Konark Sikka is an intern with IFPRI- South Asia office
Women Farmer Winnowing Rice, Bihar. Source (Flickr) Divya Pandey, IFPRI
Over the years investments in food and nutritional security have shown significant improvement in Bihar, but year-to-year fluctuations in agricultural production aggravated due to climate change, infrastructure problems, and slow progress in nutrition improvement have hampered the translation of investments into outcomes and impacts.
In a recent consultation on Food Security Portal Partnership and Policy Dialogue in India: Emerging Food Security Issues in Bihar organized by A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies (ANSISS) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Patna, Bihar discussed the strategies for making food system efficient and effective in Bihar. The consultation also aimed to understand other emerging issues in Bihar i.e. water management, nutrition and diversification and markets for food security.
Availability, access and absorption has been the main dimensions towards food and nutritional security. Over the years farmers are coping up with the emerging challenges of drought, flood, large yield gaps, irrigation, and lack of infrastructure, markets and information. Technologies and strategies are needed to increase production and yield with an increasingly challenge of climate change to which Bihar farmers are extremely vulnerable. Both short and long term mitigation strategies are needed with policy action of both production as well as consumption side. Steps such as diversification of crops, increase in adoption of hybrid seeds and other technologies such as direct seeding of rice, permanent raised beds, laser land leveling and the creation of climate smart villages were proposed as strategic possibilities.
Among several studies, a unique case study of a unique initiative called Bhungroo technology was also presented. This large scale experiment essentially prevents water logging during the monsoons and helps maintain water availability during the winters. The usage of this technology was seen to have increased farmers’ incomes and was beneficial to female headed households as well.
On the consumption side, most of the discussion focused on public distribution system (PDS) where Bihar is perceived to have turned a corner. In recent years, analysts believe that through public distribution system in the state, a higher provision of grains has been reaching households and this has resulted in higher calories consumption. There was also an increased provision of supplies to consumers who held below poverty line cards, hence indicating that the PDS in Bihar has been increasingly inclusive as well.
Yet another flagship program of the government i.e. Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), the evaluation of which was also presented does not present an equally happy picture. Under the ICDS, research shows that richer households had a lower probability of taking up the program, when they did take up the program, they took up the supplemental food program. This crowded out economically weaker households leading, further marginalizing their accessibility to the scheme. Across all these studies a common constraint for food security and nutrition related work in Bihar that was emphasized was severe lack of credible data. Even at more aggregate level such as district, unavailability/ inconsistency of data has been a binding factor in creation of district nutrition profiles which is an important need for targeted policies to improve nutrition in Bihar.
The workshop led to a comprehensive stock taking of the situation of agriculture and food security in Bihar. Issues were discussed with ways forward and suggestions were made by various participants with a vibrant exchange of ideas on the public distribution system, nutrition, growth, climate change and vulnerability of households. The major way forward towards investment, and policy research are
- Increase investment in public infrastructure (roads, electricity, and communication) that reduces transportation and transaction costs and induces the private investment in value chains (cold storage, refrigerated transport, etc.)
- Prioritize research agenda towards multi-disciplinary issues in farming for example, rain water harvesting, management of natural resources and management practices for alleviating abiotic constrains
- With refined indicators in the district nutrition profiles, engage with Bihar nutrition technical support unit and other partners to strengthen district-level dialogue and action using nutrition profiles
This workshop is part of IFPRI’s on-going work on the Food Security Portal Partnership and Policy Dialogue in India, which is supported by Swiss Development Corporation. The project is led by IFPRI’s Markets, Trade and Institution Division in collaboration with South Asia Regional office in New Delhi. The first phase covers the states Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.