Low productivity and large regional differences in yield imply that there is ample scope to increase production and bridge the yield gaps.
Low productivity and large regional differences in yield imply that there is ample scope to increase production and bridge the yield gaps.
T here has been a decline in the per capita availability of food (rice) in the country. It reached an all-time low of 64 kg per annum in 2008–09, 20 kg less than the minimum annual requirement of a normal person (NSSO survey). With Indians being largely rice consumers, this declining productivity of the crop is of national concern.
To meet the nutritional needs of the people, food production has to be more than double of what it is. There are several factors affecting the productivity of food in the country. There are the biotic causes such as pests, weeds infestation, diseases and genetic decline, and the abiotic stress that includes problematic weather aberrations due to climate change such as flooding and drought, temperature fall, frost, submergence and cyclone. In addition, the country has to deal with year-toyear fluctuations in production and the fact that the sector loses around 40 per cent of its crop production annually, to system inefficiency and wastage. The loss affects household food security, particularly among the small and marginal farmers and the poor.
The picture becomes grimmer because of the stagnation of land under food crops. The pressure of increased population and the spate of urbanization add to the problem. The focus has to be on increasing the productivity of the land, to ensure food security at various levels (global, national and household levels). The smallholders in rain-fed areas, where a majority of the hungry people live (79 per cent of the poor in India live in rain-fed areas), are vulnerable to the low-level productivity trap as well as violent price volatility.