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Population Explosion and Food Security in India..

ood security as defined by the World Development Report 1986 is a situation of “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life”.

The FAO (1983) defined food security as “ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to the basic food they need”. As the world population reaches a stage of more than six billion, to which India contributes one billion, the question regarding the future availability of food for all assumes some importance.

The issues pertaining to population explosion and food security was raised by T.R. Malthus for the first time in 1798. Malthus postulated that population tends to increase by a geometric ratio (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 ) but food production grows by arithmetic ratio (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ). Although the idea was over-simplistic, it is not completely irrelevant.

The gravity of the situation of food security in India can be better understood by a study conducted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which reveals that India faces major challenges on two fronts vis-a-vis food security, i.e., population explosion which has exceeded agricultural growth rate in the post-independence period and the unequal distribution of food resources due to the abysmally low purchasing power of about thirty-five million of the country’s population.

Even if the food is equally distributed, in order to counter the negative impact of population explosion, the agricultural growth rate has to be maintained at a steady 4.5 per cent from 1997 to 2002 to sustain an overall economic growth of 7 per cent. In the circumstances, it is alarming that the average size of operational holdings has come down to less than 1.6 hectare in 1990-91 from 2.3 hectare in 1970-71.

The marginal and the small holdings together constitute over 78 per cent of the total. Given the continued fragmentation of land holdings the technology we are adopting can never be scale neutral.

The problem of food security is compounded by our increasing tendency to depend on a narrow mix of food crops. Thus, the food production systems have become vulnerable to biotic and abiotic stresses. The cultivators in the early periods of civilisation managed such stresses by adopting sustainable agronomic practices like shifting cultivation, mixed cropping, crop rotations and so on.

An instance of the pressure of population making a once-beneficial practice harmful is to be seen in shifting cultivation. As more people require more food and more land, the practice of leaving land fallow long enough to recover is no more practicable, thus rendering shifting cultivation more harmful than useful.

ndependent India, by and large, has been able to avoid large scale deaths caused by famines, by resorting to a multipronged strategy comprising increased food production, augmentation of grain reserves, maintenance of a public distribution system (PDS) and generation of employment. However, hunger caused by under-nutrition continues to be endemic. The protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) in our country is abnormally high in most of the households.

The study done by the National Council for Agricultural and Economic Research (NCAER) suggests that about 80 per cent of India’s rural population and 70 per cent of urban population thrive on less than the recommended levels of calories. It is estimated that by 2025 almost 50 per cent of the Indian population will be residing in urban areas which calls for a substantial shift in the patterns of food cultivation. Since the national average yield of most of the crops is staggeringly low, it is necessary that we bridge the gap between the actual and potential yield through technology transfer so as to ensure food for all.

While it was physical access to food which was important during the first three decades after independence, nowadays the economic access to food has been considered to be more important because of our endemic poverty and the population explosion. By the end of the Ninth Plan India would require about 215 million tonnes of food-grains. But for keeping a food reserve for contingency purposes and for achieving a consistent export target of 5 million tonnes by 2002 AD the demand for food-grains would further grow to 230 million tonnes.

Most of the quantitative and qualitative indicators of food security at the household level are linked to the poverty issue. As Amartya Sen (1981) points out, the poor do not have adequate means or entitlements to secure food, even when food is locally or regionally available. It is interesting to note that merely increase in income does not necessarily ensure improved nutritional status. Access to gainful employment, suitable technologies and other productive resources are important factors influencing under-nutrition.

Planning for the billions

More than half of the seven-billion world population is huddled on three per cent of the earth's land area. But as the recently published U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) report cautions, this should not be taken to mean that the world can mindlessly absorb any number of people for years to come. Nor does it imply that its cities can expand without rethinking their current course. What emerges from the population figures is that there is an urgent need to plan human settlements proactively, using the available land wisely and ensuring that the future population is provided with better places to live in. In the next three decades, much of the population growth will occur in urban areas, and about five billion people will live in cities. Africa and Asia are set to double their urban population in the same period. If the business-as-usual approach continues, this growth is bound to be haphazard and lopsided, throwing up serious problems of population management. Smaller towns that have neither the resources nor the planning infrastructure are absorbing significant numbers of people. For instance, in India, of the 2,774 new urban centres that have emerged in the last decade, 2,532 are census towns or places without a statutory urban local body such as a municipality. This disconnect is an urgent reminder to policymakers that they must strengthen the capacities of smaller towns and enable them to handle the population surge better.

Large urban agglomerations pose a different problem. The number of people residing within the city core has come down because of expensive land prices, but the peripheries have expanded with low densities, consuming more land and forcing long commutes. Mumbai city, for instance, had a negative population growth rate of 5.75 per cent in the last decade, but Thane, its suburb, which is about 40 km away, recorded 36 per cent growth. Such a sprawl means a huge loss of agricultural land, and it pushes the perimeter of urban consumption far beyond its immediate region. If this pattern continues unchecked, the land required to support each person, currently estimated to be 2.7 hectares, will increase and result in an ‘ecological overshoot.' Harnessing the advantages of population growth and stemming the ‘degenerative peripheralisation' are challenging tasks. Recycling urban properties to enhance population densities and planning a balanced regional development could be a way forward. A vital issue of concern is planning for the poor. Studies have shown that a large part of future urban growth will comprise poor people (UNFPA 2007). If the world has to remain slum-free and equitable, providing for the land needs of marginalised people should be a top priority.

AMU chooses Khuldabad site for special centre in Maharshtra

In a step ahead for establishment of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) special campus in Maharshtra, AMU informed the Government of Maharashtra that Khuldabad site comprising 332 acres of land is best suitable to establish the AMU centre.

The Maharashtra government proposed lands in three places-Malegaon, Aurangabad and Khuldabad- for the AMU campus. Recently, an AMU team led by Vice Chancellor PK Abdul Azis inspected the all three sites.

AMU Vice Chancellor, Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis in a letter addressed to Shri Mahesh Pathak, Secretary, Higher and technical Education, Government of Maharashtra said that the power and water availability to the proposed land and the convenience of transferability to AMU as being owned by the Government of Maharashtra besides the logistic facilities were important among other considerations in the selection of Khuldabad site.

A bird's eye view of the Khuldabad site identified for AMU Centre

He appealed that the land should be encumbrances-free and contiguous, measured, fenced up by the government and to be transferred in favour of the Registrar of AMU Aligarh and all the land record handed over to on the day of land transfer.

Prof. Azis also requested to handover the land within a shortest possible time preferably within one month so that the University can prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Detailed Feasibility Report (DFR) for submission to the Government of India and seek the permission of Hon’ble President of India in her capacity as the Visitor of the University as was done in the case of Murshidabad and Malappuram Centre.

Prof. Azis has urged the state Government to give the entire 332 acres of land with addition of 10 acres of land lying adjacent to the social forestry region. He also asked for protected water should be provided by the state Government along with a 33 KV electricity sub-station at the proposed site and the site should be connected by a 30 meter wide road from the national highway within three month.

New AMU Centre in Maharashtra

Maharashtra Minorities Affairs Minister Mohammed Arif Naseem Khan today said efforts are on to finalise a 260-acre plot for setting up a centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) at Khultabad taluka near Aurangabad.
Khan said the centre has decided to set up five centres of the university all over the country, including Maharashtra.
"A Rs 25-crore fund has been sanctioned and a suitable plot for setting up the centre is being searched. The suitable plot is situated at Sulibhanjan, 25 km away from Aurangabad," he added.
An AMU delegation will come to the state to review and finalise the plot. "After their approval, the proposal will be sent to the Revenue department for clearance," he added.
The minister said there were a lot of vacancies for teachers in primary and secondary urdu medium schools in the state because of which students are facing hurdles.
"Rural development and education department should take details of the number of vacancies from the district collectors and take steps to fill the vacancies. The teachers should also get promotions on time," he added.

AMU team to visit Aurangabad for proposed AMU Centre

A six-member team, headed by the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, Prof. P. K. Abdul Azis, will visit Aurangabad (Maharashtra) on October 25-27, 2011 to inspect the sites identified by the District Magistrate, Aurangabad for the establishment of AMU Centre.

The team is visiting the district on the request of Prof. Fauzia Khan, Minister of State for Education, Government of Maharashtra, said Dr. Rahat Abrar, Public Relations Officer, AMU.

The other members of the team include Prof. Anwar Jahan Zuberi, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and former Vice Chancellor, University of Calicut, Prof. Jawaid Akhtar, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies and Research, Prof. Ekram Husain, Principal, Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology, Prof. N. A. K. Durrani, Media Advisor, Prof. M. Saud Alam Qasmi, Former Dean, Faculty of Theology.

India Says Is Now Third Highest Carbon Emitter

India's environment minister said on Monday the country could not have high economic growth and a rapid rise in carbon emissions now that the nation was the number three emitter after China and the United States.
Jairam Ramesh's comments come as negotiators from nearly 200 governments meet in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The U.N. talks aim to reach agreement on what should follow the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the key treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012.
Indian per-capita emissions are still low but demand for energy is rising as the middle-class buys more cars, TVs and better housing. Much of that energy comes from coal oil and gas, the main sources for planet-warming carbon dioxide.
But Ramesh said India's rush for wealth could not come at the expense of the environment.
Officials said his comments are the first time a government minister has said India has overtaken Russia as the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
"We will unilaterally, voluntarily, move on a low-carbon growth path. We can't have 8-9 percent GDP growth and high-carbon growth," Ramesh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in the Nepalese capital.
"It has to be low-carbon 8 percent, 9 percent growth and that is the objective that we have set for ourselves," he said.
Poorer nations are now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and many big developing countries have taken steps to curb the growth of their emissions but say they won't agree on absolute cuts, fearing this will hurt their economies.
India weathered the global financial crisis better than most, and is setting its sights on economic growth of almost 10 percent over the coming years. Its economy currently grows at around 8.5 per cent.
"We are the third largest emitter of the greenhouse gases in the world ... China is number one at 23 percent, the United States is second at about 22 percent and India is number three at about five percent."

GREENER PATH
In India, any talk of a low-carbon economy was once seen as politically very risky, given the economic costs involved. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January asked a panel to begin charting a path to a greener economy. The report is expected by the year-end
Although India has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy, such as solar power, as a key element, coal remains the backbone of energy supply in a country where almost half the 1.1 billion population has no access to electricity.

"The gap between the second and the third (highest emitters) is very very high, but nevertheless we need to be conscious of our contribution," Ramesh said.
The fraught U.N. talks have been hobbled by lack of trust between rich and poor nations over climate funds, demand for more transparency over emissions cut pledges and anger over the size of cuts offered by rich nations.
The risk of the talks stalling is so great that the United Nations has stopped urging nations to commit to tougher pledges to curb carbon emissions, fearing further debate could derail already fraught talks on a more ambitious climate pact.