Scheme that endangers food security of poor

BHUBANESWAR: The Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme was launched by the Orissa Government to ensure food security to the poor.

But what is happening is the opposite.

The worst fallout is coarse grains cultivated dryland/rainfed areas are gradually turning fallow as the traditional coarse grain users no more consume it. This makes the coarse grain farmers nervous resulting in many such farms turning fallow, reveals a study by the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD)on food security. The maximum effect is noticed in the tribal areas.

As per NIRD, coarse grains contribute more in terms of nutritional value to the rural poor than the subsidised rice or wheat.

In the rural and tribal areas, the average family size is over five. On an average, a household requires at least 70 kg of rice a month. The subsidised rice on offer is only 25 kg.

This shows that an additional 45 kg is still needed to ensure minimum food security.

On an average, a rural household can procure at best 20 kg from the open market. And the rest is met through coarse grains at cheaper rates.

But fall in coarse grain production coupled with high inflation has endangered their food security. The NIRD report attributed the fall in production to lack of irrigation facilities, crop insurance and subsidies for their produce. Coarse cereal is mainly cultivated in tribal areas.

Given the cost and risks associated with the cultivation, the introduction of Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme came as a boon for the farmers, especially in the uplands. They abandoned it and relied more on the cheap rice on offer.

The agri statistics show that area under ragi cultivation has shrunk by around 44 per cent and the production by nearly 40 per cent between 1980-81 and 2007-08. But the targeted consumers nearly doubled during the period.