Publication

Abstract : There has been remarkable achievement by Indian State in agricultural growth trans-forming the economy from a net importer of agricultural products to a net exporter over the decades. Similar remarkable achievements can also be seen in terms of good grain stock and addressing famine like situations. Post Bengal famine, India has not seen a disaster of that magnitude in following decades that can be attributed to phenomenal sensibility and achievement by Indian State. However, these achievements have come with a cost to the society. In recent time, the issues relating to food inaction has led to the debate on the factors behind this. There are several viewpoints that ascribe the char-acteristic and causes of this and hence, the implications on food security issues. Firstly, supply side bottlenecks in terms of stagnated production of food grains are considered as one of the important factors. Secondly, with the increase in income among the rural population (as advocated through the success of MGNREGA programmes) the demand side factors also arguably play important role in increasing the good prices. A third lines argument comes from the systemic bottleneck that leads to inefficiency in bridging the gap between supply and demand. One of the simplest ways to look at inefficiency is wastage. Other factors of inefficiency may also include inefficient market due to many layers of imperfection between the producers and consumers that play a role in escalating the prices and hence accessibility. Besides, degradation of soil and land, unavailability of water, stagnancy in technological growth, diversification are some other crucial viewpoints describing inefficiency in the system. There are some elements of truth in all these viewpoints.We, therefore, in our paper, intend to understand the agricultural scenario in last few decades to verify the intensity of truth in some of the above mentioned viewpoints. Besides, we would attempt to understand if there are possible policy gaps that can address these issues. Considering all these aspects, in the present paper we are briefly analyzing the overall scenario of agricultural sector, especially from the food security point of view. We will do so by looking at demand side and supply side factors along with the ecological factors, technology, credit and market imperfection. These issues would be synthesized considering the broader agricultural and food policies and gaps therein.