The Food Crisis

Group: Water
 Malthus, the false prophet

1798 : An 1970 :
1803 : the
Essay on the Malthusian
idea of moral
Principle of heresy re-
restraint
Population emerged
There is no shortage of food in the
world today

 According to the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization, enough food is produced
in the world to provide over 2800 calories a
day to everyone — substantially more than the
minimum required for good health, and about
18% more calories per person than in
the 1960s, despite a significant increase in total
population.
 In fact, over the last 20 years, world food
2% a year,
production has risen steadily at over
while the rate of global population
growth has dropped to 1.14% a year.

 Population is not outstripping food supply.

 . The fact that there is already enough food to feed
the world shows that the food crisis is not a
it is a social and
technical problem —
political problem.
 World Hunger Program’s executive director Josette

There is food on the

Sheeran says, “

shelves but people are priced

out of the market.”
 The surge of so-called food “riots” not only in poor
countries like Haiti, but in resource-rich countries
like Brazil—and even in the industrialized nations
of Europe and the United States—reflects the
fact that people are not just hungry, they are
rebelling against a dangerous and unjust
global food system.
Enough food to feed 100 million
people rots away!

in Punjab and Haryana, by official accounts, 100

lakh metric tons of grain has been stored in the
open. According to an estimate, 10 per cent of
this is rotting. That's enough to feed 100 million
people for three months.
 Hunger’s Timeline
 1974—500 million hungry people in the developing
world. The World Food Conference pledges to
eradicate child hunger in 10 years.
 1996—830 million hungry people. The World Food
Summit pledges to reduce the number of hungry
people by half by 2015.
 12% of the U.S. population is hungry. U.S. Farm
Bill increases food nutrition programs (Food Stamps,
Women and Children in need,) and food banks
augment donations of government surplus with local
and industry-donated food.
 2000 Millennium Summit—World leaders pledge to
reduce extreme poverty and hunger by half by
2015.
 Hunger’s Timeline
 2002—850 million hungry people. The World Food
Summit+5 admits to poor progress on the Millennium
Development goals.
 2008—862 million hungry people. The FAO High-Level
Conference on World Food Security announces that
instead of reducing the ranks of the hungry to 400
million, hunger has increased.
 The World Bank re-calculates its projections for extreme
poverty upwards from 1 billion to 1.4 billion. Over 3
billion people live on less than $2 a day.
 12% of the U.S. population is still hungry. Despite $60
billion yearly in government food nutrition programs and
the explosion of over 70,000 food banks and emergency
food programs across the nation, one in six children in
the U.S. go hungry each month and 35 million people
cannot ensure minimum daily caloric requirements.
To Feed or not to FEED!

 Why, when so much food is available, are over

850 million people hungry and malnourished?

 Why do 18,000 children die of hunger every

day?

 Why can’t the global food industry feed the

hungry?
The global food industry is not organized
to feed the hungry; it is organized to
generate profits for corporate
agribusiness.
Assault on traditional farming

 Manifestation of a farm crisis

 Countries bullied on adoption policies that promote

export crops

 Millions of people starving in countries that export

food
 One-fifth of the population in India is hungry
and 48% of children under 5 yrs are
malnourished.
Nevertheless, India exportedUS$1.5 billion
worth of milled rice and $322 million worth
of wheat.
Kenya imports 80% of its food - and 80% of
its exports are other agricultural products
Impact

 Shift to Industrial Agriculture has lead to

unemployment and poverty

 Industrial Farming has left many homeless and

starving and at the cost of poisoning air, water and
soil.
Causes of the World food
Crisis
1.LAND FRAGMENTATION-
>POOR PRODUCTION
2.POPULATION GROWTH IN
“COUNTRIES IN CRISIS”
3.GROWTH OF MIDDLE CLASS
SOIL DEGRADATION

 60,000 SQ.KM LAND LOST EVERY YEAR

 GROUND WATER DEPLETION CAUSING SOIL
DEGRADATION
 URBANIZATION CAUSING SOIL FERTILITY LOSS
 UNSUSTAINABLE IRRIGATION PRACTICES.

 75 BILLION TONNE SOIL LOSS= $ 400 BILLION

Groundwater Depletion
Decline in world food stockpiles

 Faster pace of food growth and ease of importation

causing less emphasis on stockpiles

 Data stocks calculated as a residual between

Production and Consumption
World eats more than it
produces: Cereal Stocks
Decline
700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007*
Financial Speculation
 Indiscriminate lending and real estate speculation
eroded investment in food commodities
 Commodity Index Funds
 Changes in demand and supply
 Around 40 food exporting countries have imposed
some sorts of trade restriction of food.
 Institutional investors, contributing to food and
energy price inflation
Crop shortfalls from Natural Disasters
 Cyclone Nargis on Burma & Myanmar

 Australia savage multi-year drought

 Stem Rust in Uganda

Increase in Oil Prices

 Dependency on Oil for Agriculture

 Fertilizers and Pesticide production

 Energy at all stages of food production

 Increase in Oil prices

Green Revolution

 Short Term positive impact

 Long Term negative impact

 Drop in water tables
 Salinization and water logged soils
 Contaminated of water
 Heavy Farmer Debt
 Rapid soil degradation
Bio-fuel Production
 Subsides

 Divergence to Oil producing crops

 Increase in prices

 Examples:
 US corn
 EU Palm Oil
Structural Adjustment Program

 World Bank & IMF

 Subsidies Withdrawal
 Devaluation of currency

 WTO
 Lowering of Import Tariffs
 Removal of protection to small farmers
 Non Removal of Subsidies by Developed Countries

 Impact
CONSEQUENCES
Consequences

 The poorest and the hungriest will still be poor and

hungry by 2015.
 One of every four children under the age of five is still
under-weight.
 Climate change will create new threats for low
income countries and pose a challenge to food security.
 The effect of climate change on undernourished people
in sub-Saharan Africa may tripled by 2080.
HOW TO OVERCOME THE FOOD
CRISIS
Poor-country governments, with the
support of donors, should:

 Reach small-scale producers

 Invest in social protection programmes

 Assistance programmes should encourage local

communities to design community based food reserves

 Adopt trade measures that protect small-scale producers,

strategic agricultural sectors, and emerging companies
 Avoid resorting to trade measures

 Support the creation and strengthening of trade unions,

producer organisations, and women’s groups in particular

 Promote access to assets and services, particularly for

women farmers

 Address the problems of waged agricultural workers

 Build community-level resilience to climate change

In addition, rich countries, the World
Bank and other donors should:
 Coordinate their action and funding through a United
Nations-led mechanism, building on the work done by the
High Level Task Force on food prices.

 Increase investment in development assistance to

agriculture in developing countries, particularly for
smallholders.

 Stop pressing for rapid liberalisation and opposing

adequate safeguards for developing countries in
multilateral, regional, and bilateral trade negotiations and
agreements.

 Reform their agriculture and trade polices

Food crisis – how prepared is India ?

As a result of continuous man-nature conflicts, the per capita food

grain and water availability in India is about one-third of the world
average.

EFFECTS

 Also been a gradual reduction in the water flow of the Himalayan

rivers as a result of depleting glaciers
 Rampant use of ground water for construction and industrial use
without focus on harvesting 
 Over-dependence on monsoon 
 The government has tried to address the issue
through several initiatives

Subsidies for micro-irrigation

optimizes water usage for agriculture

National watershed development project for rain fed areas

Artificial recharge to ground water through dug wells in hard rock

areas and rural water supply

Enhancement programme through the catchment area approach.

National river linking project 
 A Huge Opportunity for agriculture
Farming is no longer a preferred profession in India

High degree of uncertainty in income

High monsoon dependence along with low irrigation

Limited access to affordable credit

Outdated techniques 

Fragmented land holdings also mean unviable mechanisation and lower

productivity

Government's MSP policy which kick-started the green revolution has in

some cases led to surplus cultivation of certain agri-commodities such as
wheat, rice and sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh/Maharashtra leading to
wastages  
 
The Central Government is aware of the challenges and
has initiated several policy initiative

Seeds Bill (2004)

ensure availability of quality seeds to farmers


On wed 20/10/2010 Cabinet Approved moving additional amendments



Regulate the quality of seeds and planting materials



Ensure the availability of quality seeds to the farmers;



Protect the rights of the farmers



Curb the sale of spurious and poor quality seeds



Increase private participation in seed production



Distribution and liberalise imports of seeds and planting materials.


Amendments to the APMC(Agricultural
Produce Market Committee) Act

 Advice on production planning

 Marketing information

 Securing markets for the farmers

 Advice on improved marketing practices

Nutrient-based Subsidy Policy

Incentivize the farmers to go for balanced fertiliser

application and ensure soil regeneration

Effective from April 1, 2010.

The subsidy will be admissible for the three macro

nutrients — nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium
(K) — one secondary nutrient — sulphur (S) — and two
micro nutrients — zinc and boron
National Horticulture Mission and the
National Food Security Mission

Aims at widening the food basket and improving

productivity – early results already indicate gains of >25
per cent in many districts.

These initiatives need to be implemented vigorously, as

the agriculture sector has a huge potential which can be
unlocked to ensure long-term food security.
India-China – The Current Scenario

China faces an equally daunting task 

China seems to be in a better position as its total

fertility rate (TFR) is already below the replacement
rate, whereas India would achieve a TFR of 2 only by
2050. 

China, as an authoritarian state, is perceived to be

able to respond to a crisis in a military-like discipline
unlike a democratic India – with its quasi federal
structure, linguistic divide and coalition compulsions

However, it has been proved beyond doubt that a

thriving and vibrant democracy such as India has been
able to prevent famine-like situations post-
independence
India-China – The Current
Scenario
The democratic process also has ensured that political
parties have tilted towards the doctrine of economic
reforms with a human face and schemes such as
NREGA have taken shape and been implemented to
the benefit of the bottom of the pyramid.

Nevertheless, the democratic process needs to be

enhanced through decentralized decision making, and
increased cooperation between the Centre and the
State Governments to implement the policies and
reforms in agriculture.
The trade-off between food security and
‘development’

Manipur’s population

The Loktak hydropower project


Toubul 

The project is under the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation

(NHPC) Ltd

water levels 768.9 m throughout the year

80,000 hectares of arable land have been destroyed 

“At one time (the people of) Toubul had no dearth of
rice in their homes. But after the barrage came, almost
every house is compelled to buy rice from the market
for consumption,” says Gyaneshor.

Behind his statement is the hope that one day the water
will dry up and he will be able to sow paddy again.
When the 105-megawatt Loktak hydropower project was
first commissioned in 1983, it was in the hope that the
project would rapidly usher in an era of industrial,
commercial and agricultural prosperity in the otherwise
backward state.

But the question being asked today is whether the

disadvantages outweigh the advantages.