The 18th G20 summit themed ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (One Earth, One Family, One Future) was successfully hosted by India last month resulting in the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration. Established in 1999 to discuss economic and financial issues, G20 has expanded its scope of deliberations to include agriculture, climate change and sustainable development among other issues.
G20 nations together hold 60 per cent of all agricultural land contributing 80 per cent of global cereal production of the world. With half of the global population deprived of meet- ing daily dietary needs residing in G20 nations, the target of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 -Zero Hunger and ensuring food and nutritional security have been a key focus area in G20 discussions.
These discussions provided a roadmap to food security and nutrition through eliminating hunger and malnutrition, transforming agriculture systems, collaborative actions for climate-adaptive food systems, unrestricted food value chains and digitalization of agriculture through responsible public-private investments.
Food security and nutrition has been a challenge for India, domestically. According to the Global Food Security Index, India ranked 68th among 113 countries in 2022 and 19th among G20 nations. Various food subsidy programmes in India ensure distribution of food grains at subsidised prices through the Targeted Public Distributionbudgetary support for food subsidies has gradually increased from Rs. 139,419 crore in 2015-16 (A) to Rs. 197,350 crore in 2023-24 (BE). The share of expenditure in the total union expenditure budget has reduced from 7.9 per cent in 2015-16 to 4.4 per cent in 2023-24. The allocation was much higher during the Covid years because of the free grains programme under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
In terms of the percentage of peo- ple undernourished worldwide, India ranks the highest with 16.3 per cent of the population undernourished. As per NFHS-5, malnourishment in children (stunting, wasting and under- weight) under five years of age has reduced, as compared to NHFS-4. Still, around one-third of children under the age of five are stunted or underweight. Also, an increase of 8 per cent in the number of children
suffering from anemia has also been reported. The NITI Aayog report shows 74.1 per cent of Indians strug- gle to afford healthy food.
Public spending to address malnourishment has increased in absolute terms from Rs. 16097.5 crores in 2015-16 (A) to Rs. 20554.31 crores in 2023-24 (BE) through schemes like Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 which includes Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyan, Scheme for Adoles- cent Girls and National Creche Service. As a percentage of the total Union budget, the share has seen a decline from 0.9 to 0.5 per cent over the same period. Budget allocation for another scheme Mid-Day Meal scheme/PM-POSHAN, addressing nutritional needs of school going chil- dren has increased in absolute terms from Rs. 9144.9 crore in 2015-16 (A) to Rs. 11,600 crore in 2023-24 (BE) and as a share of Union expenditure budg- et declined from 0.5 to 0.25 per cent.
FAO estimates that around 842 million people (12 per cent of the global population) are unable to meet their basic dietary requirements. Food production will need to increase by 60 per cent to feed a world population expected to exceed nine billion by 2050. However, climatic variability can hamper productivity and sustainabil- ity of agriculture. Each degree increase in global mean temperature will lead to 3-8 per cent decrease in the pro- ductivity of major food crops.
India has invested in strengthening a policy framework to promote climate resilient agriculture through various initiatives like organic farming, watershed development, crop diversification and sustainable agriculture. These components are reflected in schemes like the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
Towards climate-resilient agriculture, public spending on the initiatives for sustainable agriculture has increased from Rs 12455.6 crore in 2015-16 (A) to Rs. 17937 crores in 2023-24 (BE). The share of expenditure towards ensuring sustainable agriculture in total union budget has declined from 0.7 per cent in 2015-16 to 0.4 per cent in 2023-24. The focus has shifted to mitigation of the climate impact on agriculture through schemes like PM-KISAN and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, representing rising share in the budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector.
The convergence of research and extension for responsible and inclusive application of digital technologies for food safety, marketing infrastructure and circular economy principles were proposed in the G20 summit. Digital Agriculture is emerging as one of the ways to increase efficien- cies and enhance incomes in agricul- ture globally.
India launched the e-NAM scheme with a target to cover 1,000 agriculture produce markets and recently provided financial support by allocation of Rs. 1 lakh crore for the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to support post-harvest infrastructure and community farming assets.
Budgetary allocation for the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) has declined as a share of the total Union expenditure budget from 0.51 per cent in 2015-16 to 0.21 per cent in 2023-24. On the other hand, countries like South Korea, through gearing public investments towards R&D in agriculture, focused on carbon-neutral farming, affordable financial services, marketing infrastructure and innovative extension strategies topped into Global Food Security Index (GFSI).
India has worked on the programmatic base for the seven high-level principles iterated by the G20 summit. Public investments in these programmes have been consistently increasing in absolute terms however declining as a share of the Union expenditure budget. With the G20 meeting, explicit emphasis of such principles shall direct the focus on the policy priorities of the union towards agriculture and its sustainability.
(The writers are affiliated with the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), New Delhi. Views expressed are personal.)