Class 9 Economics Chapter 4 Extra Questions and Answers Food Security in India

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Class 9 Economics Chapter 4 Extra Questions and Answers Food Security in India

Food Security in India Class 9 Extra Questions and Answer Economics Chapter 4 Very Short Answers Type

Question 1.
What is food security?
OR
What does food security mean?
Answer:
Food security means availability, accessibility and affordability of food to all people at all times.

Question 2.
Name any two factors on which food security depends.
Answer:

The proper functioning of the Public Distribution System or PDS, and
Government vigilance and action at times, when this security is threatened.

Question 3.
What is essential to improve access to food?
Answer:
Removal of poverty is essential to improve access to food.

Question 4.
What is famine?
Answer:
A famine is characterised by wide spread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or decaying food and loss of body resistance due to weakening from starvation.

Question 5.
Which was the most devastating famine in India?
Answer:
The famine of Bengal was the most devastating one. It occurred in 1943 and killed thirty lakh people in the province of Bengal.

Question 6.
Who were affected the most by the Bengal famine?
Answer:
The agricultural labourers, fishermen, transport workers and other casual labourers were the worst affected.

Question 7.
What was the main cause of a large scale death in the Bengal famine?
Answer:
The price of rice in Bengal increased dramatically. This was the main cause of large scale death.

Question 8.
Why is food security needed in a country?
Answer:
Food security is needed in a country to ensure food at all times so that starvation deaths do not take place.

Question 9.
Name two places in Odisha where starvation deaths have been reported.
Answer:
Kalahandi and Kashipur.

Question 10.
Name the regions of India where the food insecure people are disproportionately large.
Answer:

Economically backward states with high incidence of poverty.
Tribal and remote areas
Regions more prone to natural disasters.

Question 11.
Hunger has two dimensions. Name them.
Answer:
Chronic hunger and seasonal hunger.

Question 12.
What is the cause of chronic hunger?
Answer:
Chronic hunger is caused due to persistently inadequate diets in terms of quantity and/or quality.

Question 13.
Who suffers from chronic hunger? Why?
Answer:
Poor people suffer from chronic hunger because of their very low income and in turn inability to buy food even for survival.

Question 14.
What is seasonal hunger related to?
Answer:
Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting.

Question 15.
Why is seasonal hunger prevalent in rural areas?
Answer:
Seasonal hunger prevalent in rural areas because of the seasonal nature of agricultural activities.

Question 16.
Who are the worst affected by seasonal hunger in urban areas?
Answer:
In urban areas, the casual labourers are the worst affected by seasonal hunger.

Question 17.
What does the table given below show?
Percentage of Households with hungers in India

Year	Type of hunger
Year	Seasonal	Chronic	Total
Rural 1983	16.2	2.3	18.5
1993-94	4.2	0.9	5.1
1999-2000	2.6	0.7	3.3
Urban 1983	5.6	0.8	6.4
1993-94	1.1	0.5	1.6
1999-2000	0.6	0.3	0.9

Answer:
The above table shows a decline in the percentage of seasonal as well as chronic hunger in India.

Question 18.
Mention one positive impact of the Green Revolution.
Answer:
Since the advent of the Green Revolution in the early 1970s, the country has avoided famine even during adverse weather conditions.

Question 19.
What is buffer stock?
Answer:
Buffer stock is the stock of food grains namely wheat and rice procured by the government through Food Corporation of India (FCI).

Question 20.
What is the Public Distribution System?
Answer:
The food procured by the FCI is distributed through government-regulated ration shops among the poorer section of the society. This is called the public distribution system or PDS.

Question 21.
Name the three kinds of ration cards.
Answer:

Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the poor.
BPL cards for those below poverty line, and
APL cards for all others.

Question 22.
How do employment programmes contribute to food security?
Answer:
Employment programmes greatly contribute to food security by increasing the income of the poor.

Question 23.
Name any two programmes initiated by the government which have food component.
Answer:

Mid-day Meal in schools
Food-For-Work programme

Question 24.
What is the National Food Security Act, 2013?
Answer:
This Act provides for food and nutritional security life at affordable prices and enable people to live a life with dignity. Under this Act 75% of rural population and 50% of urban population have been categorised as eligible households for food security.

Question 25.
Mention the names of any two cooperative societies working in different parts of India.
Answer:

Mother Dairy – Delhi
AMUL – Gujarat

Question 26.
What is the Green Revolution?
Answer:
The Green Revolution implies large increase in agricultural production due to use of HYV seeds and other inputs like fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation, etc.

Question 27.
How does World Summit 1995 define ‘Food Security’?
Answer:
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 28.
List the three A’s food security implies to.
Ans.
The three A’s are – Availability, Accessibility and Affordability.

Food Security in India Class 9 Extra Questions and Answer Economics Chapter 4 Short Answers Type

Question 1.
What are the dimensions of food security?
Answer:
Food security has following dimensions:

Availability of food: It means food production within the country, food imports and the previous years stock stored in government granaries.
Accessibility: It means food is within reach of every person.
Affordability: It implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet one’s dietary needs.

Question 2.
How is food security affected during a calamity?
Answer:

During a natural calamity like earthquake, drought, flood, etc. there is widespread failure of crops causing famine.
Decrease in total production of food grains creates a shortage of food in the affected areas.
Due to shortage of food, the prices go up. At the high prices, some people cannot afford to buy food. If such calamity happens in a widespread area or is stretched over a longer time, it may cause a situation of starvation.

Question 3.
‘Even Today, there are several places in different parts of the country which are still food in-secure”. Support the statement.
Answer:
Although the Bengal famine has never been repeated in the history of India, it is disturbing to note that even today, there are places in different parts of the country which are still food insecure:

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 are also reported in Baran district of Rajasthan, Palamau district of Jharkhand and many other remote areas during the recent years. Food security is therefore needed in a country to ensure food to all at all times.

Question 4.
Who are food insecure? Describe in brief.
Answer:
(i) A large section of people suffer from food and nutrition insecurity in India. However, the worst affected groups are landless people with little or no land to depend upon, traditional artisans, providers of traditional services, petty self-employed workers and beggars.

(ii) In the urban areas, those engaged in casual labour market and seasonal activities are more prone to food insecurity.

(iii) The SCs, STs and some sections of the OBCs who have either poor land base or very low land productivity are prone to food insecurity.

(iv) The people affected by natural disasters, who have to migrate to other areas in search of work, are also among the most food insecure people.

(v) A large proportion of pregnant and nursing mothers and children under the age of 5 years constitute an important segment of the food insecure population

Question 5.
What is Antyodaya Anna Yojana? Mention its role in ensuring food security in the country.
Answer:
The Antyodaya Anna Yojana is an important poverty alleviation programme started by the central government in December 2000. This scheme plays an important role in ensuring food security in the country:

Under this scheme one crore of the poorest among the BPL families covered, under the targeted public distribution system were identified.
Twenty five kgs of food grains were made available to each eligible family at a highly subsidized rate of ₹ 2 per kg for wheat and ₹3 per kg for rice. This quantity has been enhanced from 25 kgs to 35 kgs with effect from April 2002.
The scheme has been further expanded twice by additional 50 lakh BPL families in June 2003 and in August 2004. With this increase, 2 crore families have been covered under the AAY.

Question 6.
What is the Sampuma Grameen Rozgar Yojana?
Answer:

The Sampuma Grameen Rozgar Yojana is a scheme launched by the Government of India to attain the objective of providing gainful employment for the rural poor.
This scheme was launched on 25 September 2001 by merging the provisions of Employment Assurance Scheme and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana.
The programme is self-targeting in nature and aims to provide employment and food to people in rural areas who live below the poverty line. This scheme greatly contributes to food security by increasing the income of the poor.

Question 7.
Why is buffer stock created by the government?
Answer:
(i) The main objective of the buffer stock is to distribute the food grains in the deficit areas and among the poor strata of society at a price lower than the market price.

(ii) Buffer stock also helps resolved the problem of shortage of food during adverse weather conditions or during the periods of calamity.

(iii) Buffer stock also saves farmers from ups and downs of the market. Under this, farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops. This price is declared by the government before the sowing season to provide incentives to the farmers.

Food Security in India Class 9 Extra Questions and Answer Economics Chapter 4 Long Answers Type

Question 1.
What is rationing? When was it introduced in India? Why?
Answer:
The term rationing is often used for controlled distribution of scarce goods and resources by the government. It restricts how much people are allowed to buy or consume a particular resource for the specified duration.

The introduction of rationing in India dates back to the 1940s against the backdrop of the Bengal famine. The rationing system was revived in the wake of an acute food shortage during the 1960s, prior to the Green Revolution.

In the wake of the high incidence of poverty levels, as reported by the NSSO in the mid-1970s, three important food intervention programmes were introduced:

Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains which was in existence earlier but strengthened thereafter.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) was introduced in 1975 on an experimental basis.
Food-For-Work (FFW) was introduced in 1977-78. Over the years, several new programmes have been launched and some have been restructured with the growing experience of administering the programmes.

Question 2.
Describe various factors that have led to the decline of the PDS.
OR
Why has the public distribution system been criticised? Give reasons.
Answer:
The public distribution system was started by the government for the distribution of food among the poorer sections of society through fair price shops. This was done to ensure food security in the country. But in the recent years, the PDS has stopped functioning well. There are several factors that have led to its decline.

(i) PDS dealers are indulged in malpractices like diverting the grains to open market to get better margin, selling poor quality grains at ration shops, irregular opening of the shops, etc.

(ii) Earlier every family, poor and non-poor had a ration card with a fixed quota of items such as rice, wheat, sugar, etc. These were sold at the same low price to every family.

(iii) The three types of cards and the range of prices that are seen today did not exist. A large number of families could buy food grains from the rations shops subject to a fixed quota. These included low income families whose incomes were marginally higher than the below poverty line families.

(iv) Now, with TPDS of three different prices, any family above the poverty line get very little discount at the ration shop.

(v) The price for APL family is almost as high as open market price. So, there is little incentive for them to buy these items from the ration shop.

Food Security in India Class 9 Extra Questions and Answer Economics Chapter 4 Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) Questions

Question 1.
What role does Academy of Development Science (ADS) in Maharashtra play in ensuring food security?
Answer:

In Maharashtra, Academy of Development Science (ADS) is playing an important role in food security in India.
It has facilitated a network of NGOs for setting up grain banks in different regions.
ADS organises training and capacity building programmes on food security for NGOs.
Grain Banks are now slowly taking shape in different parts of Maharashtra. ADS efforts to set up Grain Banks, to facilitate replication through other NGOs and to influence the Government’s policy on food security are thus paying rich dividends.
The ADS Grain Bank programme is acknowledged as a successful and innovative food security intervention.

Question 2.
What is Integrated Child Development Services Scheme? Write a brief note on it.
Answer:
(i) Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is an Indian government welfare programme which provides food, pre-school education, and primary health care to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.

(ii) These services are provided from Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.

(iii) In addition to fighting malnutrition and ill-health, the programme is also intended to combat gender inequality by providing girls the same resources as boys.

(iv) Several positive benefits of the programme have been documented and reported.

Food Security in India Class 9 Extra Questions and Answer Economics Chapter 4 Value-based Questions (VBQs)

Question 1.
What is public distribution system or PDS? What values are associated with this system?
Answer:
It is a system associated with distribution of food among the poorer section of the society through fairprice shops also known as ration shops. The value associated with this system are:

It ensures food availability at affordable price.
It combats hunger and famine by supplying food from surplus regions to deficit areas.
It provides income security to farmers.
It stabilises price of food grains.
Continuous changes in prices of food grains under PDS have benefited the poor households.
It has minimised hoarding and black marketing.

Question 2.
How does PDS ensures food security in India?
Answer:
It is a system associated with distribution of food among the poorer section of the society through fairprice shops also known as ration shops. The value associated with this system are:

It ensures food availability at affordable price.
It combats hunger and famine by supplying food from surplus regions to deficit areas.
It provides income security to farmers.
It stabilises price of food grains.
Continuous changes in prices of food grains under PDS have benefited the poor households.
It has minimised hoarding and black marketing.

Question 3.
What are the functions of the Food Corporation of India?
Answer:

It makes the food grains available to the poor at a reasonable price.
It maintains a price stability of food grains.
It plays an important role in ensuring food security in the country.

Question 4.
(i) How can we ensure the availability of food?
(ii) What do you mean by the accessibility of food?
(iii) What do you mean by affordability of food?
Answer:
(i) Availability of food can be ensured by production of food grains within the country, food imports and the previous years stock stored in government granaries.
(ii) Accessibility means that food is within reach of every person.
(iii) Affordability implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet one’s dietary needs.