JAC Board Class 9th Social Science Important Questions Economics Chapter 4 Food Security in India
I. Objective Type Questions
1. What is meant by food security?
(a) Availability of food to poor people
(b) Availability of food to rich people
(c) Availability of food to all sections of people
(d) None of these
Answer:
(c) Availability of food to all sections of people
2. Which two food crops have been intensively cultivated in the Green Revolution in India,
(a) Wheat and maize
(b) Wheat and rice
(c) Wheat and mustard
(d) None of these
Answer:
(b) Wheat and rice
3. Buffer stock is created to:
(a) Maintain minimum support price
(b) Distribute food grains in the deficit areas
(c) Run the food-for-work programme
(d) All of the above
Answer:
(b) Distribute food grains in the deficit areas
4. Integrated child development service was introduced in:
(a) 1976
(b) 1978
(c) 1985
(d) 1975
Answer:
(d) 1975
5. In which state of India is the famous cooperative AMUL located:
(a) Rajasthan
(b) Gujarat
(c) Haryana
(d) Tamil Nadu
Answer:
(b) Gujarat
II. Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
What do you mean by Food Security?
Answer:
Food security means availability, accessibility, and affordability of food to all people at all times.
Question 2.
Who are more vulnerable to food insecurity?
Answer:
The poor are more vulnerable to food insecurity.
Question 3.
What are the three dimensions of food security?
Answer:
The three dimensions of food security are:
- Availability of food,
- Accessibility of food,
- Affordability of food.
Question 4.
When did the great famine of Bengal occur in India?
Answer:
1943.
Question 5.
Who were affected the most by the famine of Bengal:
Answer:
- The agricultural labourers,
- Fishermen,
- Transport workers,
- Casual labourers.
Question 6.
Name any two states of India that have faced acute food scarcity?
Answer:
- Bihar
- West Bengal.
Question 7.
Write two dimensions of hunger.
Answer:
- Chronic hunger,
- Seasonal hunger.
Question 8.
Who suffers from chronic hunger?
Answer:
Poor people suffer from chronic hunger.
Question 9.
Which type of hunger is prevalent in rural areas?
Answer:
Seasonal hunger is prevalent in rural areas.
Question 10.
What are the two components of food security System of India?
Answer:
The two components of food security system of India are:
- Buffer Stock,
- Public Distribution System.
Question 11.
What is Buffer stock?
Answer:
Buffer stock is the stock of food grains (wheat and rice) procured by the government through the food corporation of India.
Question 12.
What is PDS?
Answer:
Public Distribution System refers to a system through which the food procured by the FCI is distributed among the poor through government-regulated ration shops by using ration cards.
Question 13.
FCI stands for what?
Answer:
FCI stands for Food Corporation of India.
Question 14.
Why are food-for-work schemes security implemented?
Answer:
To ensure food and nutritional to people living below poverty level.
Question 15.
What is the need of fair price shop?
Answer:
To ensure distribution of food grains to even the poorest of poor at lower than market price. ’
Question 16.
Why does the government give subsidy?
Answer:
To make sure that price of essential commodities should be within the reach of the poorest people.
Question 17.
Which social group is the target of the Annapurna Scheme?
Answer:
The Annapurna Scheme is for indigent senior citizens who are not financially sup-ported by anybody.
Question 18.
Name any two food cooperatives in India.
Answer:
- Amul,
- Mother Dairy.
III. Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
What are the three dimensions of food security?
Or
Explain the dimensions of food security?
Answer:
Food security has the following dimensions:
1. Availability of food:
It means food production within the country, food imports and the previous years stock stocked in government granaries.
2. Accessibility:
It means food is within reach of every person.
3. Affordability:
It means an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet his dietary need.
Question 2.
What was declared in World Food Summit, 1995?
Answer:
The World Food Summit, 1995 declared, “Food security at the individual, household, regional, national and global levels exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
Question 3.
How is food security affected during a calamity?
Answer:
Following are the ways in which food security gets affected dring a natural calamity.
- Due to natural calamity, say drought, total product ion of food grains decreases.
- Low food production leads to shortage of food in the affected areas.
- Due to shortage of food, prices go up. At such high prices, many people cannot afford to buy food.
- If such a calamity happens in a very widespread area or is stretched over a longer time period, it may cause a situation of starvation.
- A massive starvation might take the turn of famine.
Question 4.
What is a famine? How are people affected by a famine?
Answer:
A famine is characterised by widespread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or decaying food and loss of body re-sistance due to weakening from starvation. This occurs due to a severe shortage of . food resulting from crop failure or other calamity, which increases the price of food, making it unaffordable to the weaker sections of the population.
Question 5.
Why is food security needed in India?
Answer:
The poorest section of the society might be food insecure most of the times while persons above the poverty line might also be food insecure when the country faces a national disaster like earthquake, drought, flood, tsunami, famine, etc. Even today, there are places like Kalahandi and Kashipur in Odisha where famine-like conditions have been existing for many years and where some starvation deaths have also been reported.
Starvation deaths have also been reported in Baran district of Rajasthan, Palamau district of Jharkhand and many other remote areas during the recent years.
Therefore, food security is needed in India to ensure food at all times.
Question 6.
Explain the impact of green revolution on food security in India.
Answer:
Following is the impact of green revolution on food security.
- It made India self sufficient in food production.
- After green revolution no food scarcity was felt even during adverse weather conditions.
- With the increase in per hectare crop production as well as extension of agri-cultural activities in disadvantaged areas, it ensured regular food supply.
Question 7.
What is the need of maintaining buffer stock?
Answer:
Maintenance of Buffer stock is required for the following reasons:
- It ensures continuous supply of commodities to fair-price shops.
- It is the stock of country which can be used during any calamity.
- It helps farmers to sell their surplus crop at a reasonable price.
Question 8.
Write a brief note on the national food security Act, 2013.
Answer:
The national food security Act, 2013 provides for food and nutritional security life at affordable prices and enables people to live their life with dignity. Under this act 75 percent of the rural population and 50 percent of the urban population have been categorised as eligible households for food security aid.
Question 9.
What are the three kinds of ration cards?
Answer:
The three kinds of ration cards are as follows:
1. Antyodaya Cards:
Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the poor.
2. BPL Cards:
Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards for those who are below poverty line.
3. APL Cards:
Above Poverty Line (APL) cards for all others.
Question 10.
Explain any two types of PDS.
Answer:
Two types of PDS are as follows:
1. Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS):
It was introduced in 1992 in 1,700 blocks in the country. The launch of RPDS was to provide the benefits of PDS to remote and backward areas.
2. Targetted Public Distribution System (TPDS): TPDS was introduced in June 1997 to adopt the principle of targetting the “poor in all areas”. It was for the first time that a differential price policy was adopted for poors and non-poor.
Question 11.
List any three characteristics of public distribution system.
Answer:
Following are the three characteristics of public distribution system.
- It procures grain from FCl and distributes it among the poorer sections of society.
- There are almost 5.5 lakh shops under this system reaching the farthest comer of country.
- It distributes food grains through ration card.
Question 12.
How do fair-price shops help food distribution in India?
Answer:
There are more than 5.5 lakh fair-price shops to help food distribution in India. They provide food stuff like wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene oil on a monthly basis to ration card holders at lower than the market rates. These rates depend on the category of family, whether they are APL, BPL or Antyodaya families. This enables the poorer sections of society to have food security.
Question 13.
what is MSP? How does it help in food security?
Answer:
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) purchases wheat and rice for the government from the farmers of surplus states at pre-announced prices. This price is called minimum support price (MSP). It helps in ensuring food security in several ways:
- For farmers it gives surety to their crop price and encourages them to grow certain crops.
- For government, it ensures that they have enough crop to buy for their buffer stock and public welfare programmes.
- For public, this ensures that prices of a commodity will be stable and within their reach.
IV. Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
Describe the measures adopted by the government of India to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains;
Answer:
Following measures were adopted by government of India to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains.
1. India adopted a new strategy in agriculture, which resulted in green revolution especially in the production of wheat and rice.
2. The government of India has made the provision of buffer stock meant to dis-tribute food grains in the deficit areas and among the poorer strata of society at a price lower than the market price. This also helps to resolve the problem of shortage of food during adverse weather conditions or during the periods of calamity.
3. The government has made provision of Public Distribution System (PDS). This is meant for distribution of food grains trough government regulated ration shops (Fair price shops) among the poorer sections of the society.
4. The government has also initiated other food intervention programmes like Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Food-for-Work programme (FFW), Mid-Day meals, Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) etc.
Question 2.
Explain two special schemes launched by the government in 2000.
Answer:
In 2000, two special schemes were launched viz. Antyodaya Anna Yojana and the Annapurna Scheme with special target groups of ‘poorest of the poor’ and ‘indigent senior citizens’, respectively. The functioning of these two schemes was linked with the existing network of the PDS.
1. Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY):
This scheme was launched in December 2000. Under the scheme one crore of the poorest among the BPL families covered under the Targetted Public Distribution System were identified. Poor families were identified by the respective state rural development departments through a Below Poverty Line (BPL) survey.
Twenty-five kilograms of food grains were made available to each eligible family at a highly subsidised rate of ₹ 2 per kg for wheat and ₹ 3 per kg for rice. This quantity has been enhanced from 25 to 35 kgs with effect from April 2002. The scheme has been further expanded twice to additional 50 lakh BPL families in June 2003 and in August 2004. With this increase, 2 crore families have been covered under the AAY.
2. Annapurna Scheme:
Annapurna Scheme (APS) was introduced in 2000 as Public Distribution Scheme to support indigent senior citizens with 10 kilograms of food grains free of cost.