food security in india research paper

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The Public Distribution System and Food Security in India

The Public Distribution System (PDS) of India plays a crucial role in reducing food insecurity by acting as a safety net by distributing essentials at a subsidised rate. While the PDS forms a cornerstone of government food and nutrition policy, India continues to be home to a large population of hungry and malnourished people. This review seeks to explore the functioning and efficiency of the PDS in achieving food and nutritional security in India. A comprehensive and systematic search using the key terms “food insecurity” OR “food security” AND “Public Distribution System” OR “PDS” OR “TPDS” AND “India” identified 23 articles which met the inclusion criteria. This review draws attention to the lack of published literature in areas of PDS and food security in India. The findings of the review emphasise the role of PDS in tackling hunger and malnutrition while highlighting its limited role in improving food security and childhood mortality due to operational inefficiencies. The PDS has the potential to act as a solution to food insecurity in India if the operational inefficiencies and environmental footprints are addressed by adequate policy reforms.

1. Introduction

Food insecurity is a situation of limited access to safe and healthy food [ 1 ], while food security refers to a situation when ‘all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’ [ 2 ]. Food insecurity can be understood as a continuum that progresses from uncertainty and anxiety about access to sufficient and appropriate food at the household level, to the extreme condition of hunger among children because they do not have enough to eat [ 3 ]. The experience of food insecurity has been found to be more severe in low-income communities, and for those who already experience poor health [ 4 , 5 ]. While factors contributing to poverty are important when considering food insecurity, it is not the only determinant. Other influences include policy, the distribution of food across populations, countries, and regions, unstable political conditions, and climate change induced adverse environmental conditions including severe droughts, lack of water, and soil degradation and erosion [ 1 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ].

2. Food Security in India

While overall global rates of food insecurity have decreased, there remains a large population of people experiencing food insecurity living in sub-Saharan African and South Asia. Countries most affected are typically characterised by high rates of disease and mortality associated with nutritional deficiencies coupled with high rates of poverty [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Despite rapid economic growth over the last two decades, many Indians have not benefited from the economic improvement, and continue to experience food insecurity and hunger, a high burden of malnutrition and undernourishment, and increasing obesity [ 13 ]; in 2016, over 190 million people were reported undernourished—the highest in any single country [ 14 ].

The reasons behind food insecurity and hunger in India are complex. Some research indicates that high rates of migration from rural to urban areas may play a role [ 15 ], as evidenced by the concentration of economic gains in urban areas, and the significant changes to the contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP [ 16 ]. The adverse effects of climate change are also an emerging contributor to food insecurity, with uneven weather patterns and increasing droughts to blame for uneven growth and production of food stock [ 5 ]. The most recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks India at the high end of the ‘serious’ category, as India continues to perform poorly in addressing hunger and malnutrition; currently one in three Indian children is stunted representing one third of the world’s stunted population, and one in five is wasted [ 17 ]. Many in India also experiences hidden hunger. Hidden hunger refers to a situation of chronic micronutrient deficiency, where a person might have access to sufficient calories, but lacks adequate micronutrients [ 18 ]. Hidden hunger can have lasting effects on health and wellbeing, and is especially problematic for children [ 19 ].

The government of India have adopted a range of policies over the last 60 years in an attempt to strengthen food security [ 5 ]. One of the key responses to food insecurity and hunger in India is the distribution of food grains through the government controlled Public Distribution System (PDS) [ 20 ]. Established after World War Two with an aim of increasing domestic agricultural production and improving food security, the PDS has evolved to the largest universal distribution system in the world for the supply of subsidised food grains [ 20 , 21 ]. Through a partnership between central and state governments, the food-safety net program aims to supplement essential household supplies including wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene. However, like other solutions to food scarcity, this program is not intended to provide all required household foods, but rather provide goods to supplement purchased or farmed goods [ 20 , 22 ]. To facilitate the distribution, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) acts a central nodal agency responsible for the procurement of food grains from farmers at a price that is often higher than market price [ 20 , 23 ]. The individual state governments then procure the food grains at a subsidised price known as the ‘central issue price’ from the FCI [ 20 , 24 ], these goods are then distributed to consumers via fair price or ration shops [ 20 ].

Amendments made to the PDS in June 1992 sought to improve coverage, especially to those living in disadvantaged, remote, or difficult to access areas [ 20 ]. The PDS was re-structured again in June 1997, to better target lower socio-economic areas [ 20 ]. This Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) aimed to provide over seven million tonnes of foods to 60 million households identified as below the poverty line [ 20 ]. This was followed by the introduction (in December 2000 and expansion in 2003–2006) of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (a Hindi term meaning “grain scheme for the downtrodden” [ 25 ]) scheme to provide highly subsidised foods to India’s poor. The scheme was an attempt to streamline the PDS to more efficiently target the poorest of the poor. This expansion of the PDS also included provision of food and goods to senior citizens and pensioners over 60 years, as well as widows and people affected by disease or infirmity [ 20 ].

These measures to strengthen the PDS received statutory backing through the introduction of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) [ 20 , 26 , 27 ]. Through the adoption of a life cycle approach, the importance of food security was emphasised by the NFSA. Through its implementation, the PDS achieved 75% coverage of the rural population, and around half of the urban population, monetary and nutritional support was mandated to pregnant and lactating women, and through the Integrated Child Development Services and Mid-Day Meal Schemes, children aged 6 months to 14 years were also covered [ 20 , 26 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. The NFSA marked an important milestone in that it awarded India’s food safety network a legal standing in accordance with the fundamental right to good health and nutritious food [ 20 , 26 , 31 ]. The NSFA also went some way to address the challenges faced by the TPDS in the form of corruption and diversion by enforcing more accountability on stakeholders while improving the transparency of its operation [ 21 , 28 ].

While a number of studies have identified the role of the PDS and NFSA in improving the food security of India, at least through the provision of calories [ 32 , 33 ], there is some concern relating to issues of miss-targeting, under-coverage, corruption and diversion affecting the implementation and operation of the food safety network in India [ 13 , 26 , 34 ]. Understanding these concerns is challenging, as while a number of non-government organisations and government bodies provide reports on the quantity of food distributed [ 35 ], and the number of people reached through the PDS [ 36 , 37 ], there is little analysis or evidence surrounding the broader issues related to food insecurity and the PDS. Furthermore, these reports rarely provide the method for data collection and/or analysis, making further interpretation difficult. This current review seeks to bring together the published literature on the PDS, in order to investigate the role it plays in addressing food insecurity in India. This review seeks to understand this large and expensive food distribution system and its role in one of the most populist, but inequitable countries. This is the first review of its kind of this program, with the objective of providing a clear overview of current knowledge in this area. By investigating the available peer-reviewed literature, this review seeks to understand the role of the PDS in any attempt to achieve food security in India.

Specifically, there are two main objectives to this review:

• To investigate the role of the PDS in delivering an efficient food-safety network in India;
• To investigate the barriers and enablers of the PDS.

3. Method and Approach

A systematic literature search was conducted in November 2018 to identify articles that investigated the role of the PDS in responding to food insecurity in India. Databases included; Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Complete, EconLit, Global Health, GreenFILE, Health Policy Reference Center, Legal Source, Scopus, and Medline. Search terms included “food insecurity” OR “food security” AND “Public Distribution System” OR “PDS” OR “TPDS” AND “India”. Limits restricted the search to those articles with full text published in English. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of the PDS in achieving food security over time, no temporal limitations were placed on articles.

Articles were included in this review if they (1) included food security or food insecurity as an exposure of interest; (2) investigated the role of the PDS in addressing food security; and (3) were peer-reviewed. Editorials or commentaries [ 34 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ] were excluded. Both authors reviewed all articles to identify relevancy. Articles were first screened by title and abstract based on the inclusion criteria. The full text of selected articles was obtained for assessment for final inclusion.

The database search utilising the key words identified 457 articles, of which 35 were duplicates. The titles and abstracts of the remaining 422 articles were reviewed to determine eligibility. Of these 334 articles were rejected based on the title or abstract, the full text of the remaining 88 articles was reviewed, leaving 23 that met the inclusion criteria ( Figure 1 ).

Flow chart showing article selection.

4.1. Study Characteristics

Reflecting recent interest in issues of the role of the PDS in addressing food insecurity, most articles ( n = 19) were published between 2010 and 2018. While some ( n = 11) articles reported on data collected by the National Sample Survey (NSS), India’s nation-wide household survey conducted on various socio-economic issues, only three articles reported on data that was collected at a national level [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. The remaining studies focused on single states or a group of states, the most included states were Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh (see Table 1 ).

Summary of included studies.

Four studies employed mixed methods [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. These studies employed a variety of methods including household interviews, and interviews with individual household members, surveys and interviews with PDS beneficiaries, and interviews with shop owners. Three studies were qualitative; Chopra, et al. [ 49 ] conducted interviews with 98 key informants including rice millers, production workers and shop owners; Dar [ 50 ] conducted interviews with 266 households in Kashmir to investigate a range of issues related to food access and entitlement; while Panigrahi and Pathak [ 51 ] conducted 50 interviews with above poverty line (APL) households and 50 interviews with below poverty line (BPL) households in Odisha to better understand their experiences with the PDS. All the remaining studies employed quantitative methods. Studies that focused on households ranged in participant household numbers from 50 [ 51 ] to more than half a million [ 44 ], while studies focused on individuals ranged in participant numbers from 98 [ 49 ] to 7124 [ 45 ].

4.2. Effectiveness of the PDS

Eight articles specifically examined the effectiveness of the PDS [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 53 , 54 , 56 , 58 ]. Each of these studies suggested that the PDS was not working effectively, with large amounts of food not reaching the intended recipients, and significant wastage resulting in high costs for limited benefits. For example, Dhanaraj and Gade [ 53 ] estimated that in Tamil Nadu, for every 5.43 kgs of PDS rice distributed by the government, only 1 kg reached those in need; the distribution was less efficient in the case of sugar, where only 1 kg for each 8.21 kgs distributed was consumed by those in need. Kumar [ 58 ], in a large investigation spanning 12 states, found that up to 100% of wheat was diverted in some cases, with diversion and provision of rice and wheat being different across all states. Khera [ 54 ], suggested that households cannot access their full entitlement to goods, and as a result are forced to purchase much of their food from the free market. Conversely, a positive trend was identified in the state of Bihar, where in 1993, 90% of food grains were diverted away from those in need; by 2001 this figure was down to just 12.5% of diverted food grain [ 56 ]. Similar findings were reported by Nair [ 61 ] in Kerala. In both states, this was attributed to better transparency and infrastructure.

4.3. Barriers and Enablers to the Efficient Working of the PDS

A number of barriers and enablers influencing the efficient working of the PDS were investigated across the studies included in this review. One key barrier to a more efficient system was the presence of illegal (or ghost) cards, with the finding that some households hold multiple cards [ 51 , 58 ]. The illegal cards were identified in several states, with Kumar [ 58 ] suggesting that there were approximately 230 million excess cards across the country in 2006.

Despite a number of significant, system-wide changes over recent years, high levels of corruption and leakage continue to plague the PDS [ 48 , 53 , 54 ]. Part of this leakage occurs at the level of the fair price shops, where Gupta and Singh [ 48 ] reported that some store owners exchanged the high quality goods provided from the government for distribution through the PDS with lesser quality goods from the general stores. Both Khera [ 54 ] and Dhanaraj and Gade [ 53 ] reported very high rates of corruption within the system, in some states this was up to 100% leakage or ‘diversion’ from the supply chain. Transparency, better governance, technology and the introduction of computerisation, along with use of global positioning system and distribution via doorstep delivery have been suggested as potential ways to address these issues [ 45 , 56 ].

Targeting errors, specifically the problems associated with targeting BPL and APL households were identified as areas where efficiencies could be made [ 45 , 52 , 58 ]. These studies suggest that while there was some effort to target the BPL households, the targeting has had a marginal effect on poor households [ 52 ]. There is also a suggestion from Kumar [ 58 ] that non-poor households have been included in the PDS to the detriment of the system. This is consistent with the work of Nair [ 61 ], who suggest that better targeting and the removal of APL households, that is, a removal of universal nature of the system, would have significant positive impacts on the operation and effects of the PDS.

4.4. Food Security in India—A Concept Map

In attempting to dissect the various areas that affect the effectiveness of the PDS and incorporate the involvement of multiple interrelated factors in addressing food security in India, a concept map was created ( Figure 2 ). In the conceptual representation of the factors that determine the national food security, blue arrows signify those factors that can be influenced by policy changes. The red arrows and negative polarity indicate elements that act as barriers while the green arrows and positive polarity specify variables that act as enablers.

A concept of the various determinants that affect effectiveness of the PDS and NFSA in addressing the food security in India. NFSA: National Food Security Act; PDS: Public Distribution System.

As shown in Figure 2 , there are multiple cross-links between the domains influencing food insecurity; the complex nature of the problem means that there is no one single overarching solution. One of the main responses to food insecurity in India, the PDS, is riddled with problems of targeting, diversion, and corruption [ 45 , 54 , 56 ]. As shown here, increased corruption decreases the accessibility which in turn affects the overall functioning of the PDS [ 54 , 56 ]. Despite the existence of multiple barriers, the PDS can be fortified if the enablers identified here are concentrated on. Efficient and well monitored administration was observed as a conclusive answer to not just problems with targeting but is also an effective solution for diversion [ 21 , 45 , 54 , 56 ]. Subsidised rates for commodities and an efficient transport system can also be drivers of success [ 21 , 45 ], as can an efficient food chain system that fosters greater inclusivity while reducing transaction costs [ 21 , 45 ]. Finally, increased wages in the agricultural sector were also recognised as a facilitating factor for the functioning of the PDS and agriculture in India [ 45 , 64 ].

The NFSA also plays a key role in responding to food insecurity. Having been a positive reinforcement for the PDS, it has the capacity to boost agriculture and reduce hunger and malnutrition by enhancing economic growth [ 65 ]. However, the NFSA fails to support environmental sustainability which is vital for the economy and long-term sustenance of the agricultural sector [ 64 , 65 ]. As shown in Figure 2 , the NFSA is a double-edged sword which requires careful monitoring and modifications in order to achieve its full potential [ 65 ].

While each determinant present in the concept map is vital for safeguarding food security in India, the key driver that influences most of the factors is policy change. Policy amendments have the capacity to establish food security within the country by regulating the barriers and enablers that affect the operational efficiency of the PDS [ 21 , 45 , 54 , 56 ]. Positive steps towards the eradication of hunger, malnutrition, childhood mortality, and environmental sustainability can be attained with effective policies [ 44 , 66 ]. The economy of a country, including the pricing strategies, is also influenced by policy reforms and thus affects subsidised rates which are vital for the effective penetration of the PDS [ 21 ]. The concept map thus helps to understand that policy changes coupled with reforms in PDS and NFSA are crucial for India to achieve food security for its inhabitants.

5. Discussion

This review examined 23 studies to investigate the role of the PDS in addressing food insecurity in India. The key finding of this review is that, while the PDS has been strengthened over recent years, particularly through efforts to target those most in need, more work remains, particularly around transparency and accountability [ 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 ].

5.1. Failure of PDS

The PDS is the largest food distribution network in the world [ 20 , 71 , 72 ], and its effective and efficient functioning is an essential component of any response to food insecurity. However, inefficiencies, miss-targeting, and corruption mean that there remain a large number of food insecure people in India. This review has found two key reasons for the failure of PDS in addressing food security: (1) problems with targeting; and (2) problems of diversion and corruption.

5.1.1. Targeting

In 1997, the PDS was restructured, shifting from a universal system, where all Indians, in principle, were eligible to receive a food subsidy, to a system that targeted those most in need. This targeting had two main purposes: (1) to bring down the ever increasing costs of the system; and (2) to provide more food to those in need [ 73 ]. Under this change BPL households continued to receive subsidised foods, while subsidies for APL households were phased out [ 54 ]. BPL households were identified via household income, compared against an absolute income line. However, households with any assets (such as televisions, fans, two or four wheeled vehicles, or land) were classified as APL under this change, and despite owning such goods, many of these APL households were food insecure, and with the removal of rations were unable to purchase sufficient goods [ 21 , 45 , 74 ]. The problem of targeting is compounded by the lack of good quality regular data; no regular official estimates of the actual income of households are conducted, with many households BPL not classified as such, and some BPL households not holding ration cards [ 73 ]. These problems with targeting limit the usefulness of the PDS in acting as an effective food safety network [ 58 , 75 ], and are further exacerbated by the existence of illegal cards [ 76 ].

5.1.2. Diversion and Corruption

Leakage and diversion continue to limit the efficiency of the PDS [ 77 ]. Whole India data have shown mixed results over the past two decades, with figures from 2007–2008 showing a 44 percent diversion rate for grain, down from 55 percent three years earlier. While these figures reflect a decrease in losses from the system, there remains a significant amount of food displaced in the system [ 78 ]. These diversions of commodities, intended for the PDS, into the general market result in shortages for those who rely on subsidised rations [ 73 ]. Targeting has not resolved problems with leakage and diversion, some suggest that it has in fact made it worse [ 79 ]. Dual pricing introduced through the TPDS is seen by some as an incentive for stakeholders to divert commodities into the open market where they can command a higher price [ 80 ]. These diversions and leakages coupled with the inefficiency in monitoring partly due to the decentralised operation increase the likelihood of ingrained, and ongoing corruption [ 80 ].

5.2. Mechanisms to Strengthen the PDS

While there are many challenges with the working of the PDS, it has the potential to play an important role in addressing food security in India. This review has identified two mechanisms to reinforce efficiency into the functioning of the PDS: (1) the National Food Security Act, 2013; and (2) tracking and electronic governance.

5.2.1. The National Food Security Act

The introduction of the NFSA in 2013 was a constructive step towards strengthening the PDS. Representing a shift from a traditional welfare approach, to an approach underpinned by the acceptance of the human right to food and adequate nutrition, the NFSA formalises the aim of the PDS to provide subsidised food grains to over 800 million people, or approximately two thirds of India’s population. The broad nature of the NSFA allowed for a number of existing food security measures to be entered into law. The NSFA is underpinned by a life cycle approach, that is, it considers the nutritional requirements of the population across all age groups [ 81 ], and it includes both universal aspects, available to all Indians, such as the Midday Meal Scheme and the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme, while retaining PDS targeting. Under the NFSA, 75 percent of the rural and 50 percent of the urban population are entitled to 5 kg food grains per month at Rs 3, Rs 2, and Rs 1 for a kg of rice, wheat, and millet, respectively (100 Rupees (Rs) is equal to 1.39 USD).

In addition to the formalisation of a number of pre-existing entitlements, the NFSA aimed to reinforce the role of the states in the coordination of the PDS, as well as improving transparency and accountability [ 26 ]. With empowerment of women and the vulnerable sections of society among the key objectives of the NFSA, monitoring measures to address issues of corruption, diversion and leakages through better partnerships between the central and state governments are also highlighted [ 26 , 28 ].

While the NFSA has every potential to be a “game changer” to strengthen the agricultural industry and the economy of the country, the ability of the NFSA to have a sustained effect on nutrition is questionable [ 10 , 65 ]. Problems with identifying those households in need have not been resolved by the NSFA, and there remains problems with illegal cards [ 82 ]. Finally, the expanding need of food grain associated with the NFSA may be detrimental to the environmental sustainability as it demands increased fertiliser, water, and land use, which if unchecked, may lead to land, air, and water pollution [ 65 ].

5.2.2. Tracking and Electronic Governance

The role of information and communications technology has the potential to be a critical element of success if endorsed and implemented. With the dissemination of digitalisation into the public sector, computerisation can improve the operation of PDS reducing some leakage [ 83 ]. It can aid in the identification of beneficiaries and reduce inclusion and exclusion errors associated with targeting while increasing transparency and accountability [ 56 ]. Other technology currently trialed in some areas is the application of global positioning system in tracking the food supply chain. This approach works by ensuring that goods are scanned in and out at all points of the supply chain, and has so far shown a reduction in corruption, leakages, and diversion [ 57 , 76 ], and has also shown that goods provided to consumers are higher after the implementation of the system [ 84 ].

5.2.3. Food Insecurity in India in a Global Context

India is not alone in seeking a range of measures to combat food insecurity. China, like India has a growing economy and a large population. Despite economic growth in China over recent years, like India, China is home to one of the largest populations of hungry people [ 85 ]. While India relies on the PDS to mitigate food insecurity, China has focused significant attention on programs that seek to redistribute wealth, and non-food based social security. China is also experiencing a shift in diet patterns, a shift that is having an impact on agricultural production and on the use of land [ 86 ]. Likewise, the food insecurity situation in Brazil is undergoing a transformation in the agricultural sector. Like the populations in China and India, the people of Brazil have an increasingly global diet, forcing a change in agricultural patterns. This transition, however, is being supported by the government, alongside cash transfers and school meal programs as an avenue to address increasing food insecurity, with initial indications suggesting some success [ 87 , 88 ]. Given the very large populations in need in these countries, there is unlikely to be a single solution that will work within or across countries. What is important going forward, is that complete and comprehensive data are collected to effectively evaluate these programs.

5.3. Limitations

Several limitations within the literature studied needs to be acknowledged. The limited information on recruitment, data collection, and analysis across the 23 articles included in the review makes comparison difficult and makes any attempt at meta-analysis impossible. The use of secondary data by most of the studies can also affect the quality of the results as it could be outdated or inaccurate among many other pitfalls leading to measurement errors or bias [ 21 , 44 , 54 , 56 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 89 ].

While the authors have attempted to ensure a comprehensive search strategy and methodology for undertaking the literature review, additional articles may have been missed. The complexity of the research topic including the multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional nature of food security has also posed limitations on the literature review. There is also a possibility of relevant grey literature, or literature not available to the public having been missed. Publications in languages other than English may also have been missed.

6. Conclusions

The findings of the review suggest a failure at the policy level. The PDS is a cornerstone of government policy responding to nutrition and food security. However, it is riddled with inefficiencies that decrease its capacity to effectively distribute food to those in need. One positive response has been the implementation of the NFSA in 2013, which has strengthened the PDS by providing statutory backing. As evidenced by the review, policy reforms targeted at improving the operational efficiencies and sustainability aspect of the PDS and NFSA are vital for its success. The PDS may not be able to eliminate the issue of malnutrition and childhood morbidity or mortality in India, but it can reduce the levels of hunger in India if implemented effectively. Integrating the PDS with other interventions including those that will increase transparency and accountability may increase its potential to realise every citizen’s right to nutritious food while propagating good health.

The review is the first of its kind to examine the effectiveness of PDS in addressing food insecurity in India. The study also observed the lack of published research around PDS, NFSA and food security in India. This raises the possibility of missing out on existing interventions that have the potential to improve the food distribution network in India. Overall, the review brings out the need for more dedicated research in the field of food security in India which is vital for identifying best practice solutions that will improve the efficacy and operation of the PDS.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, N.A.G. and F.H.M.; Data curation, N.A.G. and F.H.M.; Formal analysis, N.A.G. and F.H.M.; Investigation, N.A.G. and F.H.M.; Methodology, N.A.G.and F.H.M.; Project administration, N.A.G.and F.H.M; Supervision, F.H.M.; Writing–original draft, N.A.G. and F.HM.; Writing–review, editing, N.A.G. and F.H.M.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Sustainable food security in India—Domestic production and macronutrient availability

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Contributed equally to this work with: David Reay, Peter Higgins

Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

• Hannah Ritchie, 
• David Reay, 
• Peter Higgins

• Published: March 23, 2018
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766
• Reader Comments

India has been perceived as a development enigma: Recent rates of economic growth have not been matched by similar rates in health and nutritional improvements. To meet the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) of achieving zero hunger by 2030, India faces a substantial challenge in meeting basic nutritional needs in addition to addressing population, environmental and dietary pressures. Here we have mapped—for the first time—the Indian food system from crop production to household-level availability across three key macronutrients categories of ‘calories’, ‘digestible protein’ and ‘fat’. To better understand the potential of reduced food chain losses and improved crop yields to close future food deficits, scenario analysis was conducted to 2030 and 2050. Under India’s current self-sufficiency model, our analysis indicates severe shortfalls in availability of all macronutrients across a large proportion (>60%) of the Indian population. The extent of projected shortfalls continues to grow such that, even in ambitious waste reduction and yield scenarios, enhanced domestic production alone will be inadequate in closing the nutrition supply gap. We suggest that to meet SDG2 India will need to take a combined approach of optimising domestic production and increasing its participation in global trade.

Citation: Ritchie H, Reay D, Higgins P (2018) Sustainable food security in India—Domestic production and macronutrient availability. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0193766. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766

Editor: David A. Lightfoot, College of Agricultural Sciences, UNITED STATES

Received: September 13, 2017; Accepted: February 17, 2018; Published: March 23, 2018

Copyright: © 2018 Ritchie et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files, or can be accessed at the UN FAO databases through the following URL: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home .

Funding: The authors received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as part of its E3 DTP programme.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) committed to achieving zero hunger by 2030 as the second of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). An important element of this goal is to end all forms of malnutrition, including agreed targets on childhood stunting and wasting. This represents an important progression beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), where food security was defined and measured solely on the basis of basic energy requirements (caloric intake), and prevalence of underweight children [ 1 ]. This new commitment has significant implications for the focus of research and policy decisions; it requires a broadening of scope beyond the traditional analysis of energy intake, and inclusion of all nutrients necessary for adequate nourishment.

India offers a potentially unique example in the development of models and mechanisms by which nutritional needs can be addressed sustainably. In 2016, India ranked 97 out of 118 on the Global Hunger Index (GHI)—this rates nations’ nutritional status based on indicators of undernourishment, child wasting, stunting and mortality [ 2 ]. Despite ranking above some of the world’s poorest nations, India’s reduction in malnourishment has been slow relative to its recent strong economic growth and puts it behind poorer neighbouring countries [ 3 ]; India has fallen from 80 th to 97 th since 2000.

India’s nutritional problems are extensive. In 2016, 38.7% of children under five were defined as ‘stunted’ (of below average height) [ 2 ], a strong indicator of chronic malnourishment in children and pregnant women, and a largely irreversible condition leading to reduced physical and mental development [ 4 ]. Malnourishment within the adult population is also severe, with approximately 15% of the total population defined as malnourished. The issue of malnutrition in India is complex, and determined by a combination of dietary intake and diversity, disease burden (intensified by poor sanitation and hygiene standards), and female empowerment and education [ 5 ]. Improvements in dietary intake alone will therefore by insufficient to eliminate malnutrition, however it forms an integral component alongside progress in other social and health indicators—particularly sanitation. Quantification of India’s micronutrient and amino acid profiles, and recommendations for addressing these deficiencies have been completed as a follow-up paper (Ritchie et al. in submission) to provide a more holistic overview of its nutritional position.

India’s nutritional and health challenges are likely to be compounded in the coming decades through population growth and resource pressures. Its current population of 1.26 billion is projected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2050, overtaking China as the world’s most populous nation [ 6 ]. India has also been highlighted as one of the most risk-prone nations for climate change impacts, water scarcity, and declining soil fertility through land degradation [ 7 ].

A number of studies have focused specifically on Indian food intake and malnutrition issues from survey assessments at the household level [ 8 ]. The emphasis within India’s agricultural policy and assessment of its success has traditionally been on energy (caloric) intake [ 9 ]. Since the Green Revolution in the 1970s, agricultural policies have been oriented towards a rapid increase in the production of high-yielding cereal crops with a focus to meet the basic calorific needs of a growing population. India has attempted to reach self-sufficiency predominantly through political and investment orientation towards wheat and rice varieties [ 10 ]. While production of staple crops has increased significantly, India’s agricultural policy focus on cereal production raises a key challenge in simultaneously meeting nutritional needs in caloric, high-quality protein and fat intakes. Few studies have addressed the system-wide balance between supply and demand of the three key macronutrients—calories, protein and fat; nor have they assessed the importance of protein quality through digestibility and amino acid scoring. This assessment is particularly significant for India as a result of its extensive and complex malnutrition issues. Whether India is capable of meeting these macronutrient needs in the future through domestic production improvements alone is of prime importance for study, as a result of its growing population and policy orientation towards self-sufficiency.

Improving the availability and access to food at the consumer level requires an understanding of how food is created and lost through its various pathways across the full agricultural supply chain. Here, for the first time, we have attempted to capture this high-level outlook from crop harvesting to residual food availability across the three macronutrient categories.

Mapping the current Indian food system

The Indian food system was mapped from crop production through to per capita food supply using FAO Food Balance Sheets (FBS) from its FAOstats databases [ 11 ]. FBS provide quantitative data (by mass) on production of food items and primary commodities, and their utilisations throughout the food supply chain. Such data are available at national, regional and global levels. Food Balance Sheet data for 2011 have been used, these being from the latest full data-set available. Some aspects of FBS data are available for the years 2012 and 2013, however such data are not complete across all commodities and value chain stages at the time of writing.

Food Balance Sheets provide mass quantities across the following stages of the supply chain: crop production, exports, imports, stock variation, re-sown produce, animal feed, other non-food uses, and food supplied (as kg per capita per year). Data on all key food items and commodities across all food groups (cereals; roots and tubers; oilseeds and pulses; fruit and vegetables; fish and seafood; and meat and dairy) are included within these balances.

While there are uncertainties in FAO data (see Supplementary Information for further discussion on FAO data limitations), FBS provide the only complete dataset available for full commodity chain analysis. Therefore, while not perfect, they provide an invaluable high-level outlook of relative contribution of each stage in the food production and distribution system. As shown in this study (see Results section below), a top-down model using FAO FBS has a discrepancy of <10% with national nutrition survey results at the household level.

FBS do not provide food loss and waste figures by stage in the supply chain. To maintain consistency with FAO literature, food loss figures have therefore been calculated based on South Asian regional percentages within FAO publications [ 12 ]. These percentage figures break food losses down across seven commodity groups and five supply chain stages (agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution and consumption). The applied percentage values by commodity type and supply chain stage are provided in S1 Table .

In order to calculate the total nutritional value at each supply chain stage, commodity mass quantities were multiplied by FAO macronutrient nutritional factors [ 11 ]. In this analysis, energy content (kilocalories), protein, and fat supply were analysed. Protein quality is a key concern for India in particular as a result of its largely grain-based diet, with grains tending to have poorer digestibility and amino acid (AA) profiles than animal-based products and plant-based legume alternatives [ 13 ]. To best quantify limitations in protein quality in the Indian diet, protein intakes have therefore been corrected for digestibility using FAO digestibility values [ 14 ].

For consistency, and to provide a better understanding of the food system down to the individual supply level, all metrics have been normalised to average per person per day (pppd) availability using UN population figures and prospects data [ 6 ]. Whilst this provides an average per capita availability value, it does not account for variability in actual macronutrient supply within the population. To help adjust for this, we have also estimated the assumed distribution of supply of each macronutrient using the FAO’s preferred log-normal distribution and India-specific coefficient variation (CV) factor of 0.26 [ 15 ]. Whilst we recognise that food requirements vary between demographics based on age, gender and activity levels, the normalisation of food units to average per capita supply levels is essential in providing relatable measures of food losses within the system, and its measure relative to demographically-weighted average nutritional requirements (as described below) is appropriate in providing an estimation of the risk of malnourishment.

Estimated macronutrient supply has then been compared to recommended intake values. The FAO defines the “Average Daily Energy Requirement” (ADER)—for India’s demographic specifically—as 2269kcal pppd; ADER is defined as the average caloric intake necessary to maintain a healthy weight based on the demographics, occupation, and activity levels of any given population [ 16 ]. Protein requirements can vary between similar individuals; recommended daily amounts (RDA) are therefore typically given as two standard deviations (SD) above the average requirement to provide a safety margin, which some individuals would be at risk of falling below. The World Health Organization (WHO) define a ‘safe’ (recommended) intake in adults of 0.83 grams per kilogram per day (g/kg/d) of body mass for proteins with a digestibility score of 1.0 [ 17 ]. The average vegetarian Indian diet contains lower intakes of animal-based complete proteins; the Indian Institute of Nutrition therefore recommends a higher intake of 1 g/kg/d of total protein for Indians to ensure requirements of high-quality protein are met [ 18 ]. This is equivalent to 55 and 60 grams of protein per day in average adult females and males, respectively based on mean body weight [ 19 ]. Since our analysis attempts to correct for protein digestibility, WHO’s lower safe intake of 0.83g/kg/d would reduce to an equivalent of 50 grams of high-quality protein per day for an average 60 kilogram individual. Consequently in this study we have adopted this RDA value of 50 gpppd.

Dietary fat intake plays a key dietary role in the absorption of essential micronutrients. Several vital vitamins, including vitamin A, D, E and K are fat-soluble—insufficient intake can therefore result in poor micronutrient absorption and utilisation [ 20 ]. Inadequate fat intake can therefore exacerbate the widespread ‘hidden hunger’ (micronutrient deficiency) challenge in India [ 21 ] through poor nutrient absorption. However, daily requirements for fatty acids are less straightforward to determine, relative to energy or protein—there is no widely-agreed figure for total fat requirements for adequate nutrition [ 22 ]. The resolution of food balance sheet data does not allow us to adequately quantity the availability to the level of specific fatty acids. As a result, although we have mapped pathways of total fat availability through the food system in a similar manner to energy and protein, we have not here attempted to quantity the prevalence of potential insufficiency at the household level.

Mapping potential near-term and long-term scenarios

Our initial analysis identified two mechanisms potentially crucial in increasing food availability at the household level: reduction of harvesting, postharvest and distribution losses; and improvements in crop yields. Medium-term (through to 2030) and long-term (2050) scenarios have therefore been mapped based on use of these mechanisms. It should be noted that these scenarios are focused on domestic supply-side measures to enhance food availability as opposed to demand drivers related to consumer preferences. A summary of assumptions used in each scenario in this analysis is provided in S2 Table .

A 2030 baseline scenario (assuming yields stagnate and population growth continues in line with UN projections) and three alternative scenarios to 2030 were analysed:

Scenario 1 (halving food supply chain losses): it was assumed that a significant shift in post-harvest management practices, appropriate refrigeration, and efficient distribution allowed for a halving of food loss percentages at the production, postharvest, processing and distribution stages of the supply chain. This would make its relative losses more in line with those of more developed nations [ 12 ]. In this scenario consumption (household) waste was assumed to remain constant.

Scenario 2 (achieving 50% of attainable yield (AY) across all key crops): the halving of food chain losses in scenario 1 was assumed. In addition, it was assumed that all key crops managed to achieve 50% AY through better agricultural management, irrigation and fertiliser practices. ‘Attainable yield’ is defined as the yield achieved with best management practices including pest, nutrient (i.e. nutrients are not limiting) and water management.

Scenario 3 (achieving 75% AY across all key crops): assumptions as in scenario 2 except an attainment of 75%, rather than 50% AY, has been assumed through crop yield improvements.

Long-term (through to 2050) scenarios were as follows:

Scenario 1 (halving food supply chain losses): the same assumption of halving food loss percentages at the production, postharvest, processing and distribution stages of the supply chain was applied in this scenario. This will require a significant shift in post-harvest management practices, appropriate refrigeration, and efficient distribution, hence 50% reduction represents a magnitude which is more likely to be achieved in this long-term scenario than in the near-term.

Scenario 2 (achieving 75% AY across all key crops): the same assumption of a closure of the yield gap to 75% AY across all crop types, as in the near-term scenario 3, was applied.

Scenario 3 (achieving 90% AY across all key crops): it was assumed that all crop types managed to achieve closure of the yield gap to 90% AY.

To correct for 2030 and 2050 population estimates, all metrics were re-normalised to ‘per person per day’ (pppd) based on a projected Indian population estimate from UN prospects medium fertility scenarios [ 6 ].

To best demonstrate the food production potential of current agricultural support mechanisms, such as governmental policy and subsidy (which largely determine crop choices), the relative allocation of crop production was assumed constant. It was also assumed that production increases were achieved through agricultural intensification alone; this assumption was based on FAOstats data which has shown no increase in agricultural land area over the past decade, indicating a stagnation in agricultural extensification ( http://faostat.fao.org/beta/en/#home ).

Crop yield increases were derived based on closure of current farm yields (FY) to reported attainable yields (AY). FY is defined as the average on-farm yield achieved by farmers within a given region, and AY is defined as the economically attainable (optimal) yield which could be achieved if best practices in water and pest management, fertiliser application and technologies are utilised in non-nutrient limiting conditions). Estimates of crop yield improvements were based on given percentage realisations of maximum attainable yields (AY) attained from published Indian crop-specific figures [ 23 ]. These data are available across all key crop types. Baseline and AY values are provided in S3 Table .

Significant improvements in yield would predominantly be achieved through improved nutrient and water management. In the present study, scenarios were mapped based on achievement of 50% and 75% AY in the near-term. Fifty percent AY should be technically feasible by 2030: many crops have already reached these values, and those which have yet to do so, typically fall short by 3–5% (see S3 Table for baseline, and AY values). Attainment of 75% AY would be highly ambitious in the near-term, representing an increase of >20% in yield. However, 75% AY and higher may be feasible in the long-term if significant investment in agricultural management and best practice were to be realised in this sector.

Our scenarios to 2050 are therefore modelled on the basis of closure of the yield gap to 75% and 90% AY. To assess whether these estimates were realistic, necessary growth rates were cross-checked based on historical yield growth rates in India. Discussion on this comparison and the suitability of attainable yield valuables utilised in this study are available in the Supplementary Discussion.

Climate change impacts on crop yields remain highly uncertain; the importance of temperature thresholds in overall crop tolerance makes yield impacts highly dependent on GHG emission scenarios. This makes it challenging to accurately quantify 2050 climate impacts. As such, we applied average percentage changes in yields of Indian staple crops based on literature review [ 24 ] of field-based observations and climate model results. The studies utilised presented results for a doubling of atmospheric CO 2 from pre-industrial levels. This approximates to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario for 2050 [ 25 ]. The yield-climate factors applied in this analysis are provided in S4 Table .

It is projected that, through economic growth and shifts in dietary preferences, meat and dairy demand in India will continue to increase through to 2050. It has been assumed that per capita demand in 2050 is in line with FAO projections; this represents an increase in meat from 3.1kg per person per year (2007) to 18.3kg in 2050, and an increase in milk and dairy from 67kg to 110kg per person per year [ 26 ]. We here assume that this increase in livestock production has been met through increased production of crop-based animal feed rather than pasture. The change in macronutrient demand for animal feed was calculated based on energy and protein conversion efficiency factors for dominant livestock types (beef cattle, dairy cattle, ruminants and poultry) [ 27 ].

Our analysis assumes that the per person allocation of crops for resowing and non-food uses, and the relative allocation of land for respective crop selection, is the same as in the initial baseline (2011) analysis.

Current food system pathways

The pathways of macronutrients from crop production to residual food availability are shown for calories, digestible protein and fat in Fig 1A–1C . Across all macronutrients, the relative magnitude of exports, imports and stock variation is small, and approximately balance as inputs and outputs to the food system. This result is in line with India’s orientation towards meeting food demand through self-sufficiency agricultural policies [ 28 , 29 ]. This study’s scenarios are therefore designed to assess whether this same emphasis on self-sufficiency in food supply through to 2050 could be achieved through waste reduction and crop yield improvements alone.

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Food pathways in (a) calories; (b) digestible protein; and (c) fat from crop production to residual food availability, normalised to average per capita levels assuming equal distribution. Red bars (negative numbers) indicate food system losses; blue bars indicate system inputs; green bars indicate meat and dairy production; and grey bars indicate macronutrient availability at intermediate stages of the chain.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.g001

In 2011, India produced 3159kcal, 72g of digestible protein, and 86g of fat per person per day (pppd) ( Fig 1A–1C ). Across the system, this resulted in average food availability of 2039kcal, 48g digestible protein, and 49g fat pppd; this represents a loss across the food supply system of 35%, 33%, and 43% in calories, digestible protein, and fat respectively.

Our top-down supply model has been cross-checked against India’s National Sample Survey (NSS) data—this reports nutritional intakes bi-annually measured through national household surveys. In its 68 th Round (2011–12) report, the NSS reported average daily intakes of 2206kcal and 2233kcal in urban and rural areas, respectively; 60g of protein in both demographics; and 58g (urban) and 46g (rural) of fat [ 30 ]. Our top-down analysis therefore suggests slightly lower caloric availability than NSS intake figures (but with a discrepancy of <10%); and strong correlation regarding fat intake. Since NSS data reports total protein and take no account of quality or digestibility, our results of digestible protein are not directly comparable. However, with digestibility scores removed, our analysis suggests a total average protein availability of 57g pppd—within 5% of NSS intake results.

Despite the acknowledged uncertainties in FAO FBS datasets (see Supplementary discussion), the strong correlation (within 5–10%) between our top-down supply model and reported household intakes (bottom-up approach) gives confidence in the use of FBS data for high-level food chain analyses such as attempted here.

The largest sources of loss identified in the Indian food system for calories and protein lie in the agricultural production and post-harvest waste stages of the chain, with lower but significant losses in processing and distribution. Consumption-phase losses are comparatively small. Higher losses of fat occur predominantly due to the allocation of oilseed crops for non-food uses; this is in contrast to digestible protein where losses to competing non-food uses are negligible.

In contrast to the average global food supply system, the conversion of crop-based animal feed to meat and dairy produce in India appears comparatively efficient, with an input-output ratio close to one for calories and protein, and an apparent small production of fats [ 31 ]. It is one of the few agricultural systems in the world where the majority of livestock feed demand is met through crop residues, byproducts and pasture lands—its lactovegetarian preferences tend to favour pasture-fed dairy cattle over grain-fed livestock such as poultry (ibid).

Average per capita supply across all macronutrients falls below average per capita minimum requirements. The magnitude of this issue in India emerges via the population-intake distributions. With extension of average macronutrient availability to availability across the population distribution (using a log-normal distribution with CV of 0.26), 66% (826 million) and 56% (703 million) of the population are at risk of falling below recommended energy and protein requirements, respectively.

Potential future pathways

Scenario results for 2030..

Results from scenario analyses for potential food waste reduction and crop yield improvements are summarised in Table 1 . Note that we have assumed no change in income/dietary inequalities, hence the CV in distribution has remained constant.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.t001

Under all scenarios, waste or yield improvements fail to keep pace with population growth through to 2030; average per capita caloric, digestible protein and fat availability all fall below the 2011 baseline. Under current levels of dietary inequality, distribution of availability highlights even greater potential malnourishment. The majority (>75%) of the population are at risk of falling below requirements in energy and protein availability in all scenarios. This represents severe malnutrition across India in 2030, even in the case of significant and ambitious yield and efficiency improvements.

Under these scenarios, India would fall far short of reaching the SDG2 target of Zero Hunger by 2030.

Scenario results for 2050.

India’s anticipated population growth, in addition to potential impacts of climate change on crop yields, could have severe implications on household macronutrient supply by 2050. Our 2050 baseline scenario demonstrates these potential impacts, assuming gains in crop yields were to stagnate at current levels. The full supply chain pathways are shown in Fig 2A–2C . Even at the top level of the supply chain (crop production phase) mean provision per person would fall below average requirements in all macronutrients (2198kcal, 49g protein, and 60g fat per person). Although reducing food system losses plays an important role in improving availability at the household level, this result highlights the necessity of also achieving substantial crop yield improvements at the top of the supply chain.

Food pathways in (a) calories; (b) digestible protein; and (c) fat from crop production to residual food availability, normalised to average per capita levels assuming equal distribution under 2050 baseline conditions. Red bars (negative numbers) indicate food system losses; blue bars indicate system inputs; green bars indicate meat and dairy production; and grey bars indicate macronutrient availability at intermediate stages of the chain.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.g002

How these variables impact on availability at the household level in our 2050 baseline, and three scenarios is detailed in Table 2 , with baseline distributions provided in Supplementary Fig 1A–1C . As shown, even in the case of scenario 1 (halving of supply chain loss and waste), and scenario 2 (increase to 75% of AY), in 2050 greater than 80% of the population would potentially fall below average requirements in energy and protein. Only in the case of significant yield increases to 90% AY (scenario 3) would projected levels of malnourishment approach current levels. This would still leave 62% and 56% of the population at risk of falling below recommended caloric and protein requirements, respectively.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.t002

Our analysis utilised a framework for evaluation of the whole food system (from crop production through to residual food availability) by normalising to consistent and relatively simplistic metrics (per person per day). This holistic approach is critical for identifying levers within the food system which can be targeted for improvements in food security and efficiency of supply. The basic framework is replicable and could therefore be adapted for analysis of any dietary component (for example, micronutrients or amino acids and at a range of scales (global, regional, or national). This allows for similar analyses to be carried out for any nation, potentially allowing for improved understanding of hotspots in the food system and opportunities for improved efficiency. As such, it could then allow national food strategies to focus on components which are likely to maximise improvements.

Overall, our analyses indicate weaknesses in India’s current reliance on domestic food production. Further calculation, based on FAO FBS, make this explicit: in 2011 India’s population was 17.8% of the global total, yet produced only 10.8%, 9%, and 11.8% of the world’s total calories, digestible protein and fat respectively. Based on calculations using FAOstats global crop production data and nutritional composition factors, in 2011 world crop production totalled 1.34x10 16 kcal; 3.62x10 14 g digestible protein; and 3.33x10 14 g fat. 2011 Indian production amounted to 1.44x10 15 kcal; 3.27x10 13 g digestible protein; and 3.93x10 13 g fat. Even in a highly efficient food system, self-sufficiency is impossible to achieve based on such production levels and the need to provide sufficient nourishment for all. Likewise, even if Indian population figures were to plateau, it is unlikely that domestic production alone would be sufficient to close the current food gap.

Current malnutrition levels—defined here as insufficient macronutrient availability—in India are already high. Sufficient nutrition requires adequate availability and intake of all three macronutrients. Impacts of insufficient protein and energy intake can often be difficult to decouple, and are often termed protein-energy malnourishment (PEM)—PEM has a number of negative consequences including reduced physical and mental development [ 32 ]; increased susceptibility to disease and infection; poorer recovery and increased mortality from disease; and lower productivity [ 33 ]. Our results indicate that India’s self-sufficiency model—a reliance on domestic crop yield increases and waste reduction strategies—will be insufficient to meet requirements across all three macronutrients. Levels of undersupply and consequent malnutrition would show a significant increase in both 2030 and 2050 scenarios.

This has important implications for forward planning to effectively address malnutrition. Policy incentives in Indian agriculture since the Green Revolution have predominantly been focused on achieving caloric food security through increased production of cereals (wheat and rice) [ 9 ]. This has resulted in a heavily carbohydrate-based diet (> 65–70% total energy intake [ 34 ]) which may be significantly lacking in adequate diversity for provision of other important nutrients [ 35 ]. Widespread lactovegetarian preferences have further reduced the scope for dietary diversity [ 36 ].

If trying to address caloric inadequacy alone, efforts to increase output of energy-dense crops (i.e. cereals, roots and tubers) may seem appropriate, and has largely been India’s focus to date [ 8 ]. Our analysis, however, strongly suggests the need to shift dietary composition away from reliance on carbohydrates towards a more diversified intake of protein and fats (with diversification also contributing to a reduction in micronutrient deficiency) [ 37 ]. Forward planning therefore needs to simultaneously address caloric inadequacy and malnourishment through balanced, increased supply and intake of high-quality proteins and fats.

Our examination of macronutrient supply in India indicates large inequalities in availability across the population. This is likely to be closely coupled to the high levels of income inequality and poverty which remain in India today [ 8 ]. Large inequalities in food supply and dietary intake will make it increasingly difficult for India to address its malnutrition challenges; our assessment of potential improvement scenarios highlight that, even in cases where average macronutrient supplies meet requirements, the high CV in distribution still leaves a large proportion of the total population at risk of malnourishment. Whilst the RDA values used in this analysis account for distribution in nutritional requirements of individuals, they do not account for the distribution in intake. To meet SDG2 (whereby all individuals’ requirements are met) at current levels of inequality, the national mean intake would therefore have to increase to 3600kcal pppd; 82g pppd digestible protein; and 105g pppd fat. This is well above current national pppd supply values, even if crop production-phase level were to be at the top of the food system.

It should be emphasised that this work is a largely computational, supply-driven analysis exploring the domestic capacity of India’s food. Our results are not intended to imply actual future scenarios of Indian malnutrition. Projections of acute food shortage implied within this analysis would be likely to drive market and policy interventions including enhanced trade, in addition to changes in consumer and producer responses. The interaction between supply and demand-side measures, commodity prices, trade, and governmental policy creates an important feedback loop for food pricing, affordability and production [ 38 ]. For example, the estimated reduction in per capita food supply and domestic food shortage would be expected to drive an increase in food prices [ 39 , 40 ]. Rising food prices (as are expected across a number of countries where food demand continues to grow [ 41 ]) create a number of producer and consumer impacts, including per capita food expenditure, reduced purchasing power for expensive commodities such as meat and dairy products [ 42 ], farmer incentives and agricultural investment. Analysis of the drivers of historical food price volatility and inflation in India suggests that both supply and demand-side factors (and the interaction between) play an important role [ 40 ].

The impact of feedbacks such as reduced meat and dairy demand (thereby reducing demands for feed, with further feedbacks on food supply and commodity prices) are not reflected within these scenarios, but will play an important role in determining food system dynamics. The impact of domestic food shortages, agricultural prices and balance within international markets is particularly pronounced in India where the agricultural sector accounts for the employment and income of a large percentage of the population [ 43 ]. Literature on the interactions between poverty, agriculture and food prices is extensive; many studies indicate that, since a large share of the world’s poor are rural, high food prices have a positive long-term impact on poverty reduction. However they have negative impacts on poverty and malnutrition in the short-term [ 39 , 44 – 48 ]. The lack of domestic capacity in India to meet the full nutritional needs (balancing caloric, protein and micronutrient requirements) of its population is likely to increase the demand for commodity imports. This in turn creates further feedbacks on domestic prices, farmer income and inevitably poverty reduction [ 46 ]. Further work on the economic dimension to Indian food security—within the context of value chain potential and efficiency evaluations in this study—is therefore crucial to develop better understanding of their interactions and policy responses.

Overall, our results highlighted several key points:

• production quantities at the farm level are very low relative to global average production;
• low import and export values produce an approximately balanced trade model; this correlates with India’s self-sufficiency focused agricultural and food policies;
• harvesting, post-harvest and distribution losses in the supply chain form a large proportion of total food system inefficiencies;
• a moderate amount of energy and fat (but not protein) is allocated to non-food uses, although this is significantly less than global average non-food allocation;
• India’s caloric and protein losses in the conversion of edible crops to livestock are small due to the dominance of pasture-fed livestock such as dairy cattle. The large nutritional gains achieved through increased milk consumption in India suggest this may be a beneficial trade-off in agricultural land for provision of high-quality protein.

Our examination of the food supply chain in India identified harvesting, handling and storage losses, and top-level crop production to be the key intervention phases for improving food security. The approach not only adds value in the identification of ‘hotspots’ of wastage and inefficiency, but also allows for an understanding of the magnitude of change required to produce a certain food supply chain-wide result. Our analysis highlighted that, despite being an important mechanism for improving food security, even a 50% reduction in food loss/waste (a challenge that is achievable but would take significant economic, infrastructural and educational investment) alone would be largely insufficient in ensuring food security in India.

Increased production at the agricultural level must therefore be a focus for both near and long-term food security. The viability of achieving yields close to 75% AY in the near-term (to 2030), across the range of available crops, needs to be more closely considered. For several staple crops, a yield increase upwards of 30% and 50% would be required for attainment of 75% and 90% AY, respectively (see S2 Table ). The challenge in reaching close to 90% AY (i.e. almost maximum yield) is substantial; many developed countries have not yet reached such levels [ 23 ].

The potential resource limits and environmental implications needed to achieve such yields also need to be given consideration in order to optimise crop selection and mitigate negative impacts. The yield gap could predominantly be closed through improved water and nutrient management [ 23 ]. Depleting groundwater resources through agricultural irrigation in India raises key concerns over long-term water security [ 49 ][ 50 ], and whether water availability is likely to impose a resource limit on yield attainment. Improved yields through increased fertiliser application raise similar sustainability concerns; nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is a key source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a major source being microbially-mediated emissions as a result of nitrogen fertiliser application to agricultural soils [ 51 ]. There may therefore be a significant GHG penalty in closing the current yield gap.

It should be noted that this study has considered only yield improvements through traditional crop varieties. Genetic variation and modification of crop strains may offer further potential for yield increases, in addition to increased resilience to pests, disease and climatic impacts [ 52 ]. However, with the exception of Bt Cotton, genetically modified (GM) crop varieties are banned from commercial crop production [ 53 ]. Despite the introduction of GM field trials in recent years, they continue to face significant resistance across a range of stakeholder groups [ 54 ].

Our analyses for 2050 highlight severe food security challenges for India, even in scenarios which assume attainment of 90% AY for all crops. In addition to the hotspots identified for further focus to achieve near-term improvements, long-term strategies require increased consideration of the impact of potential climatic changes. India’s staple crops–wheat and rice—show particular vulnerability; in the near-term, CO 2 fertilisation may offer some positive yield impacts, however, simulated climate models suggest this effect is likely to be cancelled out if global mean temperature increase reaches a 3°C threshold in wheat (2°C for rice) [ 55 ]. This suggests negative climate impacts may only begin to arise from mid-century onwards. Failure to build capacity and agricultural resilience in the interim could result in severe food deficits should a 2°C or 3°C warming threshold be breached. Planning strategies should therefore not only aim to adapt to gradual near-term impacts of a changing climate, but importantly focus on capacity-building for a resilient food system in a warmer post-2050 world.

Our 2050 scenarios are based on assumptions which are sensitive to change; we have assumed BAU climatic-yield factors, and increased meat and dairy intakes in line with FAO projections. Both of these assumptions could change based on global GHG mitigation progress, and governmental or social interventions on meat consumption. In addition, it is recognised that some potential climatic impacts could be reduced through shifts in crop production regions and seasonal cropping patterns [ 24 ]. While such changes may marginally change the scale of the food supply and malnutrition challenge, the overall conclusions remain the same. Climatic and livestock impacts may serve to exacerbate the issue, however, India would continue to face a severe risk of domestic food shortages regardless of these additional pressures.

To deliver effective recommendations for addressing macronutrient undersupply and malnutrition, two key components need to be further explored. Firstly, there needs to be better understanding of optimal crop selections to maximise production and consumer supply of energy, digestible protein and fats alike. This has to be analysed with key resource and environmental constraints in mind to deliver a more optimal and sustainable domestic food system. This should include consideration of options outwith traditional domestic agricultural practice, such as genetic modification, industrial biotechnology and biofortification [ 56 , 57 ].

Secondly, India’s role within global food markets needs to be more closely assessed. To successfully address malnutrition, India will likely have to fill the gap between domestic production and food demand through increased imports. Food imports can have a significant impact on domestic prices, and the dominance of agriculture as a primary source of employment in India may be a negative influence on farmer livelihoods [ 9 ]; and further, a large increase in food imports could potentially reduce energy-protein intake for the poorest 30% of the population [ 46 ]. This means appropriate economic and social analysis must be carried out to try to optimise import quantities and products which will have minimal domestic impacts. The importance of reducing economic and dietary inequalities makes this even more crucial.

In order to ensure a resilient food system, such analyses and recommendations should be made alongside consideration of potential climatic impacts in the medium- and long-term. This would allow for appropriate choices to be made in the near-term that are also sustainable in a changing climate. The implications of our analysis for health, social, and environmental policy is discussed in detail in our Supplementary Discussion.

Closing its current food supply and nutrition gap while meeting increasing population demand will require a combination of domestic measures to improve agricultural practice and subsequent yields, in addition to a well-planned increase in food imports.

Supporting information

S1 file. supplementary discussion..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.s001

S1 Table. Loss and waste percentages by food chain stage and commodity group for South and Southeast Asia.

Due to poor data availability on India-specific food loss figures, regional average figures from the FAO were applied to derive estimates of macronutrient losses at each stage in the Indian commodity chain.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.s002

S2 Table. Assumptions and sources for figures used within all scenarios from 2011 baseline to 2050 scenarios.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.s003

S3 Table. Indian baseline and attainable yield (AY) values for key crop types.

Year 2000 and all attainable yield values have been derived from Mueller et al. (2012)[ 23 ][ 23 ][ 23 ][ 23 ][ 23 ](23)(23)(23)(23)(23)(23)(23)(23)(23)(23)(22)(21)(21)(21), and 2011 yield data derived from the FAOstats database ( http://faostat.fao.org/beta/en/#home ). The necessary percentage increase in yield from 2011 levels to reach each of the AY values has also been shown.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.s004

S4 Table. Average estimated climatic impacts on Indian crop yields in 2050.

Average values have been assumed based on the range of historic studies on yield sensitivities and climatic models within literature review [ 24 ]. These models are projected on the basis of a doubling of CO2 from pre-industrial (which is approximately equivalent to a business-as-usual scenario).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193766.s005

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• Published: 09 January 2023

Food insecurity and its determinants among adults in North and South India

• Anjali Ganpule   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0821-0673 1 ,
• Kerry Ann Brown   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-5336 2 ,
• Manisha Dubey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2879-903X 1 ,
• Nikhil Srinivasapura Venkateshmurthy   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4037-6371 1 , 3 ,
• Prashant Jarhyan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5020-3995 3 ,
• Avinav Prasad Maddury   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0099-4370 3 ,
• Rajesh Khatkar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1004-6702 3 ,
• Himanshi Pandey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7076-049X 1 ,
• Dorairaj Prabhakaran   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3172-834X 1 , 3 , 4 &
• Sailesh Mohan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1853-3596 1 , 3 , 5  

Nutrition Journal volume  22 , Article number:  2 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Food insecurity is a major public health problem worldwide. In India, there are limited food insecurity assessment studies using a conventionally accepted method like the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), developed by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). This study aims to measure food insecurity using the FIES and explore its determinants and association with body mass index (BMI) among Indian adults. 

In a cross-sectional study, we used FIES to measure food security in a sample of 9005 adults residing in North and South India. Using questionnaires, socio-demographic factors, dietary intake and food security data were collected. The dietary diversity scores (FAO-IDDS) and food insecurity scores (FAO-FIES) were calculated. Body size was measured and BMI was calculated. 

The mean age of the study participants was 52.4 years (± 11.7); half were women and half resided in rural areas. Around 10% of the participants reported having experienced (mild or moderate or severe) food insecurity between October 2018 and February 2019. Dietary diversity (measured by FAO’s Individual Dietary Diversity Scores, IDDS) was low and half of the participants consumed ≤ 3 food groups/day. The mean BMI was 24.7 kg/m 2 . In the multivariate analysis, a lower IDDS and BMI were associated with a higher FIES. The place of residence, gender and wealth index were important determinants of FIES, with those residing in South India, women and those belonging to the poorest wealth index reporting higher food insecurity.

Food security is understudied in India. Our study adds important evidence to the literature. Despite having marginal food insecurity, high prevalence of low diet quality, especially among women, is disconcerting. Similar studies at the national level are warranted to determine the food insecurity situation comprehensively in India and plan appropriate policy actions to address it effectively, to attain the key Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Food security entails access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets people’s dietary needs and food preferences, for leading an active and healthy life [ 1 ]. Despite India being among the fastest growing economies in the world and ranking second worldwide in farm output [ 2 ], the country still faces hunger and diet quality-related issues. Not surprisingly, India is ranked 101 out of 116 countries in the most recent Global Hunger Index report [ 3 ]. It shows that India is still lagging behind when it comes to meeting hunger-related United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., zero hunger (Goal 2), good health and well-being (Goal 3) and in supply of sufficient quantities of food to ensure adequate availability [ 4 ]. An examination of the food insecurity dynamics based on the National Sample Survey data on household consumer expenditure in India since year 2000 revealed that the overall rate of food insecurity has declined, but at a very slow pace [ 5 ]. Thus, monitoring the food insecurity situation and taking immediate policy actions is a public health priority for India.

In the past, multiple proxy measures like anthropometry [ 6 ], wealth index and literacy [ 7 ] have been used to assess food insecurity, mainly as food adequacy. However, food insecurity in the Indian context requires measurement of both food inadequacy [ 4 ] and micro-nutrient deficiency, considering that both are highly prevalent [ 8 ]. Studies around the world also demonstrate the need for this as food insecurity is closely linked to the quality of diets and malnutrition in all its forms [ 9 , 10 ]. Thus, measuring food insecurity using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) [ 11 ], which captures both hunger and micronutrient deficiencies, is appropriate in the Indian context. The FAO developed the FIES tool in 2016 [ 11 ], which is globally accepted as a robust and cost-effective indicator or measure of food insecurity [ 11 , 12 ]. It allows the measurement of mild, moderate and severe food insecurity. Mild food insecurity is experienced when hunger is addressed through the intake of cereal-based foods but there is a lack of dietary diversity and variety of food, while severe food insecurity is experienced when people are hungry as they do not get enough food to eat. Validation studies of FIES in India were conducted in 2012 and 2014 among 3,000 individuals and published in the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (SOFI) [ 13 ]. However, very few studies have used FIES to assess food insecurity in India [ 14 ]. Understanding the country-specific context, drivers, and determinants of food insecurity is important [ 15 ]. This can support the planning of targeted interventions as well as effective policies and programs.

Multiple studies show an association of under-and overnutrition with food insecurity [ 16 , 17 ]. Thus, there is a need to study its association with a nutritional outcome like BMI through country-specific studies [ 18 ], particularly in low-middle income countries (LMICs) [ 19 ]. The current study addressed these gaps in the evidence base by measuring the prevalence of food insecurity using FIES, studying its association with socio-demographic factors, economic factors, dietary diversity and BMI among residents of rural and urban households in north and south India.

Materials and methods

Study design.

The analysis presented in this paper is based on data from the UDAY cohort study’s baseline follow-up survey, conducted during October 2018-February 2019, among adult members of urban and rural households in Sonipat (north India) and Vizag (south India) (Fig.  1 ). The methodology of the surveys in the UDAY cohort has been published previously [ 20 ]. Briefly, the study enrolled 12,000 individuals aged ≥ 30 years and was established to improve the prevention, detection and management of diabetes and hypertension.

Flowchart of the study participants. Note: For the present study, cross-sectional data from a larger longitudinal study UDAY are presented. A flow diagram of participants in this longitudinal study has been published elsewhere (Mohan, Set al. 2018). There was no exclusion of the participants. All 9005 participants responded and were included in the study. Socio-demographic, dietary and food security data are available for all the participants based on which the results are presented. BMI data was available for 8718 participants

Measurements

Trained research staff carried out the measurements, which were closely monitored for quality assurance.

Demographics

Information on age, sex, residence (urban or rural), state (Haryana or Andhra Pradesh), household assets were collected through a questionnaire.

• Food insecurity

Food insecurity was measured using the FAO’s FIES eight-item scale, which asks participants to self-report food-related behaviours and experiences associated with increasing difficulties in accessing food due to resource constraints [ 11 ]. As per the standard protocol, participants who responded with a “yes” to 1) being worried about not having enough food or 2) were unable to eat healthy and nutritious food or 3) eating only a few kinds of food, were scored as having mild food insecurity. Those who responded with a “yes” to 4) to skip a meal or 5) ate less or 6) ran out of food, were scored as having moderate food insecurity, while those who responded with a “yes” to 7) were hungry but did not eat or 8) went without eating for a whole day, were scored as having severe food insecurity. The validity of FIES scores as a continuous variable was checked using the Rasch model, as suggested by the FAO (2016). Infit for all questions was within the limit (< 1.3), as recommended by FAO, except for an item (Whole day without eating. Infit:1.35). The outfit was within the limit (< 2.0) for all items except for one item (Whole day without eating. Outfit: 3.54). We dropped this item for further analysis as recommended. For the question “You went without eating for a whole day?” there were only 102/9005 responses and the Rasch model infit was > 1.3. Thus, as per the FAO protocol, after removing these responses, we calculated the proportion of participants experiencing total FIES scores (ranging from 1 to 7), which was used as a continuous variable for the multiple regression analysis.

• Dietary diversity

We conducted an individual food consumption survey using the food frequency questionnaire. Using these data, the individual dietary diversity score (IDDS) was calculated to assess the quality of diet [ 21 ]. Foods were grouped according to the characteristics and nutrient profile predetermined by the FAO for the IDDS as 1) All starchy staples 2) Legumes 3) Milk and milk products 4) Meat and fish 5) Eggs 6) Dark green leafy vegetables, and 7) Other fruits and vegetables. For a food group to be counted in the dietary diversity analysis, the minimum average quantity was set at ≥ 15 g/d. The maximum score of the IDDS was 7 instead of 9 as we did not separately recall for two groups: vitamin A-rich fruits vegetables and organ meats.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

Body weight was measured to the nearest 0.1 kg and height to the nearest 0.1 cm, following the standard procedure [ 22 ] and BMI was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.

Wealth index

Wealth index was calculated separately for participants from rural and urban areas [ 23 ] using principal component analysis (PCA), which was based on the ownership of 12 household assets (radio, TV, computer, phone, fridge, bike, scooter, car, washing machine, sewing machine, house, and land), and 5 key housing characteristics (water supply, type of toilet and whether it is shared, cooking fuel, housing material, and source of lighting). The first component in the PCA was extracted and divided into quintiles- the first quintile being the poorest and the fifth being the richest.

Statistical analysis

Continuous variables are presented as means (standard deviation [SD]) and categorical variables as frequencies (%). Two sample t-test or Mann Whitney U tests were used based on the distribution of the data for examining the differences in the FIES by wealth index, IDDS and BMI. Multivariate linear regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, and place of residence (rural/urban) was done to study the association of various factors such as IDDS, BMI and wealth index with FIES. We performed mediation analysis using the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) test to estimate the effect of IDDS on FIES through BMI. The statistical analysis was done using Stata version 16.1 (Stata Corp).

The STROBE-Nut checklist is provided as an additional file .

The study included 9005 participants with a mean age of 52.4 (± SD 11.7) years (Table 1 ). Around half the participants were women and resided in rural areas. Participants from Sonipat were richer compared to those residing in Vizag, as indicated by the wealth index.

Prevalence of food insecurity

About 10% of the participants experienced food insecurity. A higher proportion of participants reported mild FIES than moderate or severe FIES (Fig.  2 ). Women were more likely to report food insecurity than men (Table 1 ). Rural residents had higher food insecurity compared to their urban counterparts. Participants from Vizag reported significantly higher food insecurity compared to those in Sonipat.

Distribution of the study participants by levels of food insecurity. Legend: The figure describes distribution of participants by the levels of food security as mild, moderate and severe. It shows the food insecurity among men and women in Sonipat and Vizag

Dietary diversity was low (mean 3.5 ± SD 0.8). Overall dietary diversity was higher ( p  < 0.05) in Vizag (3.7 ± SD 0.9) compared to Sonipat (3.3 ± 0.8). Dietary diversity was lower in rural compared to urban areas (Table 1 ). About 90% of participants from Sonipat consumed vegetarian diets, while in Vizag > 80% consumed nonvegetarian diets consisting of eggs and fish, while meat was consumed less frequently. The IDDS food groups consumed daily were calorie-rich food groups, i.e., starchy staples, other fruits and vegetables. Protein-rich foods such as dairy were consumed daily (Fig.  3 ). Consumption of nutrient-rich food groups, i.e., green leafy vegetables, vitamin A and C-rich fruits and vegetables and non-vegetarian foods was low. A higher proportion of women consumed green leafy vegetables and legumes than men. In Vizag, men consumed nonvegetarian foods in higher proportions than women.

Distribution of the study participants by IDDS food groups. Legend: The figure reports the proportion of participants consuming various dietary diversity food groups in Sonipat and Vizag by gender and place of residence

Body mass index (BMI)

The mean BMI was 24.8 ± SD 5.7 kg/m 2 ( p  < 0.001 for all differences). Mean BMI was higher in women, participants from urban areas and in Sonipat ( p -value < 0.001) (Table 1 ).

Mediation and regression analysis

We studied the association between IDDS, BMI and FIES using mediation analysis. BMI and IDDS were directly and significantly associated with each other, while both were inversely associated with FIES. Thus, those who had higher IDDS and BMI reported less food insecurity. The indirect effect of IDDS on FIES (via BMI) was found to be around 35% ( p  < 0.01), indicating that the association between IDDS and FIES was indirectly mediated through BMI (Fig. 4 ). In multivariate linear regression analysis (adjusted for state, residence, age, sex and wealth index), IDDS and BMI were inversely associated with FIES. The age of the participants and urban/rural residence were not significant in the multivariate model, while the state of residence, sex, and wealth index were important determinants of FIES. Women reported experiencing significantly higher food insecurity than men. Further, those residing in Vizag and those belonging to the poorest wealth index had higher food insecurity (Table 2 ).

Mediation analysis between dietary diversity, body mass index and food insecurity scores. Legend: The figure shows the results of mediation analysis between BMI, IDDS and FIES. p -value for B1 is 0.113 (insignificant) and for B2 and B3, it is < 0.001 (significant). This indicates that IDDS is associated with food insecurity through BMI

The overall prevalence of food insecurity was low at about 10%. A relatively lower proportion (3%) of the participants reported moderate or severe food insecurity, while mild food insecurity was the highest, being reported by 6.4% of the participants. Dietary diversity was low with lesser consumption of nutrient-rich food groups like vegetables, fruits and protein-rich foods. Most of the participants met their daily calorific requirements through the consumption of starchy staples and starchy vegetables. The mean BMI was 24.7 kg/m 2 , which was directly associated with diet diversity scores. Both diet diversity and BMI were inversely associated with FIES. Further, we found gender and economic status to be significant determinants of FIES among the participants.

Compared to the levels reported in the SOFI report (2020), which shows a high prevalence (24%) of severe food insecurity, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was low in our study population. One likely reason for this difference could be that the participants in this study resided in economically stable states. Haryana ranks 12 th , while Andhra Pradesh ranks 27 th among 36 Indian states in the Human Development Index (HDI) of the Government of India 2021 [ 24 ]. Our finding of mild food insecurity even in economically stable states is disconcerting. Levels of food insecurity may be much higher in less economically stable states of India. It is thus necessary to establish a baseline and monitor the levels of food insecurity at regular intervals through periodic surveys in all states of India. This is required to plan rigorous and continuous remedial measures to address food insecurity effectively. Present-day threats like COVID-19 pandemic, which results in both health and economic downturns and shocks like climate change induced global warming, that affect all aspects of the food systems, underline the need for such a strategy, as populations can rapidly move between states of being food insecure or food secure.

We found that at the individual level, FIES appropriately measured both hunger and micronutrient deficiencies, and thus is applicable to the Indian context. The tool is globally accepted and recommended for monitoring achievements related the SDG goals [ 25 ]. It applies to both developed and developing countries as it is pre-tested and validated using data from 147 countries [ 26 ]. The findings of mild food insecurity also likely indicate limited access and availability of diverse healthy and nutritious foods. The association of FIES with economic status additionally hints at the affordability issues. Earlier studies have also reported that affordability and accessibility of healthy foods [ 27 , 28 ] can affect food insecurity.

There are efforts at the national level being undertaken to address these issues. For example, the Government of India has undertaken many reforms of the country’s social safety net programs to improve delivery on nutrition and food security targets [ 29 ]. The EAT right campaign of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI 2021), has brought sustainability into the national nutrition agenda. Additionally, studies suggest the need to expand the food subsidy programs under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) [ 30 ], and the need to include the nutrient-rich food groups in these programs [ 31 ]. To improve consumer practices and awareness related to fruit and vegetable consumption, specific interventions [ 32 ] and nutrition education campaigns [ 33 , 34 ] have also been found to be effective to a certain extent. Overall, a comprehensive holistic approach with targeted interventions will be helpful for improving the consumption of nutrient-rich foods and attaining food security over time.

In the past, studies have reported inconsistent associations of food insecurity with undernutrition and overnutrition. For example, a meta-analysis from 12 countries reported that food insecurity increases the risk of underweight and stunting in children and adolescents [ 16 ]. A longitudinal mixed-method study among adults in the United States reported that food insecurity was associated with an increase in BMI [ 35 ]. In a review of 13 studies, which explored the relationship between food insecurity and overweight/obesity in LMICs, four found a positive association between food insecurity and obesity/overweight; five found no association; and the remaining study found a negative association [ 19 ]. Our study showed that those who had higher food insecurity had higher BMI. This was irrespective of the socio-demographic and economic factors.

One of the key findings is the effect of gender on the food insecurity experience. Women reported higher food insecurity than men. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gender differences in food security revealed that women-headed households reported higher food insecurity [ 36 ]. Even though women contribute to one-half of the world’s food production, they face many inequities, such as access to a lower amount of food and a lower proportion of nutrient-rich food. A few studies have reported gender differences in food and calorie allocation at the household level [ 37 , 38 ]. We found that women, especially from rural area, had lower consumption of nutrient-rich foods such as dairy, fruits-vegetables and nonvegetarian foods. These findings warrant gender-sensitive policies to ensure that all have equal access to nutrient-rich diets.

At present, food systems are facing challenges due to disruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic [ 39 ], which has resulted in decreased economic activity, widespread unemployment, and widening health inequalities [ 40 ]. To address such shocks that disrupt food systems, effective policies are necessary both at the local and global levels [ 41 ]. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 and to tackle food insecurity, a more responsive food system that meets people’s needs is warranted. This should be aligned with contextually relevant research and targeted policy efforts to make the food system more climate-resilient, nutrition-sensitive and sustainable [ 42 ]. Further, the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition [ 43 ] suggests enhancing and repurposing food-based dietary guidelines and new measures of successes to guide policy decisions, and a new set of incentives to rebalance food prices, to simultaneously address challenges of affordability, availability, consumer demand, and sustainability, which have a direct and significant impact on food security. 

Our study reports mild food insecurity in adults from relatively well-developed states in India. It underlines the need for regular monitoring of the food insecurity situation in India along with the measurement of diet quality and malnutrition, using robust methods. Policies to reduce gender inequalities and increase public awareness about healthy and nutritious diets are warranted. 

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Body Mass Index

Food and Agricultural Organization

Food Insecurity Experience Scale

Individual Dietary Diversity Scores

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contribution of the field data collectors and the study participants from Sonipat and Vizag for their cooperation and support.

This study was supported by The Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, UK (Grant number 205200/Z/16/Z) under the “Our Planet Our Health” programme.  The UDAY cohort study was supported by Eli Lilly through an unrestricted grant under the Lilly NCD Partnership programme. The funders had no role in the design, conduct of the study, or in the analysis and reporting of the study findings. The researchers who developed this manuscript were supported by the SHEFS project and did not receive any support from the Lilly NCD Partnership programme. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors.

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Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi, India

Anjali Ganpule, Manisha Dubey, Nikhil Srinivasapura Venkateshmurthy, Himanshi Pandey, Dorairaj Prabhakaran & Sailesh Mohan

University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

Kerry Ann Brown

Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India

Nikhil Srinivasapura Venkateshmurthy, Prashant Jarhyan, Avinav Prasad Maddury, Rajesh Khatkar, Dorairaj Prabhakaran & Sailesh Mohan

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Dorairaj Prabhakaran

Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

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AG and KB wrote the first draft of the paper. All authors reviewed the paper, provided comments on subsequent iterations, and approved the final version. NSV, PJ, AVM, RK, DP and SM designed and conducted the research. MD analysed the data and performed the statistical analysis. HP assisted in the data analysis and paper writing. DP and SM obtained the funding. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript. 

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Ganpule, A., Brown, K.A., Dubey, M. et al. Food insecurity and its determinants among adults in North and South India. Nutr J 22 , 2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-022-00831-8

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With undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies afflicting the country, India experiences a triple burden of malnutrition. Recent decades have seen modest progress when it comes to health in India, but progress has been uneven and inequitable. This study reviews food and nutrition status in India. The diversity in food is enabled by variety in nutrition, which is only possible with serious crop diversification. The nutrient uptake is majorly cereal-centric as food production, availability, and access are impacted by the agricultural policy that has placed a significant thrust on food grain production spurred by the green revolution and supported by the institutions. India is not only affected by malnutrition amongst the poor but also amongst all socio-economic groups. India ranks 101 out of 116 countries based on the Global Hunger Index 2020. The Global Nutrition Report 2018 clearly mentions that India is home to 46.6 million stunted children and 25.5 million wasted children. India ranks 103 out of 119 qualifying countries per the Global Hunger Index 2018. Malnutrition was the predominant risk factor for death in children younger than five years of age in every state of India in 2017 (GBD), accounting for 68.2% (95% UI 65.8–70.7) of the total under-5 deaths and the leading risk factor for health loss for all ages, responsible for 17.3% (16.3–18.2) of the entire disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). In India, nutrition status has deteriorated over decades because of ineffective policy interventions and inadequate food systems, which are neither affordable nor sustainable. There are severe gaps in India’s nutrition statistics, and even the most important nutrition trends are far from explicit; practical action in this field requires regular and reliable large-scale surveys that would make it possible to monitor the nutrition situation at the district levels at intervals.

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Shahnaz Basheer, V. V. Ashique & Aakriti Grover

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Basheer, S., Ashique, V.V., Grover, A. (2023). The Food and Nutrition Status in India: A Systematic Review. In: Grover, A., Singh, A., Singh, R.B. (eds) Sustainable Health Through Food, Nutrition, and Lifestyle. Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7230-0_9

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Food Security in India: A Study of District of Howrah

57 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2023

Sorbani Bhowmick

Independent

Date Written: april 12, 2022

INTRODUCTION: The PDS evolved as a system of management of scarcity through the distribution of food grains at affordable prices. Over the years Targeted Public Distribution System has become an important part of the government's policy for the management of the food economy in the country. The concept of Food Security itself has gone through a complex process of evolution hence according to THE STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY ACT 2001 it can be defined as “ a situation that exists when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life”. National Food Security Act 2013 is an act of the parliament to provide access to food grains at an affordable price and to ensure the right to live with dignity and matters connected thereof. HYPOTHESIS: My work seeks to argue that food nutritional level among low income is low and only public distribution of grains is insufficient for increasing the nutritional level and if PDS continues to be important even after 75 years of Independence. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 1) Regularity of food grains and supply of food grains pre-pandemic and pandemic 2) Food security a comparative analysis of enrolment of organised and unorganised labour 3) Food security and level of nutrition in lower income groups. METHODOLOGY: Primary Data has been collected from the district of Howrah mainly from the Panchayat areas of Ghoshpara and Nischinda. The universe of study is the district of Howrah Panchayat areas of Nischinda and Ghoshpara. Secondary data will be collected from local administration, and ration shops. It would also include data from the Government of West Bengal Panchayat site, the Human Development Index report for the state of West Bengal 2019, Woman and Child Development and the Ministry of Agriculture Government of West Bengal. This dissertation began on the 11th of November 2021 and is to be concluded by the 31st of March 2022. CONCLUSION: Even after 75 years of independence Poverty level might have decreased but the nutritional level continues to be low even to date among the low-income groups especially women and children, Gender disparity continues to plague the system also in terms of nutritional food consumed by them. Also in certain cases, affordability is a problem when it comes to nutritional food consumed after PDS grains.

Keywords: FOOD SECURITY, NUTRIONAL LEVEL, PDS , PDS GRAINS,HOWRAH, PANCHAYAT, RATION SHOPS, POVERTY, LOW INCOME GROUP

JEL Classification: Z18, Z28

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

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