The success of ICT initiatives like info-kiosks offers an opportunity to improve our food security network. It is important to integrate fair price shops with the kiosks to ensure food security and transparency in food administration.
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ManishKumar
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The first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015. In absolute numbers this means reducing by 400 million the number of people who are undernourished (1990 estimates). In this proclamation lies the reality of under nourishment and starvation deaths.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that only seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region are on course to meet the MDG hunger targets. Three more are making progress, though slowly, while another eight are experiencing increased populations suffering hunger.
It is known that even though enough food is available in the world to feed everyone, about 17 per cent of the total population of developing countries is still undernourished. Rural areas in South Asia, housing more than 70 per cent of its population have high concentrations of hungry people. This means that nearly half the South Asian population suffers from malnutrition (Gill et al. 2003). Women and children, particularly girls, are especially disadvantaged. More than half of the female population in South Asia is malnourished and malnutrition causes about two-thirds of all deaths of children under age five in South Asia. The continued disempowerment of women in rural society is the biggest hurdle to ensuring food security and eliminating hunger.
The quantification of food insecurity and hunger is based on the differential measurement of energy requirements of rural and urban areas. In India, while 2100 calories per person per day is the official energy requirement in the urban areas, it goes up to 2400 calories per day per person for the rural areas. This complicates the estimation of hungry populations and indicates that the required energy intake and thus food (in)security depends on food availability and access.
The Green Revolution in India made a significant contribution to achieving self-sufficiency in food grain production. The hunger and starvation deaths, which are reported from different parts in India, are thus not on account of the lack of food produced. India, with a food grain production of 212 million tons during 2002-03, even provided food aid to Cambodia. There is no food availability problem in India, at least in the short run. Government sources indicate that there is enough food to feed the entire country for three months. The current food stocks at 299 million tons are well above the required buffer food stocks of 243 million ton.
The problem of hunger seemingly is largely a function of access to food. In South Asia these grave inequalities must be first dealt with at the policy level. Food access and utilisation are the areas where maximum improvement is called for. The Public Distribution System (PDS) in its various forms has so far attempted with varying degrees of success to improve access to food.
Public distribution system
The PDS in South Asia has its roots in the rationing of grains introduced during World War II. The success of the Green Revolution in India in the mid -sixties, the twin needs of promoting sustained growth rates in food grain production and protecting the net buyers (consisting of poor landless and marginal farmers) led to the government pursuing PDS as a deliberate social policy intervention. The objective was to ensure food supply to the poor at a cost lower than the market. All countries in South Asia have a PDS to achieve this objective. The government procures food from the domestic market at support prices, announced at the beginning of sowing, and also through imports, if needed. Food is then procured by the official channels (such as the Food Corporation of India) and distributed through the PDS at a price called the issue price. The government continues to subsidise the gap in the support and issue prices.
The Indian PDS has contributed to combating food surplus and deficit since the mid-80s when India gained food self-sufficiency. Even during 1987, considered the worst drought year of the 20th century in India, the problem was tackled effectively.
However, while the PDS has reached remote areas of the country, a poor delivery system, causes benefits to be far below the investments incurred. Often, the PDS is criticised for being cost ineffective, unequal and lacking in peoples participation. The relevance of PDS in the disaster prone and poverty stricken areas are now in doubt. The PDS is unable to ensure the availability of food grains to poor rural families throughout the year. In this context, the idea of reviving grain banks in rural areas, targeting the most vulnerable section like scheduled tribes, women and children, is timely and appropriate.
Policy directions
The present Indian government is aware of the sensitivity and severity of hunger and food security issues. In his address to the Parliament in June 2004, the Indian President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam mentioned the governments focus on strengthening the public distribution system, particularly in the poorest and most backward blocks of the country, while involving women and ex-servicemens cooperatives in its management at the local level. He also indicated that special schemes would be launched to ensure that food grains reach the most destitute and infirm. Grain banks in chronically food-scarce areas are also to be established and antyodaya cards would be provided for all households at risk of hunger. It is also interesting to note that the Tenth Plan has suggested changes in the PDS with a pilot test of a system of food stamps, whereby all eligible families will be entitled to collect their monthly quota of food stamps with which they can buy food from a designated distribution center and also from the open market.
The role of agriculture in alleviating poverty and hunger in developing countries is beyond doubt. More than 60 per cent of South Asian people are directly or indirectly linked to agriculture. Still, it is discomforting to note that public investment in the sector has been reducing in most developing countries. The intensity and magnitude of the problem however, demands a different approach.
Public investment in the agricultural sector needs to be sustained also because of increasing private investment that does not deal with social inequities. The present government in India has shown some encouraging pointers. It intends to double the flow of agricultural credit in three years time with a focus on backward and poor regions. It also aims to expand the coverage of small and marginal farmers through institutional lending.
Using ICT tools for better access to food
There is an increasing realisation among United Nations agencies, donors, governments and civil society organisations that wider and innovative applications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) could facilitate the better progress towards the MDGs. Both modern and traditional ICTs1 provide a range of tools that can facilitate improvements in food access and entitlement. Modern technology combined with conventional food security systems offers various possibilities.
Traditional food security systems can work at a household or individual level but are not effective in dealing with large-scale adverse changes like flood, drought, etc. Information plays a crucial role in agricultural development. What is required is a tool that improves peoples livelihoods by empowering them with information to operate in a global economy. Timely information related to weather, market prices, input availability, etc., could help in planning production and post-harvest operations. Advances in ICTs have helped in creating more refined systems, which can directly disseminate information to beneficiaries.
An interesting and innovative example in this context is e-Choupal2 , which offers relevant information, products and services to farmers so that farm productivity can increase, and farmers bargaining power and economic efficiency can be improved through reduced transaction costs. This model aims to empower farmers regardless of the size of their landholdings Currently, around 4000 e-Choupals reaching 25,000 villages are operational in the country and the Indian Tobacco Corporation (ITC) aims to scale up to 100,000 villages in 15 Indian states by the year 2010. The active participation of farmers in this rural initiative has created a sense of ownership in the project among the farmers.
Through its Info Village Programme, the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has done pioneering work in the area of rural livelihoods using ICTs. Connecting ten villages near Pondicherry in southern India by a hybrid wired and wireless network, which facilitates both voice and data transfer, the MSSRF has enabled the villagers to access need based information. The continuous updating of relevant local content is an important factor in these kinds of programmes. Sustaining peoples interest in the programme is a major challenge. To meet these challenges MSSRF accords high priority to providing responses to peoples queries3 . There are several other successful ICT experiences in the region lead by different NGOs, private sector agencies and government departments.4
The success of ICT initiatives like info-kiosks offers an opportunity to improve our food security network. It is important to integrate fair price shops with the kiosks to ensure food security and transparency in food administration.
Conclusions
It is clear that the potential of ICTs can be better utilised by integrating them into mainstream development. This is not to claim that mainstreaming ICTs into development projects means using ICT in each and every case. It simply means not overlooking the ICT-related opportunities to improve a programs performance. ICT is not a panacea, but is an essential part of future challenges and solutions. A cautious approach to integrate ICTs in development is therefore completely desirable.
The complexity of the problem of food insecurity and hunger prevents us from arguing for a capsule solution. However, a comprehensive and integrated approach is called for that takes livelihood issues into account. The efforts should aim at:
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improving the existing delivery systems of government programs
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increasing employment opportunities (both farm and non-farm)
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gender empowerment
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increasing access to and utilisation of basic necessary information
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providing insurance and credit and appropriate technology
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ensuring market accessibility and
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taking advantage of the various ICTs by integrating them into mainstream development.
Footnotes
1.Examples of modern and traditional ICTs are: computer, Internet, Telecommunications, satellite technologies, radio, television, print, small media, etc.
2.e-Choupal is the ICT initiative of Indian Tobacco Corporation launched in June 2000.
3.The value addition center in Villianur in Pondicherry has generated a number of databases.
4.For example, Info village programme, Open Knowledge Network, Bhoomi, Community Information Centers, e-Sewa, Chiraag, Drishtee InfoKiosk, in India; Grameen Phone in Bangladesh; Kothmale Radio in Srilanka.
References
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Gill, Gerard J., John Farrington, Edward Anderson, Cecilia Luttrell, Tim Conway, N.C. Saxena and Rachel Slater (2003). Food Security and the Millennium Development Goal on Hunger in Asia, Working Paper 231, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK.
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http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/004/AB981E/ab981e0a.htm
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http://www.fao.org//DOCREP/x0172e/0172eo6.htm
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http://www.fao.org/docrep/X3803E/x3803e04.htm
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http://www.gcw.nl/booksfood _security/Wageningen_ UR_visions.pdf
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http://www.wfp.org
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http://www.thp.org/women/main.htm
Author: Manish Kumar is the Managing Editor of Mainstreaming ICTs at OneWorld South Asia.
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