Food Security

IN two of my earlier columns for this magazine (Climate Change - 31 December, 2022 and Water Conservation - 17 December, 2022) I have written about the perils of our inadequate action on tackling the challenges posed by climate change and our lack of respect for water. One of the biggest issues that can confront our country -indeed the whole world - is insufficiency of food for the growing population.

- Krishan Kalra

Public memory being short, we have forgotten about the famines and droughts that India has faced in the past and how food grains were rationed. We have been very lucky with monsoons almost 50 percent of our crops depend on monsoons, not the total rainfall in the country but how it is distributed geographically and its timing. Unfortunately, we have become quite smug and complacent about food security as the buffer stocks' have been more than adequate for several decades.

Global Warming

There is general agreement in the scientific community that global warming is reducing the productivity as well as the nutrient content of our crops. It is therefore important to be ready with greater coverage of irrigation as against remaining on the mercy of the rain gods, develop more resilient crop varieties and, perhaps most important, identify foods that use less water per unit of food produced.

Extreme weather events are now happening with greater frequency; El Nino is hovering close and is very likely to develop this year. We can't forget the 1877 El Nino which had caused failure of rains and made millions - especially in the South - run away from their withered fields and start begging. An estimated six to eight million had perished in that famine. I am mentioning this tragic case here only to highlight that till the early 1870s most of our farmers were cultivating climate-resistant millets and were forced by the British rulers to switch to cash crops like indigo, opium and cotton - not suited to India's rainfall pattern.

The Famine & After