individual in nature but require

group decisions. Indian economic analyst, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

(2008), argues that because of the low purchasing power of India's

poor, even a small increase in food prices contributes to a sharp fall in

residents’ incomes. Only organization and a massive coordinated effort

could accomplish such a task. My own personal viewpoint after

traveling to India in 2008, and one that is accepted rather reluctantly is

that mankind will continue to proceed as he is now. The food crisis in

India will persist until such a time, as man is ready to remedy the

situation. The impetus may be a massive famine, or a change in

government policy, but it must be of enough significance to rally other

nations around the common goal of eliminating the India’s food

shortage.