Indian Agricultural: Growth, Generation, Policy & Problem Indian Agricultural | Page 41

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08. Food policy of Government
India's food policy evolved out of the Bengal famine of 1943 which killed more than a million people
with starvation caused mainly by lack of adequate supplies of food grains than the lack of production.
Food grains Policy Committee 1943 was appointed under the chairmanship of Sir George Theodore
which emphasized rationing to overcome such situation in the future. Since then successive
governments have been trying to enhance the level of food grain production in the country through
offering minimum support prices to the farmers. In addition, PDS was evolved to safeguard the
interest of the consumers particularly the more vulnerable section of the society. Aimed to curb the
speculative price rise, simultaneously evolved price policy contained four major policy instruments;
namely inputs subsidies; minimum support prices; procurement prices; and issue prices. They were
devised to achieve the basic goal of the food security. Despite changes in contents and emphases
over the years the basic goal of India's food policy could be summarized as follows;
1. Increase in food grain production.
2. Stabilizing food grain prices and
3. Maintaining adequate stocks of food grains as a measure of food security.
To attain the above-mentioned objective two central bodies namely the Food Corporation of India
(FCI) and Agriculture Price Commission (APC) were established in 1965. The FCI was responsible for
procurement, import, distribution, storage and the sale of food grain. While the APC was to control
and guide the cropping pattern, land use and profitability through minimum support price mechanism.
This policy continued till the dawn of the new economic reforms in 1991 when the World Bank, which
had earlier designed these two centralized institutions called for dismantling them, besides advising
the government of India to dismantle the PDS as well. The Bank also asked for the removal of the
Essential Commodities Act, the removal of price and inventory control and deregulation of agricultural
trade. Further, it recommended the corporatization of agriculture and a shift from a state-centered to a
corporate-centered food system. recommended the corporatization of agriculture and a shift from a
state-centered to a corporate-centered food system.
Radical restructuring of the PDS and withdrawal of food subsidies were the important aspects of
India's structural adjustment programme that began in 1991. The Revamped PDS (RPDS), which
started in 1992, was supposed to target particularly the vulnerable regions and sections besides
curtailing the public expenditure. But the scheme not only failed in achieving its stated objective but
also ended up aggravating both of them. Therefore, in 1997, the RPDS was replaced by the Targeted
PDS (TPDS), which artificially divided the population into "Below Poverty Line" (BPL) and "Above
Poverty Line" (APL). The APL category was defined as those earning Rs. 1500/month and above.
Those falling in the APL category were subsequently asked to bear 100 percent of the procurement
and distribution costs. Whereas those falling in the BPL category were provided 10 kg of wheat or rice
a month at highly subsidized prices. The withdrawal of subsidies for families above poverty line (APL)
Ramesh Kumar P