Freedom from hunger

Most global surveys and reports conclude that it is only a decentralised community-centred approach that can help end poverty and hunger. On the eve of World Food Day - the theme is 'a millennium without hunger' - eminent agricultural scientist DR. M. S. SWAMINATHAN looks at an innovative and affordable community oriented food and water security movement being launched in Bhopal tomorrow. Based on the principle that the State should provide an enabling environment for everyone to earn a livelihood, he says it is a crucial and welcome step in a democracy.

OCTOBER 16 is commemorated each year as "World Food Day". It was on October 16, 1945 that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations was established at Quebec, Canada, for the purpose of "contributing towards an expanding world economy and ensuring humanity's freedom from hunger". The permanent headquarters of the FAO was established at Rome in 1951. In 1985, the FAO Council, of which I was the then independent chairman, proposed that each year, October 16 be commemorated as "World Food Day" to remind the world that "food for all" is as yet an unachieved global and national responsibility. Each time, a focal theme is selected for indepth analysis and for launching special schemes related to the conquest of hunger. This year the focal theme is "A Millennium without Hunger".

A millennium is a long time frame for meaningful analysis. A hungry person needs food today and not tomorrow. The Roman philosopher Seneca said 2,000 years ago: "A hungry people listen not to reason, nor care for justice, nor are bent by any prayers". In 1996, the FAO had convened a World Food Summit in Rome to develop a hunger-elimination strategy. The summit declaration called for reducing the number of children, women and men going to bed hungry, from 800 million in 1996 to 400 million by 2015. Although the Cuban leader Fidel Castro pointed out at the summit that such a modest target is a shame on humankind, recent surveys indicate that progress in achieving even this goal is uneven and unsatisfactory. Is there then hope for achieving a hunger-free world? My answer is "YES".

I do not intend to discuss this issue in a time span of 1,000 years. What we should work for is a hunger-free India by August 2007, which marks the 60th anniversary of our independence. By pointing out that "God is bread to the hungry", Gandhiji emphasised at Noakhali in 1946 that freedom from hunger should be the primary goal of India. On this year's "World Food Day" (i.e. October 16, 2000), the Madhya Pradesh Government is launching an innovative, do-able and an affordable community centred food and water security movement. I would like to highlight some of the important features of this people's movement for freedom from hunger and thirst.

From patronage to partnership

Madhya Pradesh is well known for its pioneering work in empowering grassroots institutions through the revitalisation of community management structures and the creation of a participatory framework for action. A few years ago, the State took the initiative in universalising access to primary education by shifting to a community-centered Education Guarantee Scheme. The Community Food and Water Security initiative, being launched at Bhopal tomorrow, is based on the principle that the State should provide an enabling environment where everyone can earn his or her daily bread. Such an initiative involves a paradigm shift from an approach based on patronage to one of partnership. It involves the fusion of people power with political power. The term "beneficiary", attributed to the poor in Government vocabulary, gives way to the concept that the poor are partners and prime movers in the quest for an India where every child, woman and man will have an opportunity for a productive and healthy life.

The concept of food security has been undergoing a change during the past 40 years. Four decades ago, food security was defined in terms of adequate availability of food in the market. Later, the need for economic access to food was realised. More recently, the question of biological absorption of food in the body has started receiving attention. Availability is a function of production, while access is conditioned by purchasing power. Biological absorption is determined by the availability of safe drinking water, primary health care and environmental hygiene. Thus, non- food factors are as important for food security at the level of each individual as food factors.

Today, the most important cause of food insecurity is poverty. The poor spend over 70 per cent of their earnings on food. In India, nearly 70 per cent of population depends on agriculture and allied activities for their livelihoods. Hence, agricultural progress and agrarian prosperity are important not only for the adequate availability of food in the market, but also for generating the necessary purchasing power for access to balanced diets and clean drinking water.

During this year, major U.N. organisations like the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have published reports on poverty. The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) will soon be releasing a comprehensive report on poverty. The Copenhagen +5 meeting held in Geneva this year showed that progress in reducing poverty has been negligible since the "Poverty Summit" held in Copenhagen in 1995. The Beijing +5 Conference held a few months ago in New York, has once again underlined the importance of integrating the gender dimension in all anti-poverty and food security programmes, since the process of feminisation of poverty and hunger is continuing unabated. Most global surveys and reports have concluded that it is only community-centred and decentralised approaches that can help to end poverty and hunger, and that there is no universal quick-fix to this multi-faceted problem. Hence, if we wish to make progress, the approach should shift from the concept "think globally and act locally" to "think, plan and act locally and support nationally and globally".

The Madhya Pradesh initiative

According to the NSS Sample Survey on the Expenditure of 1993-94, 31.3 per cent of people in M.P. were below the poverty line. Female literacy was 28.8 per cent and the infant mortality rate (IMR) was 77 per cent in 1994. However, after the initiation of a Mission approach in August 1994 in the areas of universal primary education, watershed management, control of diarroheal diseases, elimination of iodine deficiency disorders, promotion of rural industries, fisheries development and sanitation, substantial progress is being made in improving the situation (The Madhya Pradesh Human Development Report, 1998). The key element in all these programmes is the shift from programmes based on patronage to those based on genuine partnership with rural and urban families.

The Community Centred Food and Water Security System has two major components. The first relates to the conservation and enhancement of natural resources, particularly land, water and bio-diversity. A majority of the rural population depends upon on-farm employment for its livelihood. The rate of growth in rural non-farm employment, which can provide opportunities for skilled jobs to the landless poor, is slow. An integrated strategy for fostering sustainable and skilled on-farm and off- farm employment is yet to emerge. This is the second major challenge, since only productivity enhancement based farming and improved post-harvest technology leading to value-addition to primary produce and the emergence of agro-processing and agri- business enterprises, can help to eradicate rural poverty and thereby end poverty-induced hunger.

A gram sabha led programme for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources, land and water will need local level institutional structures which can be operated by local women and men with the help of micro-credit. In addition to a community based land care movement, a village community could organise the following four banks.

Field gene bank

This is particularly important in tribal and rural areas rich in agro-bio-diversity. This will involve in situ on farm conservation of land races and local varieties of all major crops. Fortunately, there will soon be opportunities for recognising and rewarding community conservation efforts (mostly carried out by women) from the proposed national gene and bio- diversity funds. Provision for such funds has been incorporated in the Bio-diversity and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Bill, currently under consideration by Parliament.

Village seed bank

Non-availability of good quality seeds of the right varieties at the right time is often the most serious constraint in farming. Hybrid seeds are becoming important even in self-pollinated crops like rice. Therefore, village level seed banks will fill a felt need and, at the same time, provide remunerative livelihood opportunities.

Village water bank

There is great scope for community water harvesting, conservation and equitable distribution. Mr. Anil Agarwal of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi has been pointing out that even 100 mm rainfall falling on a one hectare plot can yield upto one million litres of water. Often our total rainfall figures are impressive but the distribution is highly skewed. Again the CSE has pointed out that our country receives most of its rainfall in just 100 hours, out of 8,760 hours in a year. Rain water harvesting and conservation are, therefore, essential for water security. Madhya Pradesh, as well as other parts of the country, have launched watershed programmes. Land and water care has to be institutionalised in every village. Where water availability is low, it will be preferable to grow low water- requiring but high value crops like pulses and oilseeds.

Grain bank

Community grain banks confer multiple benefits like the availability of good quality staple grains in a village, prevention of storage losses and a low transaction cost. Funds for such local level grain banks can come partially from the rural godown scheme of the Government.

In addition to the care of land and the conservation of water, genes, seeds and grains, a village community can undertake a systematic hunger-elimination strategy. Studies in Tamil Nadu, under a project sponsored by the State Government, have indicated that an effective community centred and controlled hunger- elimination programme can be implemented through concurrent attention to the following steps. The relative importance of these steps will obviously vary according to local socio-economic and socio-cultural factors. The precise action plan will have to be developed by local communities on the basis of generic guidelines.

* Who are the hungry?

The first step is to identify individuals in a village who suffer from endemic hunger (i.e., chronic under and malnutrition). This is best done by the gram sabha. Usually, men and women without any assets, and often with no education, fall under this category.

* Information Empowerment

There are numerous schemes of both the Central and State Governments intended for the poor. Quite often, the persons who ought to know about them, are ignorant about their existence. Wherever, information technology (IT) can be introduced, an entitlement database giving information on all anti-poverty programmes, disaggregated by gender, age, class and special categories of the under-privileged, can be made available. A household entitlements card can then be prepared from such a database by each family. Information on how to access the different schemes will also have to be provided.

* Protein-calorie deprivation

Undernutrition caused by poverty is the major cause of malnutrition in our country. Suitable arrangements will have to be made under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the proposed rural grain banks to reach the hungry. The average calorie consumption in M.P. is about 2,697 kilocalories per consumer. The State also records much higher levels of consumption of pulses, unlike other States. However, the calorie consumption of the lowest 10 per cent of the population seems to be only 1,894 kilocalories per consumer. It is this group which needs attention.

* Hidden hunger

Hidden hunger arising from micro-nutrient deficiencies is a widespread problem. Iron deficiency (anaemia) among pregnant women has serious consequences in terms of the growth of the foetus. This problem will have to be addressed through the introduction of an integrated nutrition system, consisting of the essential use of synthetic nutrients and supplements and the more extensive use of home and nutrition gardens consisting of appropriate horticultural remedies to the nutritional maladies of the village. Fortification of common salt with iodine and/ or iron is one of the most effective methods of providing these much needed nutrients. The food based approach to nutrition can be combined with feasible fortification procedures.

* Clean drinking water

This, together with environmental hygiene, influences the biological absorption of food in the body. Diarrhoea and intestinal infection further compound the problem of malnutrition. Hence, attention to safe drinking water and environmental hygiene will confer valuable nutritional benefits.

* Multiple livelihoods

Economic access to food can be improved only by creating multiple livelihood opportunities based on micro-enterprises supported by micro-credit. The Government should ensure that import and export policies in the farm sector help to strengthen, and not erode, the livelihood opportunities of the poor. The import and export policy document should be accompanied by a livelihood impact statement. Present policies are generally not conducive to the survival of microenterprises which either depend on export opportunities for their economic viability or will have to compete in prices with commodities produced by mass production technologies.

* Special attention to women and children

Almost every third baby is characterised by low birth weight, as a result of maternal and foetal undernutrition. This has serious consequences for the country's future, as such children tend to become handicapped in brain development. Hence, pregnant and nursing mothers belonging to families living in poverty need urgent nutritional support. With over 40 million tonnes of wheat and rice in Government godowns, it should not be difficult to allot three to four million tonnes of grains for a special programme designed to ensure the birth of healthy babies, which have a chance to participate actively in this knowledge century. Children for happiness should be the goal of the community- centered food and water security system. There is also need to attend to reproductive health and other steps needed to bring down IMR and maternal mortality rate.

* Population stabilisation

By enabling local communities to prepare socio-demographic charters for their respective areas, greater awareness can be generated about the population supporting capacity of their ecosystem. This will stimulate greater interest in the voluntary adoption of a small family norm.

To conclude, the fusion of people and political power resulting in both genuine grassroots democratic institutions and genuine gender equity will provide uncommon opportunities for achieving seemingly impossible tasks. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Digvijay Singh, plans to make the community food and water security system an integral part of the gram raj movement being launched early next year. The fast expanding economic, demographic, genetic and digital divides in the country can be bridged only if our country becomes a land of opportunity for every citizen to lead a healthy and productive life. Freedom from endemic hunger is the foundation on which such a land of opportunity can be built.

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