Food Security?

Food Day was celebrated with view of creating awareness about cooperatives. Activity of farming involves cooperation among many persons. And as farmers, we know this. Some of the Indian states have succeeded well in making effective cooperatives like the state of Maharashtra. Some states have made very good milk cooperatives, like the state of Gujarat. All cooperatives do not work out well in all states. Sometimes government's interference is not always fruitful. Autonomous cooperatives are better in giving better outputs and in creating satisfactory sharing relationships among farming community. We have progressed well in helping the farming communities. National Cooperatives Development Cooperation(NCDC) has made farming highly profitable. From weather to market trends, from seeds to harvests, farmer gets assistance. ICT services are available to the farmer, MMS or mobile calls are sent to help the farmer, Internet has helped the farmer in a big way.NCDC was established by an ACT of Parliament in 1963. Recently SRI system  was used for intensive rice cultivation, and ICRISAT has helped farmers farm better. We have success stories like NAFED which is a cooperative. IFFCO was made in 1975 to distribute fertilisers to the farmers.AGROMET is effective in bringing technology to the people. In the state of Arunachal Pradesh, eArik is highly effectual; there is hope more success stories will emerge.
As long as we keep the farmer central in farming there is hope for more and more development. By bringing in FDI in farming sector, there is coporatation of agriculture. Easily multi million companies will buy out the farmer.We cannot outsource the farmer, because we are a nation of farmers. Agriculture is not a  business, it is a way of life for the people of India. If small and marginal farmers do no cooperate, then Public Private Partnership models may take over their lands and weaken the farming community.  At first PPP(Public Private Partnership) might make the farmer a partner in progress, but later on, they would get rid of the farmer in their business.Strength of the farmer lies in their unity--united in cooperatives.Thus awareness must be created among farmers to realise their position in these precarious times. Participatory organisations will emerge among the rural people,somehow.
Food Security Bill has been proposed and is yet to be passed. Alterations in the Bill may make it less effective. And its intentions have become diluted. Standing Committee is determined to make it into a legislation. Meanwhile, large amount of grains lie rotting in government's storehouses. Sometimes trains dump the grains as there is no place to store it in. There was bumper crop this year, but food prices are rising instead. While we buy grains like rice and wheat in ever increasing costs, the produce of the land goes wasted.And the real poor go hungry, their children are malnourished. Distribution policies are ineffective, and management of food grains is poor. This has resulted in a loss of 1.3 billion tonnes of grains,down the drain...while millions go without food. Government is grossly mismanaged. We cannot outsource them! So we have food security because granaries are full. But we cannot secure food for the poor because the government is inefficient. These are our thoughts on World Food Day today--October 16