Poverty and Malnourishment in India: Layers of the Onion

Preface: The recent reports of India's world position as a hungry, malnourished country, arrives in stark contrast to its international fame as an emerging economic powerhouse. The view of the Hunger Report from PGI's headquarters in Chennai, (a city in India's 'organized sector') is like viewing the night-sky through a telescope that captures only 5-10% of the star field. As such, PGI spends most of its time in the rural field examining the 'unorganized sector' where most of the billion strong population reside and subsist. From this exposure and experience, PGI finds its voice, and this essay is a primer compilation of the key components in need of discourse. The solution to the malnourishment and poverty of such an unprecedented proportion is complicated and often times discouraging for those who have spent their careers studying its root causes. For PGI, the past four years vested in-theater interfacing with leading scholars, policymakers and NGO's in companion with the farmer, the local panchyats, activists, businesses and Ministry-heads, has created an integrated basis for our opinion.

The following is a summary of the issues in most need of attention. If addressed by the best minds and strongest facilitators we stand a chance of addressing an issue that is-right now- at the tipping point of humanitarian crisis of proportions never before known. PGI invites the input of all those with theories, plans and experiential data that can advance the agenda. PGI also invites all those interested to the UNEP International Year of Biodiversity Celebration in Calcutta this November 22-23, 2010. It is sponsored by Lady Brabourne College and PGI and will highlight the critical issues of crop biodiversity as it relates to food security and the agribusiness industry. It will provide a unique opportunity for scholars, NGO's, inter-government agencies and private industry to club their perspectives and perhaps emerge with a road map for solution. If interested in attending, or would be interested in participating as a speaker, sponsor or planner, contact PGI at info@peerlessgreen.net , subject IYBD.

Author's Note: PGI's role as a facilitator of green business and industry is based on the core multidisciplinary approach that business development must respect the tenants of the Millennium Goals via the UN Global Compact. This is the crux of PGI's Eco-Logical Fox agribusiness initiative. The following editorial identifies those key issues in need of immediate critical attention. These will be the topics of greater empirical and evidentiary discussion at the Calcutta Conference. Addressing the issue of poverty, malnourishment and hunger requires examination of culturally, politically and economically sensitive subjects in conjunction and integration with agricultural and social science. One without the other is not viable. I have written this essay in the plainest sense in order to reach the broadest readership to build capacity. Many facts, figures and empirical evidence of the opinions have been omitted in favor of this goal. Anyone interested in the back-data of any statement herein is welcome to request same at info@peerlessgreen.net subject: ELF -Frank Costanzo, COO, Deborah Connelly, CEO.

Brief Primer re the Roadblocks to Sustainable Food Security and Social Sustainability:

1. Current Economic Factors and Focus
   India has no doubt grown beyond expectations due to the growing consumerism of its population and to a lesser extent its vertical capacity as a source of IT and IT services to developed nations. The image of India, Inc., 'Brand India' promoted by popular media and investment speculators ignores the reality that very little economic prosperity and integration of developed-nation services have reached the 80% of the population that live in the rural areas and Tier II and III cities and hamlets (the 'unorganized sector'). The failure of India to allow for the trickle down of its economic prosperity has created urban islands of prosperity and vast oceans of human and economic distress which has created flashpoints of violent conflict in the North East, South Central East portions of India and the social epidemic of farmer-suicides in the breadbasket areas on the North and South. In essence India's self-consumed focus on breaking the glass ceiling of 10% annual GDP growth, has resulted in a topple prone vertical economy rather than the sustainable pyramid economy that puts its food security and health of its ag sector on a firm foundation. At risk of over-extending the metaphor, the economy and policy is being guided from the top of the precarious tower by leaders and industry who refuse to look down and realize the thinness of their footing as it relates to food security. This will be no CWG scenario wherein the common practice of India improvisation can cover planning failures, token-policies and systemic corruption.
2. Inequity of Natural Resource Management
   Land, water, soil and genetic variation of seed are a few of the issues in immediate need of intense action. Many government websites, if thoroughly researched, reflect that India's water security, both in quality and quantity are over-stressed and deteriorating. 50 foot wells that supported farming in the Western Ghats have now been redrilled to 300+ ft to find a water table. Government reserves of safe public drinking water is almost universally ignored making the sustainability of clean water extremely fragile and susceptible to crisis.
   Land is victim to rampant misappropriation, particularly in the South where land reserved for impoverished farmers (“'B' memo”) is a grey market for wealthy estate holders and public-private partnership allow government lands to be used for massive commercial mono-crop estates that use forest tribals and other disenfranchised as bonded labor.
   The use of fertilizers is largely cost prohibitive to most farmers, and subsidized fertilizers and pesticides are dispensed without adequate capacity-building leading to over-use and poisoning of land and water supplies. Irrigation is common, but upstream mismanagement has lead to water wars between states and communities.
   The introduction of climate resistant seed has fortunately made great progress, however, the economic pressures on farmers- due to their need to incur debt to farm- results in farmers' inconsistency of crops from year to year. Their pursuit is the most cash attractive crop at the moment without consideration with what is best for soil sustainability and longevity of industry.
3. Farming Infrastructure and Practices
   Other than a small sector of commercial scale farms (that have their own set of counter Millennium Goal practices) the bulk of India's food security comes from what Gandhi called 'India's 100,000 villages, that are home to hundreds of millions of farming families who own small land holdings, or are tenant farmers on 'B memo' investment-collective farms. Almost without exception, the farms sustain on the availability of increasingly diminishing irrigated water resources and 'traditional' farming which results in extremely weak crop yields that are susceptible to climate and pestilence. There are many traditional indigenous methods that are in need of study, which if scaled, could compliment modern sustainable farming practices. However, the implementation of new processes and genetically superior varieties is many times hampered by the economic stress that comes with any unknown quantity. From the farmers' perspective as 'what worked for me last year should be fine this year.' In other words, the perceived risk of changing from one crop variety to another, or any process that is not in the immediate bandwidth of 'traditional' (time tested) practices are rebuked. The risk associated with change is loss of land, life, family, social acceptance and abject poverty. Due to the dominating syndicate of non-institutional lender/brokers, the idea of transforming India into a nation of modern sustainable practice family farms is simply nonviable.
4. Cultural Beliefs and Business Practices
   India by and large finances its farming through private lending produce brokers who make direct loans (against deed, against crop, against family gold) to family farmers typically with land holdings of less than one hectare. The emergence of micro-loans by licensed banks and women-lending groups has made tremendous inroads to removing the quasi-bonded labor that farmers are forced into in order to annually harvest crops.
5. Failed Policy Practices
   India Ag policy has no long term sustainable agenda, and is satisfied to initiate short-term, pilot scale demonstrations of infrastructure development and conversion to modern farming practices. Government incentives to farmers rarely reach the farmer intact, being nibbled along the line through the systemic requirement of bribery built into the incentive program. The nature of politics in India is very much built around vote-banks, which lead the politicians into the hinterlands only during election season. Their visits are preceded by 1000's of bigger-than-life banners of the party leader, free TVs, gold give-aways and promotion of plans that have no hope of other than lip service. International humanitarian relief and non-profit investment has been the savior of many a village, however, state and national policy seems to account for this international revenue of assistance as a rationale for not investing the public funds to support and advance micro-advancements. Further, an entire culture of predatory domestic and international NGO's who profiteer from the disaster economics of the humanitarian condition, make immediate the need for enforcement and strict accounting of charitable revenues. Study of outputs should be individually carried on by every charity vested in India.
6. Field to Market Logistics
   The supply line from field to market is a study in systemic corruption and cronyism. The family farmer bears the complete downward pressure of poor production, climatic-related crop losses, inflation of per-acre farming and irregular practices of crop variety, soil management and conversion to novel practices. Farmer crops are typically insufficient to cover loans provided to small families at exorbinent interest rates, the default on which results in the loss of family land holding, threats and acts of violence and community banishment and other draconian measures by lenders which has in recent years led to farmer-suicides, murders and other humanitarian aberrations in record number. Once produce is in the hands of loosely organized brokers, it is stored until demand raises the price to maximize the broker-set's profits. The 'gambling' with food security of the nation often results in 'hording' until the produce has rot and is worthless.
7. Cultural Diet
   Many times overlooked is the lack of complete nourishment related to the modern interpretation of the traditional diet. The historic traditional diet may have been much more complete than its modern counterpart that has been promoted as a cultural and political tool to contain the extent of the problem of national food security. The Rs2 per Kg, Government rice program of low quality, poor nutrient, 'broken' white rice is a government subsidy program in need of complete revisit from its upset of sustainable farming, to the illogical subsidy of a diet 'filler' that keeps a great majority of the population just above the threshold of hunger. Coupled with the 150% inflation of the cost re the staple ingredients of the traditional diet (tomato, onion, potato, carrot, gram) has created a situation reaching tipping point of mass starvation as the household economics has not moved with the inflation of food cost, and thus, less vegetables on the plate, fewer meals per day for hundreds of millions of Indians per day. The rise in these costs have become headline news in urban centers where the rise in price is only a minor inconvenience of budget, and unseen and unheard, the rural populations are facing severe humanitarian crisis and hardship. Organizations such as our fellow partner with UNEP IYBD, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has made tremendous inroads in the understanding and implementation of healthier sources of foodstock and crop biodiversity that promote the true traditional diet that is far more balanced and economically sustainable.