<\/p>\n
Context: <\/span><\/b>Its golden chapter was scripted in an environment of low global commodity prices and surplus domestic foodgrain production. That party is over, even as food inflation is back.<\/p>\n (1) In 2020-21, Agriculture was the only sector to grow at 3.3%, even as the economy overall contracted by 4.8%. The farm sector added <\/span>11 million<\/span><\/b> when the rest of the economy shed 15 million jobs from <\/span>2019-20 to 2021-22.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (2) Till <\/span>2015-16<\/span><\/b>, only a handful of states \u2014 Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal had a well-functioning PDS. In 2020-21, <\/span>India\u2019s public distribution system (PDS<\/span><\/b>) reforms were seen in <\/span>Bihar, Jharkhand<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>Uttar Pradesh (UP)<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As per the <\/span>NITI Aayog\u2019s National Multidimensional Poverty Index<\/span><\/b>, the <\/span>offtake of rice and wheat<\/span><\/b> significantly increased both at the <\/span>all-India level<\/span><\/b> and for the three poorest states<\/span> Bihar, Jharkhand<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>Uttar Pradesh (UP)<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (3) The PDS was expanded beyond rice and wheat in some states. For example, Kerala leveraged its PDS network to supply <\/span>free food kits<\/span><\/b> to all ration card holders during the 2020 Covid lockdown.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (4) Unlike the <\/span>1943 Bengal<\/span><\/b> or <\/span>1966-67 Bihar famines<\/span><\/b>, this time India was able to avert widespread starvation during the Covid-19 pandemic. On 2020-21, the PDS system turned out to be the only <\/span>effective social safety net<\/span><\/b> amid massive job and income losses during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The National Food Security Act (NFSA) <\/span><\/b>along with <\/span>PMGKAY<\/span><\/b> has led to a massive jump in grain offtake through the PDS.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (1) The NFSA legally entitled <\/span>5 kg <\/span><\/b>of grain per person per month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 2\/kg for wheat and Rs 3\/kg for rice up to 75% of India\u2019s rural and 50% of the urban population.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (2) <\/span>The<\/span><\/b> Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) scheme<\/span><\/b> was launched in the wake of the Covid-induced economic disruptions. It mandated an extra 5 kg grain per person per month free of cost to the PDS beneficiaries.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both the schemes led to increase in the offtake of the food grain in the poorer states like UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. The offtake of these states increased from 21.6% in 2012-13 to 28.6% in 2021-22.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This year, the<\/span> procurement<\/span><\/b> of food grain is likely to be short. The <\/span>wheat procurement<\/span><\/b> can be low due to poor crop yield owing to bad weather in March 2022. The <\/span>rice procurement<\/span><\/b> can be challenged due to disruption in supply of fertilisers in the Kharif season.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Food Corporation of India\u2019s stocks<\/span><\/b> can probably sustain the annual offtake for NFSA. But <\/span>PMGKAY<\/span><\/b> offtake can see challenges.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At present, the<\/span> global food inflation <\/span><\/b>is posing a challenge. The PDS is mandated to protect ordinary people from <\/span>extraordinary price rises.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article \u201cPDS has had a spectacular run. That may not last<\/strong>\u201d published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 27<\/strong><\/span>th April 2022.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Context: Its golden chapter was scripted in an environment of low global commodity prices and surplus domestic foodgrain production. That party is over, even as food inflation is back. Why was the 2020-21 year very important for the agricultural sector?\u00a0 (1) In 2020-21, Agriculture was the only sector to grow at 3.3%, even as the… Continue reading PDS has had a spectacular run. That may not last<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-181555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why was the 2020-21 year very important for the agricultural sector?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
What were the factors responsible for improved functioning of the PDS system in 2020-21?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
What are the upcoming challenges to India\u2019s food security?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n