Insights from policy strategist Amba Jamir at the Food System Summit India 2024
At the Food System Summit India 2024 in New Delhi, Amba Jamir, a strategist in policy and development and also the founder of Sustainable Development Forum Nagaland (SDFN), delivered an eye-opening critique of the Public Distribution System (PDS), explaining its unintended impacts on traditional farming and sustainable diets in India’s northeastern states. While the PDS has long supported food security, Jamir highlighted how its subsidized food distribution, especially rice, has reshaped agricultural practices, reduced biodiversity, and altered local diets, particularly in the ecologically diverse and culturally rich hills of Nagaland and beyond.
“The Public Distribution Service (PDS), as a government initiative to provide food security to India’s population, is a well-known scheme with numerous pros and cons,” Jamir stated. “For decades, it has distributed subsidized food and non-food items to India’s poor through a network of fair price shops, primarily distributing essential commodities like rice, wheat, sugar, and kerosene. This initiative has ensured that these essentials are available to the economically weaker sections of society at affordable prices.”
Jamir acknowledged the critical role the PDS has played in managing supply and controlling prices, contributing to the country’s poverty alleviation and hunger eradication efforts. However, he pointed out that the system faces several challenges and criticisms, including inefficiencies, corruption, and the poor quality of food grains. “There are numerous studies and reports that have dwelled on the gaps, ranging from inefficiency and corruption to leakage and diversion of grains to open markets, waste of food grains, and logistics issues,” he noted.
While acknowledging these issues, Jamir emphasized that not much has been studied or written about the negative impacts of the PDS, particularly concerning traditional food production systems and foodways. “The PDS has been crucial in ensuring food security and affordability, but it has inadvertently led to negative consequences, especially in the biodiversity-rich hilly regions of Nagaland and India’s Northeast,” he explained.
Jamir elaborated on the unique biodiversity of the Northeast region, describing it as “a biodiversity hotspot that houses more than one-third of the country’s total biodiversity.” He emphasized its significance, stating, “The Northeast is home to a rich variety of flora and fauna, with a high level of endemism,” and pointed out that it is considered the native origin of over 20 major agricultural and horticultural crops.
The traditional agricultural practices of the region, particularly shifting cultivation, known as “jhum,” are vital in maintaining this agrobiodiversity. “Shifting cultivation is not just an agricultural method; it is a holistic system that integrates biodiversity conservation, sustainable land use, and cultural heritage,” Jamir asserted. He provided examples of the rich agrobiodiversity maintained by local farmers, highlighting that in Chetheba village, Phek district, farmers grow 167 types of crops, with diverse jhum fields cultivating between 18 and 60 varieties. In Wokha village, Wokha district, Nagaland, there were 18 residual crops even after the harvest.
However, the PDS has disrupted these traditional practices by providing cheap, subsidized rice. “By providing affordable and cheap subsidized rice through the PDS, the government inadvertently reduced the incentive for farmers to produce their own rice,” he explained. This shift has led to farmers increasingly relying on PDS rice instead of cultivating their own, thereby destabilizing local food production systems.
According to Jamir, the area for food production, which included the production of other primary or secondary crops, has reduced as farmers typically cropped alongside or around the rice cultivation areas. This has impacted the diversity, quantity, and availability of vegetables, tubers, or other leafy greens that used to be freely available to shifting cultivators.
“For some families, the reduced availability not only impacted their nutritional intake or sustainable diets (as they were dependent on basics only), which were natural and seasonal, but also their income from selling such crops,” he added.
He also pointed out that this situation has impacted farmers’ crop and seed selection, as they opted to grow crops that had more market demand, leading to the abandonment of many traditional seeds and reduced mixed cropping practices. “It impacted the ways farmers started selecting the locations for their fields. Many farmers have opted for sedentary fields for vegetable farming and chosen locations that were close to the main roads,” he noted.
According to Jamir, the reduction in the number of families practicing shifting cultivation greatly impacted the entire system and its institutions because the practice and management of shifting cultivation occur at the landscape level, not the farm level. “As farmers shift away from traditional crops, the rich agrobiodiversity associated with shifting cultivation is threatened. Many indigenous varieties of crops and wild food sources may be lost, impacting long-term food security and resilience,” he added.
Moreover, he noted that as younger generations opt for easier access to food through the PDS, they risk losing the intricate knowledge associated with shifting cultivation, including seed selection and resource management. This reduction in traditional practices may also contribute to deforestation and the permanent conversion of forest land for other purposes, jeopardizing both biodiversity and food security.
“While the PDS provided rice-based food security, it reduced the income of farmers who traditionally relied on selling their products, especially rice, as well as locally grown or collected fruits and vegetables,” he said.
“The reduction of rice cultivation has not only impacted its availability for human consumption but also affected other income-generating activities of farmers. Rice husk, which was once locally available, is now difficult to obtain, and both poultry and pig farmers now have to spend additional money to acquire it,” he explained.
Jamir stressed that while the PDS was established with good intentions, it has led to profound unintended consequences for traditional farming practices and sustainable diets, which could undermine India’s long-term food security strategy. He urged for a realignment of the PDS to be more inclusive and diversified in its grain menu and procurement systems, emphasizing the importance of preserving traditional agricultural practices.
“Communities need to reconsider their strategies not just for food security but also for the sustainability of their food systems in a transformative way,” he said. To achieve a resilient and self-reliant food system, Jamir stressed the necessity of balancing modern food distribution systems with traditional practices, supporting improvements in production systems that respect agroecological practices and enhancing infrastructure for post-harvest management and market access.
The three-day Food System Summit India 2024, organized by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and held from 15 to 17 October in New Delhi, witnessed about 200 participants drawn from diverse fields related to the food system, including representatives from over 50 civil society organizations (CSOs). The audience comprised of institutional representatives, policymakers, individual experts, civil society members, students, and academics.
According to S Vijay Kumar, IAS (Retd), Lead, FOLU India & Distinguished Fellow, the priority of the summit is to convene various stakeholders associated with the agricultural value chain and leverage that collective wisdom to enable an accelerated transition to sustainable food and land-use systems.
“The summit is a further step in that direction, as a unique national platform to provide much-needed space for CSOs to interact and showcase their efforts. The learnings from the FSSI will help in framing our next initiative – to be called ‘The Food Systems Hub,’” he was quoted by Food Spectrum.