● issues of buffer stocks and food security; Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Q2. What is Food systems transformation and how can India ensure food security, mitigate climate change impacts, and improve nutritional outcomes in its agri-food sector by 2047?
Food systems transformation is the process of reshaping the way food is organised to achieve desired outcomes, such as food security, healthy diets, and a healthy planet. The World Bank created the Food Systems 2030 Umbrella Multi-Donor Trust Fund in 2020 to achieve these goals. Food systems must be transformed to become more sustainable, efficient and resilient, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life.
Food systems:
● Food systems are the combination of all actions it takes to produce and consume our food on a day-to-day basis – from farm to fork to landfill.
● Food systems include any activity that produces, aggregates, processes, distributes, consumes or disposes of food.
● Resetting our food system s is urgent.
● Food systems have fed a growing population, but the cost is unsustainable.
● Current food systems often encroach on natural habitats, pollute the planet, exacerbate rural poverty and underlie ill health and disease.
● Market and government failures impose high costs on society and the environment.
Need for food system transformation:
● Poverty and hunger are increasing in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, while the majority (79%) of the world’s poor continue to live in rural areas.
● Over 800 million people are hungry and 3 billion people are malnourished.
● Food systems produce around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, while agriculture is the largest user of land and water, accounting for 70 percent of water use.
● Reducing the emissions of “hidden” environmental, health, and poverty costs is estimated at almost US$12 trillion per year, compared to US$10 trillion in market value.
● 1/3 of food produced globally is either lost or wasted, while food loss and waste is a major contributor to global emissions.
● Meanwhile, millions of people are either not eating enough or eating the wrong types of food, resulting in a double burden of malnutrition that can exacerbate illnesses and health crises.
Food transformation measures required in India:
1.Transforming Food Systems: Increasing production efficiency amidst resource scarcity to meet growing demands sustainably.
2.Building Climate Resilience: Investing in agriculture to withstand extreme weather events caused by global warming effectively.
3.Revolutionising Urban Food Distribution: Overcoming challenges of urbanisation through comprehensive logistics strategies for seamless food supply chains.
4.Fostering Institutional Integration: Uniting smallholder farmers through cooperative models to enhance market access and productivity in agriculture.
5.Ensuring Nutritional Wellness: Strengthening staple foods with essential micronutrients to combat malnutrition and promote public health.
6.Facilitating Collaborative Progress: Engaging public-private partnerships to drive innovation and efficiency in the agricultural sector.
7.Empowering Farmers’ Livelihoods: Restructuring subsidy mechanisms to directly benefit farmers and reinvesting savings for sustainable agricultural development.
8.Improving farmers’ incomes requires redirecting subsidies to direct income transfers, potentially saving 25-30% of the Rs 4 trillion subsidy on food and fertilisers for reinvestment in food systems.
India’s agri-food sector needs a comprehensive approach focused on innovation, resilience, and collaboration. It must prioritise sustainable practices, climate adaptation, and nutritional security, with supportive policies and partnerships driving transformative change for a prosperous future.
Source Indian express
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/new-goverment-must-fix-indias-food-systems-9270225/