Food security is one of the major components of
social security. It consists of ensuring that food is
available at all times, that all persons have means of
and access to it, that it is nutritionally adequate in
terms of quantity, quality and variety, and that it is
acceptable within the given culture. There are three
elements in this definition, availability, access and
suitability. In recent years, nutrition has been
considered as part of food security. The National
Development Council (NDC) in its 53rd meeting held on
May 29, 2007 adopted a resolution to launch a Food
Security Mission -- comprising rice, wheat and pulses --
to increase the production of rice by 10 million tons,
wheat by 8 million tons and pulses by 2 million tons by
the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12).
Accordingly, a Centrally-sponsored scheme, viz. National
Food Security Mission (NFSM) was launched from 2007-08
to operationalise the above mentioned resolution.
National Food Security Bill was introduced in the Lok
Sabha on 22 December 2011. As per the provisions of the
Bill, it is proposed to provide 7 kilograms of
foodgrains per person per month belonging to priority
households at prices not exceeding 3 per kilogram of
rice, 2 per kilogram of wheat, and 1 per kilogram of
coarse grains and to general households not less than 3
kilogram of foodgrains per person per month at prices
not exceeding 50 percent of the minimum support price
(MSP) for wheat and coarse grains and derived MSP for
rice. The present volume consists of 15 research papers
on the subject of food security, contributed by scholars
in the field. The issues raised in different papers add
constructively to the current debate on this sensitive
subject of national importance.
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