Abstract system (pds), antyodyua anna yojana, mid

ABSTRACTFood, being the basicneed is must for the sustenance and growth of an individual. Food is labelledas the utmost necessity for the maintenance of human life. India being anagricultre based economy with impressive food production in recent decades, have failed to provide complete food security to all the citizens equally. Thefocus of improving food security to the people is an issue of great importancetowards welfare of the states. To achieve this timeand again, Government of India has introduced lots of Food Security Programmes, schemes and bills majorly being Public Distribution System (PDS), AntyodyuaAnna Yojana, Mid Day Meal Schemes, Annapurna Scheme, Food Security Bill etc. Thepurpose of this paper is to present an evaluative study of the current runningfood schemes in India with their motives with which it was started and theoutcomes, the achievements that have been achieved. KEYWORDS: food security, schemes, PDS, challenges, Food Security Act*Research scholar, Dept.

of EAFM, University Of Rajasthan. INTRODUCTION10, 000 years ago, agriculture was developed and since the time of the earliest cultivation manychanges have been witnessed. In the past human used to complete the food needsby hunting. Animals were used for the food then and now after some time thehuman complete the food needs by the agriculture. Human engaged in theagriculture and now the agriculture produce food was for self-consumption. Nowthe agriculture witnessed development gradually and more of the pattern has touse in the agriculture for the more production. Agricultural practices such asirrigation, crop rotation, fertilizers, and pesticides were developed long agobut have made great strides in the past century.

In the past centuryagriculture has been characterized by enhanced productivity, the substitutionof labor for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, selective breeding, mechanization, water pollution, and farm subsidies. The focus of improving food security to the people is an issue ofgreat importance to the today’s welfare state. Food is the most important need, as it is necessary for the maintenance of human life. Despite impressive foodproduction in recent decades, such that enough food is available to meet thebasic needs of each and every person, complete food security has not beenachieved. Food is considered among basic amenities essential for the sustenanceand growth of an individual. It has three dimensions (a) Food availability- total food production including imports andbuffer stocks maintained in government granaries like FCI. (b) Food accessibility- food should be madeavailable or should be in reach of each and every person (c) Food affordability- an individualshould have enough amount of money to purchase proper, safe, healthy andnutritious food to meet his dietary needs. Since 1947, agriculturaldevelopment in India aimed at reducing hunger, food insecurity, malnourishmentand poverty at a rapid rate.

Keeping this goal in mind, the emphasis, which wasinitially on keeping food prices low, shifted to macro food-security andsubsequently to household and individual food-security. Later, the foodsecurity of vulnerable, sustainable use of natural resources, and equitybetween rural and urban or farm and nonfarm population became the issues ofdominant discourse related to agricultural development. The policies andprogrammes related to marketing and trade were obviously guided by the overallobjective sought to be achieved from the agricultural development strategy. Thechanges in marketing environment and production performance of the Indianagricultural sector should, therefore, be viewed in the context of weightage attachedto these objectives at different points of time. India’s agriculturaldevelopment strategy and approach to food security has yet again proved itsresilience in the wake of recent global food emergency, which has createdpolitical and social conflict in several countries of developing world.

Itearlier helped India tide over the severe food crisis of mid1960s within aperiod of one and half decades and also proved its appropriateness in the wakeof economic liberalization and globalization since the early-1990s. Though, India’s performance in terms of reducing hunger and malnutrition has not beenas remarkable as that of China and some East Asian countries, given thepolitical and initial socio-cultural milieu, the achievements have certainlybeen commendable. India’s experience has provided several lessons for thecountries that are struggling to come out of the poverty-malnutrition-hungertrap.