Food Security and Calorie Adequacy Across States:Implications for Reform

This paper examines some of the issues regarding food security and their implications for the PDS reform at the state-level from the perspective of changing consumer choices and preferences dictated largely by availability. Judged by conventional measures, there has been a substantial improvement in food security across states in India. However, actual levels of cereal consumption, an important indicator of food security in a poor developing country, have declined in the majority of the states under changing institutional and production conditions. Thus, the task for the 'Human Face' of the reform programme is not, as conventionally posed, that of minimising the reductions likely to be caused by the economic reforms, rather it is one of stopping the ongoing decline and preventing a likely acceleration in the decline in cereal consumption and calorie intake. The solution for these issues seems to be a set of integrated, targeted and appropriately weighted policies across states.