Food security and management in Sikkim role of Public Distribution System and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

Abstract

Food security is one of the important components of Human Security. The newlineUnited Nations in its ambitious plan to overcome such challenges initiated newlineMillennium Development Goals (MDG s). There was little to cheer about as the year newline2015 came to an end and still there was a large population of the world suffering from newlinehunger and poverty. Thus it led to coming of Sustainable Development Goals newline(SDG s) from 2016 onwards till 2030. In which hunger and poverty is one of the newlineprimary goals, henceforth for 14 years various non-state actors and state institute in the form of agencies, associations, organization etc., would try to minimize or reduce the hunger and poverty related problems. Thus, major step has been taken by United Nations to ensure Food security at the global level, regional level, national level and local level. newlineIn context of India, the impact of Green Revolution had brought tremendous newlinegrowth in food production, it led the state from food deficiency to food selfsufficiency newlinei.e. from food importer to food exporter in International level. However in the post-reform period agriculture production has shown deceleration due to factors newlinelike low production of foodgrain, diversion of agricultural cultivable lands for nonagricultural newlineuses and reduction of public spending in the agriculture sector, excessive newlineuse of chemicals in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. Due to such a scenario there newlinehas been huge distress in rural areas creating migration from rural to urban areas for primarily food and livelihood security. In such circumstances it becomes significant to understand the situation of those states where it has limited resources.Sikkim total population consists of 6, 10,577 persons and about 73 percent of the population resides in rural areas. In terms of food security, the state is not self sufficient in food production due to its geographical constraints. Thus all such limitations have made Sikkim to be declared as a food deficit state which relies heavily on import of Public Distribution System (PDS). newline