FEEDING THE WORLD IN 2030: The hunger with reference to India

Business Development Director (Agro & Eco Technologies ) India

Dr Satyen Yadav & Dr Ishan Yadav

Approximately 8.5 billion, say 9 billion including 200 billion new mouths will be expecting at least 1500 calories (even if we do not take ideal and required calorie for daily budget ) will require food (irrespective of their nature of food and RDA) to satisfy their satiety center which is called "hunger generator". So, availability versus demand of food to satisfy the hunger globally ,the data from a FAO 2014 study reveals that between 1990-92 and 2012-14 of hungry people shows a reduction from 1015 million to 805 million. Though, it looks nice but why to have even single hungry person on the earth and achieve the status of “zero Hunger” and once we reach this level, we should talk about DRA and the nourishment.

Prof. R.B.Singh, an eminent Agriculture Scientist and currently Chancellor of Central Agriculture University, India has addressed various issues in his lecture in XII ASC annual conference (www.naasindia.org) and said that India is the home of almost one-fourth of the world’s hungry and poor and if we see the decrease India has only 9.5 during last two decades and if we compare with China where decrease is 48% and globally it is by 20% which gives us a food for thought and forces us to rethink on the issues of poor access of food and the channels for food distribution which is full of faulty modus operandi with many man-made leakages if we wish to make India, which is contributing a lot towards the problems due to the uncontrolled population and faulty systems, free from hunger, we need strong will power and wish to adopt the holistic and corrective approached which should be self-driven rather imposed, the solution is not impossible. It is difficult but achievable. So, what for we have waiting! Let’s pool our intention and control the circumstances and move ahead to have “ZERO HUNGER NATION” by 2030. This will be our biggest contribution to man kind and specially in the country, where our culture advocated and opted “Manav Sewa” (serving to human being) as their first step towards their final destination i.e. oneness with GOD or the liberation from the current life-death cycle (we will not touch this issue because we are addressing the current issues at relative plane). To address this bottle neck, we need to understand the two biological terms “catalyst” and “inhibitors” to maintain the balance, if we can not eliminate the inhibitors from the system.

In India, we all (specially policy makers, politicians, and even academicians) talk about small and marginal farmers without seeing the income ratio between farmer and non farmer is 1:4 and interpret the World Bank Report of 2014 on per capita availability and production of cereals in India, it looks like a big puzzle. In India, we all talk about that our 70% population is from rural India and out of this 70% of the rural India, 90% belongs to the category of small and marginal farmers and 50% of this category people owns less than one hectare land who feed us and are called “ANNA DATTA”(Food Givers) are the poorest and hungriest people.

Understanding the challenges, convergence of policy interventions, political wish and commitments and enabling mechanism having the transparent and effective mechanism to address the issues related to food security and food safety is like a “relay marathon race” which will need participation of the people who are the integral part of the value chain and supply chain who are responsible to put the “problems” and “solutions” together. So, let’s take a step ahead because we are bound morally also because of three basic factors i.e. India has the home of one-fourth of hungry people of the world, India is the home one-third of the small and marginal farmers of the world but at the same time having high diversity rich staus in the world which is full of natural resources and human capital. So, let’s realize our inherent strength and move ahead and keep moving till we reach our destination.

If we see the opportunity, gaps and challenges in India, it seems that the fast growth of urban middle class is pushing the growth of horticulture, live stock and aquaculture but do we really trying hard to meet the challenges and fill the gaps which are due to various factors like productivity, appropriate technologies and it’s dissemination and adoptability by the farmers who are playing a key role in the required transformation. Though, we have been talking about diversification but are we really achieving what we target? We remember my stay in Punjab during 2000 to 2005 when diversification was one of the most talked issue but inspite of making so much noise have we really achieved? Let’s introspect and find it within ourselves before we go out to find the fault and correct ourselves first and further move ahead, the goal is not too far.

If we see the Agriculture Growth through total factor productivity (TFP) analysis and gap cited in FAO/World Bank 2014’s “Gap Report”, India has achieved 3.5 % to 4% growth rate but it needs to be sustained with reference to future growth. This gap report say that India will be able to grow foods for it’s requirement only by 59% by 2030. So, why are we waiting for 2030 to be on our head which is already knocking the doors.

Let’s understand the weaknesses due to ineffective technological dissemination, diversification decreasing orientation of people, enhancing the labour productivity, available of right bio-resources, protecting poor farmers from market and climate uncertainties and technological interventions and on the top of every thing the political wish will certainly help us in reducing the distance between problem and the solution.

An opportunity of 100% FDI in agriculture sector is a good tool which has come due to the new policies and India’s Prime Minister’s mission “Make In India” should be linked with “MADE IN INDIA TO GLOBE” which is our team’s agenda till we reach our target to get ready to feed 9 billion in 2030.

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