Cropping towards commercialisation: Are we neglecting food security? (A case study of Karnataka state)

The recent spikes in the global food prices have once again brought back the concerns of food security at the forefront of policy agenda of many countries, including India. The heightened concerns over food security since 2007 were not only manifested from growth in food prices, but also ineffectiveness of policy measures in dealing with such a situation. In the new economic policy regime, commercialization of agriculture and diversification of area away from traditional foodgrain to non-foodgrain (and grains not used for consumption) crops have ironically received significant boost from both the state and the market, compromising food security concerns altogether. Moreover, stagnancy in the yield rates of wheat and rice in major food supplying states and government's intension to implement “National Food Security Bill” on wider scale make it necessary to revisit and address food security concerns at the state level. In this background, the paper attempts to analyse the shift in the cropping pattern from food to (non-foodgrain) commercial crops and investigate into implications of such shift on the food-security of Karnataka State.

Our analysis in this regard provides the following insights. First, cropping pattern in the state has witnessed shift is towards non-foodgrain commercial crops as well as foodgrain maize. This shift as far as food security of the state is concerned is not favorable. The poor man's staple food, coarse cereals have significantly lost their area to maize and other non-foodgrains. Second, the negative growth in production of coarse cereals and sluggishness in the wheat and rice is serious threat to the food security of Karnataka as well as future food security of the country. Third, the per capita per day foodgrain availability at the disposal of state is continuously declining over the period of time. With increase in the production of maize since early 1990s, the overall trend in the per capita foodgrain availability is getting far inflated and policy suggestions based on these may undermine food security concerns of the state. And finally, at the policy front, coarse cereals need to be promoted with the needful interventions on technology market and prices fronts to tackle the prospective problem of food-insecurity in the state.