Concerned Indian Views: October 2015

Food Production Planning for Implementing Food Security at District Level in Remote Areas – A New Concept

R C Srivastava

Food security act of central government is a milestone in managing hunger in country especially in rural areas. As per provisions of act, , about 75% of rural population and 50% urban population are expected to be covered by this scheme. It is proposed that per capita 5 kg of food grain per month will be provided to the population covered. While the scheme is very much essential and will fulfil the objective of a social welfare state, it is necessary to think about the consequences on local production systems as well as ways the scheme can be implemented at least economic burden in far flung areas. It has been experienced in areas affected by natural disasters that if free/highly subsidized ration is distributed for a long time, the local production system starts deteriorating. The experience of Nicobar district of A & N Islands in post tsunami period when free ration was provided to a part of population showed that it affected the local production system very adversely. The availability of highly subsidized foodgrains suppress the local food prices and thus growing food grains locally will be not remain profitable. As these areas are not surplus in food grains, there is no official agency to make procurement and therefore the prices will be market driven. This will reduce the food grain production. Although no data is available on contribution of such marginalized areas in total food production of country, it will be significant as well as a vital part of local economy and employment generation. To achieve both objectives of providing food security of people as well as the maintaining productivity of area, it essential to examine which approach will be better: procuring from surplus states and transporting to the last village of the nook and corner of the country; OR identifying potential production hub on the line of special economic zone named as special agriculture production zone(SAPZ) in these far flung areas, and developing them to provide required food grains to target population. This article examines both approaches for rural areas of Andaman & Nicobar Islands as well as Keonjhar district of Odisha, and finds that an approach of identifying potential production hub in these far flung areas, and developing them to provide required food grains to targeted population of that district works very well.

Nicobar district

The total geographical area of A&N Islands is 8,249 sq km, which is distributed in 556 islands spread over a north south stretch of 800 Km (Fig. 1). The forests in A&N Islands occupy about 92.2 percent of the total geographical area in which about 87 percent area is under legally notified forest. Remaining area is available for agriculture and allied activities. The area of Andaman group of islands is 6,408 sq km whereas the Nicobar group of islands is 1,841 sq km. The statistical details of area and population of different districts and blocks of the A&N Islands are given in Table 1. The total population in these islands is about 3,56,152 (Population Census, 2001) with a growth rate of about 26.9 percent in the last decade. However, during 2001-2011 decade, the population has increased just by 23000 and provisional population figure is 3.79 lakhs.

Table 1. Area and population in different districts and blocks in A&N Islands

Districts	Blocks	Area (km²)	Population (2001 Census)
Andaman	Port Blair Ferrargunj Little Andaman	2,021 1,085 ---	1,42,317 48,626 17,528
Nicobar	Car Nicobar Nancowry Campbell bay	129 1,712 ---	20,292 13,472 8,214
North & Middle Andaman	Diglipur Mayabunder Rangat	884 1,348 1,070	42,877 23,912 38,824

Anyone familiar with island conditions knows that the transport of foodgrains required under food security bill to scattered islands will be a major bottleneck. Fig. 1 & 2 provides the production to consumption chain for both Andaman and Nicobar Group of Islands. It is evident from figures that in Andaman group of islands there are four production centres, Diglipur in north Andaman island, Rangat in middle Andaman island, Neil & Havelock islands and Little Andaman island and one major consumption centre, i.e. Port Blair city. However, there is deficit in almost all items which is met by import from mainland. In addition all supplies under Public distribution System is totally dependent upon imports from mainland. The situation in Nicobar islands is even more problematic where all requirement is met from imports either from Andaman group of islands or from mainland.

Fig. 3 presents flow chart of PDS rice supply to different islands of Nicobar. It is estimated that 1 kg of normal rice will cost about ` 50/- by the time it reaches to consumer in remote island. With government planning to provide the rice at ` 3/- per kg, the subsidy per kg will be about ` 47/- per kg. Since there is no urban area, the population to be covered will be about 37500 (75% of 50000). As the population is mainly rice eating, it can be assumed that about 2/3^rd of food entitlement of 5 kg per capita per month will be in terms of rice. This will require an annual supply of about 1500 t of rice. The total subsidy bill on rice will be about Rupees 70 million per annum. This expenditure will neither bring any additional income to the people of the district nor generate any local employment.

Now let us examine the feasibility of producing this requirement locally. As per CARI (2009), Campbell Bay and Katchal islands have about 1000 ha paddy lands. However during tsunami, these lands were damaged and the long gap of rehabilitation period coupled with free supply of ration has made paddy production unviable. If rice is made available at ` 3/- per kg, there will be no incentive for rice cultivation in this area. The problem has further been compounded by higher labour wages. Thus if not properly planned, these paddy lands will turn in wasteland while government will be spending ` 100 million per annum to implement food security provisions. However, if these lands are reclaimed, and suitable mechanism of production, procurement and processing are developed, these paddy lands can easily fulfil the requirement of 1500 t of milled rice at an easily achievable paddy productivity of 3 t/ha.

To achieve this, we need a properly supported production system, procurement system, milling infrastructure, and distribution system. A properly supported production system in terms of input supply and initial land development for 1000 ha can easily produce more than 3000 tonnes of rice fulfilling requirement of food security system i.e., 1500 t milled rice. However the production system can work only if this rice is procured at special rate, i.e. at a higher rate commensurate to the local conditions of higher wages and higher cost of inputs. Suppose the rice production is put in place and procured locally at about 50% higher rate than prevalent procurement rate at national level, the cost of milled rice will be about ` 25/- per kg. Adding another ` 10/- per kg towards cost of milling, procurement cost, and other handling cost, the cost of rice will not rise beyond ` 35/- per kg. This will save about ` 15/- kg of rice, making an annual saving of about ` 31.5 million. Besides, it will create employment potential of between 2 to 3 lakhs mandays in production, procurement, processing to distribution.

Keonjhar district

Keonjhar district is located in northen part of the state of Odisha lying between 85^◦ 11’ and 86^◦ 22’ longitude and 21^◦ 11’ N and 22^◦ 10’ N latitudes and situated around 480 feet above the sea level, with predominant population being tribal (about 44% as per census 2001) and about 12% SC. As per district statistical handbook (DES, 2007), the paddy productivity was 2.06 t/ha equivalent to rice productivity of 1.36t/ha in 2008-09 much less than national average (2.13 t/ha) and lower than average productivity of Odisha state (1.55t/ha). These yield levels are also a bit illusory as this was an excess rainfall year with rainfall being 11% higher than normal, and only 26% area under irrigation during kharif season. During rabi, this is just around 4%. As evident from population data, the share of vulnerable population (Sc & ST) is quite high, and therefore this district can be termed as priority district for food security bill adoption. The total population as per 2011 census was 18.02 lakhs with a decadal growth rate of 15.42% out of which 14.04% was urban population. Taking 75% of rural population and 50% of urban population to be covered under food security bill, the total population to be covered will be 13.9 lakhs which will need about 0.84 lakh t cereals. Assuming 67 % rice and rest wheat to make up this supply, the requirement will be 56000 t of rice and 28000 t of wheat. Since Keonjhar is a deficit district with no public procurement, any supply of this amount of food grain from outside the district will suppress the prices in the market which will hurt the small and marginal farmers. The estimated net returns from paddy cultivation is already negative (including imputed value of family labours and rental value of land in cultivation cost) due to low productivity (DES, 2010). Thus, it is essential to plan a strategy for enhancing production through improved paddy productivity to meet this requirement under this scheme. It is proposed to create Special Agricultural Production Zones (SAPZ) on the line of Special Economic Zones in each block to provide this production, which will be procured by the agency responsible for implementing this program, processed and delivered within the block. This will enhance the productivity, income of farmers as well as reduce the overhead cost of the scheme. To achieve this it will be required that about 15000 ha area is put under rice-wheat rotation with reliable irrigation facilities, assured supply of inputs, viz., seed, fertilizer and plant protection chemicals both in terms of quality and quantity, and assured procurement at suitable remunerative prices. Although the scheme can be distributed in already irrigated areas but it will better to take up rainfed areas to ensure removal of inequality in different areas of a district. As the district is already covered under National Food security Mission, the benefits such as crop demonstrations, distribution of agricultural inputs, soil acidity amelioration, pest control measures and organization of Farmer Field Schools can be exploited to increase the yield in the district.

Srivastava et al (2009) demonstrated that with proper rain water management through tank cum well system (Fig. 5), a reliable two crop irrigation system can be developed. This system was demonstrated at two sites in Keonjhar district (Patna and Keonjhar block) and were found performing very satisfactorily. Evaluating strategy for optimum utilization of this water resource, Kannan et al (2004) found that with full input supply and reliable irrigation, rice yield of 3.80 t/ha can be easily achieved. Similarly the yield of wheat in farmers’ field was found 1.8t/ha. These yields were for the first two years when farmers had just started to shift from rainfed farming to irrigated farming. With time the yields are expected to further improve. The area in each block to be made in SPAZ is given in Table 2. The population of block include urban population of urban centre in that block.

Table 2: Area of SAPZ in each block

Sl.No.	Block	Targeted Population (estimated as per 2011 census	Food requirement as per food security bill provisions, t		Area of SAPZ, ha,	% of rice area and net sown area
Sl.No.	Block	Targeted Population (estimated as per 2011 census	Rice	Wheat	Area of SAPZ, ha,	Rice	Net sown
1	Anandpur	120006	4824	2376	1206	19	13
2	Bansapal	74312	2987	1471	747	12	4
3	Champua	86985	3497	1722	874	7	6
4	Ghasipura	115713	4651	2291	1163	6	6
5	Ghatagaon	88398	3554	1750	888	8	5
6	Harichandanpur	105923	4258	2097	1064	10	6
7	Hatadihi	128113	5150	2536	1288	9	9
8	Jhumpura	84596	3401	1675	850	9	6
9	Joda	183482	7376	3633	1844	61	35
10	Keonjhar	172075	6917	3407	1729	11	9
11	Patna	80084	3219	1586	805	6	4
12	Saharpada	68428	2751	1355	688	6	4
13	Telkoi	74877	3010	1483	753	6	5
	Total	1382990	55596	27383	13899	9	7

It is evident that only 4 to 13% of net cropped area or about 6 to 19% of rice area in different blocks, except Joda block which is a mining dominant area, will require to be converted in Special Agriculture Production Zone. This indicates that this approach of locally producing food grains to meet the requirement of food security bill provision is feasible. Thus, this approach of producing locally, processing and distributing it on block level will take care of concerns raised against the provisions, viz., i) The offtake to meet these requirement will put pressure on the market and will lead to spiral of prices in open market; ii) The existing public distribution system will not be able to meet this requirement. Further it will boost the employment opportunities on local level in all three stages, viz. production, post harvest processing, procurement and distribution (Fig. 7). It is estimated that providing irrigation through tank cum well system of rain water management to about 14000 ha will require an investment of around ` 1400 million and additional ` 100 million for infrastructure to provide quality input, procurement, and processing facilities. This will facilitate a single agency being entrusted for ensuring higher production, its procurement, processing and distribution at local self government level. This will be a paradigm shift in institutional arrangements to the provisions of food security bill where central government is placed under obligation of procuring foodgrains in central pool, allocating to state governments, transporting to different states and state governments obliged to intra state allocation, transport and distribution to the last leg (Fig. 6) . This will reduce the administrative cost significantly. Assuming a saving of ` 5 per kg in wastage and transport, the economic burden of the bill will be reduced by about ` 450 million. Besides, this approach will also generate employment potential of about 12 million (10 mandays per tonne) mandays in additional production, procurement, processing and distribution.

References

CARI (2009) Water Policy for Andaman Islands, A Scientific Perspective. CARI Publication. Central Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair

DES (2007), District Statistical Handbook, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Odisha.

DES (2010), Cost of cultivation of principal crops in India, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of India.

Kannan K., Srivastava, R.C., Mohanty, S., Das, M., and Sahoo, N. (2004). Stretegies for adoption of crop production practices in watershed management programme. Indian J. Of Soil Conservation.32(3):225-227.

Srivastava, R.C. Kanana, K., Mohanty, S., Nanda, P, Sahoo, N., Mohanty, R.K. and Das, M. 2009. Rainwater management for smallholder irrigation and its impact on crop yields in eastern India. Water Resource Management 23:1237-1255