Affordable Food and Nutritional Security

Context

Report "State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" released by FAO and other UN agencies on the affordability of sufficient food.

Background

Recently released report "State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" revealed the shocking facts of present status of food affordability and food security across the nations.

Current estimates are that nearly 690 million people are hungry, covering 8.9 percent of the world population. The number of people affected by severe food insecurity, shows a similar upward trend. In 2019, close to 750 million or nearly one in ten people in the world were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity.

Situation became much worse due COVID-19 pandemic. Report mentions that hundreds of millions of people in India have moved into extreme poverty and facing severe hunger and undernourishment mostly those who work in the unorganized sector.

Hidden Costs

All diets have hidden costs, which must be understood to identify trade-offs and synergies in relation to other SDGs. Two hidden costs that are most critical relate to the health (SDG 3) and climate-related (SDG 13) consequences of our dietary choices and the food systems that support these.

Under current food consumption patterns, diet-related health costs linked to mortality and non-communicable diseases are projected to exceed USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2030. On the other hand, the diet-related social cost of greenhouse gas emissions associated with current dietary patterns is estimated to be more than USD 1.7 trillion per year by 2030.

It is unacceptable that, in a world that produces enough food to feed its entire population, more than 1.5 billion people cannot afford a diet that meets the required levels of essential nutrients and over 3 billion people cannot even afford the cheapest healthy diet. People without access to healthy diets live in all regions of the world thus we are facing a global problem that affects us all.

Classification of diets

• Basic Energy Sufficient Diet: Intake cheap food, just to fulfill required calorie.
• Nutrient Adequate Diet: Least cost, stipulated percentage of food to fulfill the required calorie and nutrients.
• Healthy Diet: Consumption of a diverse diet, from several food groups to meet the calorie norm and the macro- and micro-nutrient norm.

A key reason why millions of people around the world suffer from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition is because they cannot afford the cost of healthy diets. Costly and unaffordable healthy diets are associated with increasing food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, including stunting, wasting, overweight and obesity.

COVID-19 Impact on Food Affordability

Food supply disruptions and the lack of income due to the loss of livelihoods and remittances as a result of COVID-19 means that households across the globe are facing increased difficulties to access nutritious foods and are only making it even more difficult for the poorer and vulnerable populations to have access to healthy diets.

Preliminary projections based on the latest available global economic outlooks, suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may add an additional 83 to 132 million people to the ranks of the undernourished in 2020.

India's Efforts to fulfilling SDG 2 Targets- End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

As the country remains under the grip of a threat due to the growing numbers of coronavirus infections and deaths, the Government has approved the expansion of India’s Public Distribution System (PDS), touted to be the world’s largest food security scheme.

It involves enhanced quantities of essential food grains such as wheat and rice at highly subsidized prices to ensure continuous supply for the country’s poor. Under this, the government which already sells wheat for Rs. 2 per kg instead of the market price of Rs. 27 and rice at Rs. 3 per kg instead of Rs. 37 in the market, will now provide an additional 2 kilograms of food grains per person per month on subsidized rates.

With a large population living below the poverty line, the Government, under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) earlier provides 5 kg of food grains per person per month to eligible beneficiaries at highly subsidized rates. In present days there were widespread concerns about the food security of particularly the poorer sections of society. Hence, the decision to expand the quantities of food supplies during these unusual times makes perfect sense.

Way Forward

To increase the affordability of healthy diets, the cost of nutritious foods must come down. The cost drivers of these diets are seen throughout the food supply chain, within the food environment, and in the political economy that shapes trade, public expenditure and investment policies. Tackling these cost drivers will require large transformations in food systems with no one-size-fits-all solution and different trade-offs and synergies for countries.

Government need to rebalance the agricultural policies and incentives towards more nutrition-sensitive investment and policy actions all along the food supply chain to reduce food losses and enhance efficiencies at all stages. Nutrition-sensitive social protection policies will also be central for them to increase the purchasing power and affordability of healthy diets of the most vulnerable populations.

Connecting the Dots:

Question for Prelims

With reference to the Food and Agriculture Organization, consider the following statements:

1. It is the specialized agency of the United Nations.
2. NITI Aayog is its nodal agency in India.

Which of the statements given above is/ are correct ?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Question for Mains

Discuss the challenges of the affordable food and nutritional security in India amidst COVID-19 crisis.