Food
For All
MINISTER for
Agriculture and Cooperatives Mahesh Acharya the other day observed that as food security
constitutes the primary rights of all the people of the world, today’s challenge is
to make food available to the growing population by increasing agricultural output.
Minister Acharya made the observation while inaugurating the regional consultation meet to
prepare for the world food security in conjunction with the 26th FAO Asia and Pacific
regional conference. It hardly needs any reiteration that food constitutes one of the
basic needs of the world’s people. For, without food, it is impossible to even
imagine the very survival of the world’s people, leave alone for them to take human
civilisation to greater heights. It could be for this very reason and intrinsic
understanding that since time immemorial, the human civilisations of the past had always
endeavoured to ensure adequate food supplies to their peoples. Towards this end, these
civilisations not only brought all available fertile lands within their jurisdictions
under cultivation, but also constructed huge irrigation systems to nourish the crops with
the life-sustaining waters. History is witness to the fact that these civilisations,
through their satraps or tax officials, made it their responsibility to levy tax in the
form of foodgrains which they kept in securely protected state-owned granaries. Also, that
the doors of these same granaries were opened and the foodgrains therein distributed to
the people only during catastrophic times, be they brought about by the vagaries of Mother
Nature or the destructive activities of humans. In other words, what history has taught us
is that the rise—or fall—of any human civilisation is intricately linked with
the availability and access to adequately secured food supplies.
The 21st century human civilisation
can not be an exception to this centuries-old lesson. And reality. In fact, our
civilisation is indeed faced with the spectre of a burgeoning population rapidly
outstripping available food supplies. The only saving grace in this otherwise bleak
scenario is that our civilisation has mastered the technology to coax out more harvests
from the existing arable lands. Nevertheless, this does not mean that all the nations of
the world should be complacent. Especially with the rise in global population showing no
sign of slackening. Rather, they, in tandem with regional and global organisations, should
implement requisite initiatives that would ensure food security to their respective
peoples for ever.
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