Query from MS Swaminathan

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you to Ravi for that kind introduction. I would like to pose two questions to the AP-MDG-CoP on hunger in the Asia Pacific region.

1. In many developing countries including India, chronic hunger is related to a famine of work and purchasing power and not to a famine of food in the market. It is therefore clear that there is need to achieve “Work for All” for the purpose of ensuring “Food for All”. China has tried to promote opportunities for non-farm employment through the Village–Township Enterprises. Are there good examples in your area of concurrent attention to on-farm and non-farm employment, thereby creating multiple livelihood opportunities for the poor?
2. Hunger in the Asia - Pacific region has three major dimensions – chronic hunger caused by inadequate purchasing power; hidden hunger caused by the deficiency of micronutrients and transient hunger caused by disruption in communication due to drought, floods, cyclones, etc. Therefore any strategy for the elimination of hunger should be based on a clear understanding of the causal factors. What types of hunger exist in the areas where you work and how are they being handled? In particular how is the problem of overcoming hidden hunger being addressed? I look forward to receiving responses from the Asia Pacific MDG community.

With warm regards,

M S Swaminathan

============================
PROF M S SWAMINATHAN
Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
Third Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area
Chennai - 600 113 (India)
Web: http://www.mssrf.org/
Mail: msswaminathan@live.com

Chronic Hunger, Purchasing Power, and Work for All

The first part of M.S. Swaminathan’s query examines chronic hunger, which was defined as hunger resulting from inadequate purchasing power. The query suggests that hunger in many Asia Pacific countries is related to a famine of work and purchasing power as opposed to a famine of food in the market. The community was in general agreement with this statement. Owais Parray provided an example of the relationship between hunger and a decline in purchasing power in Indonesia. Factors such as the increase in global prices for food and oil have reduced purchasing power for those living below or near the poverty line to a point where price increases are threatening food security. As highlighted in a recent report, even with the rise in food costs, many Indonesian farmers are also struggling with both hunger and inadequate purchasing power (Paasch 2007). Debt is common for smallholder Indonesian rice farmers who are unable to adapt to global competition and changing markets. The study shows that many Indonesian rice farmers sell their rice before harvest to pay back debt, which results in a lack of food and purchasing power, leading to chronic hunger.

The AP-MDG community added three points related to hunger and the connection between ‘work for all’ and ‘food for all’ strategies. All three points support M.S. Swaminathan’s call for strategies that address the multiple dimensions of hunger. First, a few of the responses touched on problems associated with consumption patterns and utilization at the household level even when adequate food is available. Examples included hunger related to both diet and cooking methods. Note that there is an overlap with what M.S. Swaminathan referred to as ‘hidden hunger,’ which is caused by the deficiency in micronutrients. Second, temporal aspects of hunger were discussed in terms of both seasonal variation in food stocks and intermittent income opportunities. Neela Mukherjee drew upon data from three villages in India and discussed the seasonality of food availability, providing evidence of seasonal variation in food stocks as a key cause of hunger. Owais added that short term employment opportunities do little to help reduce hunger for those living near the poverty line. Third, on the macroeconmic level, Amitava Mukherjee provided data from China and India with a warning that we should not ignore production and assume that food stocks will always be adequate.

Institutional Hunger

A common theme discussed in replies was the importance of addressing structural/institutional issues related to hunger. Amitava presented the term “institutional hunger,” where institutions are defined in the Stiglitzian sense, including laws, customs, usage, practices, organizations, etc. that govern human relationships. Members provided examples of institutional hunger on a number of scales. Amitava gave the example of gender biased hunger at the household level, where women eat last, least and leftovers, without having regard to either the quality or nutritive value of food. Also, there are cases where individuals belonging to particular religious groups cannot consume certain kinds of food even though food itself is not scarce (Mukherjee 1996).

Two responses related to institutional hunger might serve as future queries. Respondents raised questions about the efficiency of centrally managed food stocks. Food distribution at the national level is linked to larger scale institutional issues. In terms of dealing with transient hunger, Tahlim Sudaryanto and Owais presented a critique of centralized food stock management, suggesting that this strategy leaves countries ill prepared to quickly deal with emergencies in remote regions. The Asia Pacific Disaster Resource Management (APDRM) community might be interested in running a query on the costs and benefits of different food stock strategies (contact: Rekha Abraham). As a second potential query, Rajeswari Raina stated that in South Asia organizations of knowledge generation (natural science and social science) are unwilling to address the question of institutional reform (within their own organization and in villages). This idea was supported by other responses. Rajeswari noted that Southeast Asia appears to have made more progress in this area, which presents an interesting follow up query comparing progress in different parts of the Asia Pacific in terms of institutional hunger.

Case Studies

The community responded with over 20 case studies from the Asia Pacific region that addressed M.S. Swaminathan’s request for “good examples of concurrent attention to on-farm and non-farm employment, thereby creating multiple livelihood opportunities for the poor.” Links to the cases are provided below. Paul Steele divided interventions into four major areas: employment (Case A-B), local economic development (Case C-E), agricultural development (Case F-G) and social safety nets (Case H-I). He noted that these are all areas which are increasingly receiving attention as key components of targeted hunger reduction strategies.

Submitted case studies presented a diverse set of practical approaches for the reduction of chronic hunger. For example, Wim Poleman noted that the FAO has created teacher training manuals for rural enterprise development that are designed for specific populations (e.g. woman’s farming groups, indigenous peoples). The manuals are available in multiple languages (Case J). Other cases from Nepal and India present examples of setting up cooperatives and/or introducing value added production techniques (Case K-L). Reajesuri and Amitava both provided research methods for studying poverty-hunger pathways and food consumption via calendars, respectively (Case M-N). Neela gave an example of the use of wild food as a source of seasonal cover in times of short supply (Case O). A review of the materials provided by the respondents shows that a deep knowledge of target communities opens avenues for appropriate interventions (see attached documents and responses below).

The importance of including underrepresented knowledge (i.e. local, women’s, and indigenous), as well as participatory and holistic approaches, echoed through a number of replies. For example, to address unitization issues, Owais discussed an approach called the “positive deviance / hearth approach,” which encourages households with healthy children to share their food utilization practices with other members of the community (Case P). In conclusion, Owais also noted the importance of governments playing a supportive role in promoting local economic development, an approach that takes a more holistic view of local economies and promotes an inclusive growth model where poor who have limited or no access to economic services (e.g. finance, extension services for farmers, etc) can participate freely without any barriers.

Links to Case Studies

Case A: This case of ecotourism in Cambodia outlines a Community Based Ecotourism (CBET) project in the Chambok community bordering the Kirirom National Park.

Case B: This case presents an example of combining housing and income generation from Lhasa, Tibet China.

Case C: One Tambon, One product (OTOP) is a project from Thailand. It is an example of using “local competitive advantage” to create sustainable employment.

Case D: A case from Indonesia describes the Partnerships for Local Economic Development Project (Kemitraan Pembagunan Ekonomi Lokal: KPEL) formulated to respond to growing poverty resulting from the financial crisis in 1997.

Case E: This case describes the Rural Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP) from Nepal, which strengthened rural-urban linkages while empowering rural poor.

Case F: A case from Vietnam shares experiences of decentralized participatory planning and implementation of a commune development plan.

Case G: A case from Afghanistan presents the experiences of an Integrated Dairy Development Project that uses innovative approaches for increased milk production; processing for value added products; and marketing involving formation of cooperatives.

Case H: Social safety net based interventions are illustrated by this case of a Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) from India.

Case I: Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC) from Bangladesh is another successful example of social safety net based approaches.

Case J: The FAO rural development section has produced training manuals (in Nepali Khmer, Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Thai) on rural enterprise development for disabled persons, women farmer groups, and indigenous peoples

Case K: The Nepal Agricultural Research Council conducts research and dissemination projects in a number of agroecosystems. See the NARC website for more information.

Case L: The FAO carried out an enterprise development project in Nepal in 2005-2007 that contributed to building peace with both Maoist and government backed (women) farmers, and also included indigenous peoples.

Case M: This case draws from a study for the Rice-Wheat Consortium (CIMMYT, New Delhi). It examines livelihood opportunities created in the four transects of the Indo-Gangetic Plains in India. (see attached document)

Case N: See the attached document titled “food calendar adult” for an example of food calendar used in a study of household consumption patterns in India.

Case O: Below please find section (ii) of Neela Mukherjee’s reply for a case example of wild food as a source of seasonal cover.

Case P: The linked document presents two cases of the Save the Children’s “positive deviance/hearth approach” from Vietnam and Pakistan.

Related Publications and Links

Akhter U. Ahmed, Ruth Vargas Hill, Lisa C. Smith, Doris M. Wiesmann, and Tim Frankenberger. 2007. The World's Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger. 2020 Discussion Paper No. 43. IFPRI

Robert Black. 2008. as quoted in “The Starvelings”, The Economist, January 26 to February 2008, p. 59.

ESCAP, ADB, UNDP. 2007. Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific. Asia Pacific MDG Study Series.

Amitava Mukherjee .1996. Institutional Sanctions, Choice and the Secondary Food System: Incompleteness of Sen's Entitlement and Deprivation Thesis as an Explanation of Hunger. Indian Economic Journal, Vol. 43, No. 4, April-June 1995-1996

Paasch, A., Garders, F., Hirsch, T. 2007. Trade Policies and hunger the impact of trade liberalization on the right to food for rice farming communities in Ghana Honduras and Indonesia.

Rajeswari S. Raina, Rasheed Sulaiman V. 2007. Livelihood patterns, impact pathways and innovation systems in the Indian Indo-Gangetic plains: Synthesis of existing information. Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC) CIMMYT, New Delhi. (see attached)

John Rouse 2006. Promoting sustainable producer group enterprises: A review of FAO experience (1981–2006) Lessons learned and ideas for the future. Rural Institutions and Participation Service (SDAR) FAO Rome, 8 December 2006

Schearf, D. 2008. China’s Winter Wealth Threatens Food Supplies, Puts Political Pressure on Leaders VaoNews. Beijing, 31 January 2008

Ding Shengjun. 2004. “Grain key to China’s success in achieving national stability”, Jakarta Post, 19 February, 2004, p. 7.

Sternin, M., Sternin, J., Marsh, D. 1998. Designing a Community Based Nutrition Program Using the Hearth Model and the Positive Deviance Approach - A Field Guide. Save the Children. December 2008.

Sanchez, P., Swaminathan, M.S., Dobie, P, Yuksel, N. 2005. Halving Hunger: Can it Be Done? Task Force on Hunger. Earth Institute. Columbia University.

Intro from Ravi Ratnayake

Dear AP-MDG-CoP,

Recently, ESCAP in collaboration with UNDP and ADB, published a Progress Report on the MDGs in the Asia Pacific. In the Report, hunger was highlighted as a key challenge for the region as a whole. A review of the statistics reveals a wide variation in the incidence of hunger at the regional, national and sub-national level. For example, countries such as China and Malaysia have made rapid progress towards reducing hunger, while other countries lag behind. However, at the sub-national level, there are also examples of successful initiatives in countries facing the greatest challenges to reduce hunger. This suggests that we can all benefit from sharing our experiences up until this point.

The AP-MDG-CoP Series on Hunger provides an opportunity for us to explore the attributes of projects that lead to success or failure, as well as the characteristics of social and economic environments that enable or inhibit our efforts to reduce hunger. To start us off on this difficult task, I am pleased to introduce a query from Professor MS Swaminathan. Throughout his career, MS Swaminathan has been tackling these difficult issues and received a number of distinguished awards for his ability to find practical solutions to reduce hunger in the region. I encourage the community to take this opportunity to share their own experiences and contribute to a timely discussion.

Kind Regards,

Ravi Ratnayake
Director of the Poverty and Development Division UNESCAP

Query from MS Swaminathan

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you to Ravi for that kind introduction. I would like to pose two questions to the AP-MDG-CoP on hunger in the Asia Pacific region.

• In many developing countries including India, chronic hunger is related to a famine of work and purchasing power and not to a famine of food in the market. It is therefore clear that there is need to achieve “Work for All” for the purpose of ensuring “Food for All”. China has tried to promote opportunities for non-farm employment through the Village–Township Enterprises. Are there good examples in your area of concurrent attention to on-farm and non-farm employment, thereby creating multiple livelihood opportunities for the poor?
• Hunger in the Asia - Pacific region has three major dimensions – chronic hunger caused by inadequate purchasing power; hidden hunger caused by the deficiency of micronutrients and transient hunger caused by disruption in communication due to drought, floods, cyclones, etc. Therefore any strategy for the elimination of hunger should be based on a clear understanding of the causal factors. What types of hunger exist in the areas where you work and how are they being handled? In particular how is the problem of overcoming hidden hunger being addressed?

I look forward to receiving responses from the Asia Pacific MDG community.

With warm regards,

M S Swaminathan

============================
PROF M S SWAMINATHAN
Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
Third Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area
Chennai - 600 113 (India) Web:
http://www.mssrf.org/
Mail: msswaminathan@live.com

Reply from Dr. Neela Mukherjee [neelamukherjee@gmail.com]

Dear Friends,

To follow upon the discussions by Ravi Ratnanayake and Professor Swaminathan I thought this is a good opportunity to flag 3 issues/aspects emerging from the field in the context of food and hunger. They include:

1. Seasonal context of hunger which the poor consider as crucial though need not be from an expert perspective
2. Wild food and food from commons as source of protective cover
3. Rural Women's Knowledge on Hunger and as key performants in accessing and managing food in poor households

The 3 points are illustrated below.

(i) Seasonal Context and Vulnerability - About the transient hunger as described by Prof. Swaminathan it is important to distinguish between different vulnerabilities and coping strategies for reducing hunger. The vulnerability of the poor households relates to particular sensitivity to an event or occurrence that pose a threat to food access, health and social and/or economic well-being. The factors determining such vulnerability context can be grouped under trend, shock (e.g. earthquake) and seasonality which tends to affect food availability and livelihoods of poor households. In a study of poverty criteria in 3 Indian villages, 'seasonal availability of food' was the sole criterion determining poverty in village Krishna Rakshit Chak (see Col 2 below in Table 1) while the other 2 villages - village Berapal and village Kalsigeriya also had similar ones amongst others. Table 1 presents an inter-comparison of criteria of poverty and groups of households in the three study villages.

Table 1 -Villagers' Perceptions: An Inter-Comparison of Criteria of Poverty in Three Villages Of West Bengal

Source: Field Notes from West Medinipur, West Bengal, Neela Mukherjee

(ii) Wild Food as Source of Seasonal Cover - In many villages across Asia, food pattern depends on the kind of poverty levels of the household. There is a strong seasonality factor in food availability, which has close relationship with the seasonal livelihood pattern and the seasonal produce from the forest, CPR's water bodies, micro environments etc. Depending on their purchasing power, the poor households purchase selected food items from the market such as rice, potato and pulses and also from government subsidized food. Poor women and men also receive a part of their wages in kind say in terms of paddy, which meets a part of their food requirement. However, this happens mostly when wage labour is available in agriculture seasons. Illustrations from a West Bengal village for 5 Indian months from April to September is given below.

Baisakh -(mid-April to mid-May)
Food items collected from micro environment are susni sak (leafy vegetables), gima sak, kalmi sak, jal geri, shamuk etc. Fish is consumed once a week by those who can catch fish from the commons and have some left over for home consumption after selling them. Items collected from local water bodies are kalmi sak, snails from water, fish of different types - boyal, shol, ruhi, koi, tangra, punti, pakaal, kucho chingri etc. Vegetables are harvested from homestead/home garden are bitter gourd, brinjal and gourd. Some food items purchased are rice, potato, brinjal and pulses.

Jyaistha -(mid-May to mid-June)
Some food items purchased are rice, potato, vegetables. Many, if able to purchase rice are unable to buy potato and vegetables. Rice is consumed with salt. Items collected from the micro environments are mainly leafy vegetables like different leafy vegetables and fish are harvested from ponds. Some vegetables are harvested from the home garden amongst such as jhinge.

Ashar – (mid-June to mid-July)
Some food items purchased are rice and potato. Many catch fish from commons. Items collected from the forest are wild potato, wild root vegetables and mushrooms (chatu).

Srabon – (mid-July to mid-August)
Items collected are water weeds from ponds and water plants

Bhadra – (mid-August to mid-September)
Items collected are fish, crabs and snails. They eat more fish/crab/snails – no vegetables are accessible. Everyday they go to catch fish and catch it empty-hand without using net. Fish like chang, latha, magur – are caught in and around ponds, water holes, agricultural fields, lakes, water pools. There also lies the danger of snake-bite while catching fish with empty-hand.

(iii) Rural Women's Knowledge on Food and Hunger - The rural women have a rich storehouse of knowledge and experience. Establishing communication channels with the poor women enables them to provide first hand description of the following.

• To learn about the role and responsibility of women as providers of food;
• To learn about sources of food, seasonal food deficit and dependence on forest, micro environments etc. for food;
• To learn about coping strategies, hedging against food insecurity and the options available; and
• To learn about diversity of livelihood and its insecurity.

Food Security - Whose Knowledge?
The poor women have localized practical knowledge and skills in gathering, processing and providing food to their households.

• Source/s of food –
• Location/s of food availability
• Food variety and uses of food
• Edibility
• Procedural knowledge and methods of collection
• Food values
• Food and livelihood –
• Coping strategies
• Periods and stages of availability
• Ways to access them
• Position on food inventory
• Taste and quality of food
• Trends in availability
• Constraints and hazards Ideas for food enrichment

I look forward to your comments,

Dr. Neela Mukherjee (Ph.D. Economics)
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi

Reply From Wim Polman [Wim.Polman@fao.org]

Below I highlight a few FAO projects that address MS Swaminathan’s question regarding income generation:

1.1. FAO has rural development experience in fighting hunger and poverty by providing support to policies, legislation, and institutional capacity building on local agricultural cooperative enterprise development aimed at farm and non farm employment generation (see review). This approach has been most positive in Nepal in 2005-2007, also contributing to building peace with both Maoist and government backed (women) farmers, as well as indigenous peoples participating. The methodology of success case replication was adapted to local conditions, languages and applied in hill, mountain and terrain areas through government/cooperative movement/NGO extension programs with Training of Trainers manuals and a do it yourself video.

1.2. FAO rural development section has produced TOT manuals (in Nepali Khmer, Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Thai) on rural enterprise development for disabled persons, for women farmer groups, for indigenous peoples are available in English on the internet see FAO website.

1.3. In Cambodia, women farmers groups (mainly widows) were trained on group enterprise development of artisan production and marketing which resulted in an increase of income per participant (950) within one year from US 0.4. to 1.4 dollar per day.

1.4. FAO is involved in regional networking to support enterprise development of agricultural cooperatives in the Asian region in 13 countries, reaching out to about 3 million agricultural cooperatives.

With regard to MS Swaminathan’s query, I would like to make the following comments:

2. 1. A fact is that hard core poverty and hunger is commonly found in remote mountain areas. I suggest including in the categorization of hunger in Asia the plight of those indigenous peoples who are at this very moment driven out of the forests they depend entirely upon for their food and livelihood security.

2.2. In Asia we see current investment policies, which favor unilaterally large scale private sector FDI in land, water and natural resources destroying the livelihoods of local farmer communities. The issue is not work farm or non farm labour, but is plainly a Human Rights development issue. The recognition of the legal entitlements of IP communities to access and use of their land in particular their commons and other production resources as a key to food security. This HR principle to ensure food security was endorsed by 92 countries delegations and 140 CSO's at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, held in Porto Alegre 2006

Kind regards,

Wim Polman
Rural Development Officer

Response From Paul Steele [paul.steele@undp.org]

Dear Dr. MS Swaminathan and the AP MDG Community,

To address your question regarding “food for all” and “work for all” strategies for hunger alleviation, I would like to call your attention to a number of cases studies from the Asia Pacific region that were presented at a MDG Localization workshop in Colombo hosted in Oct. 2007 by UNDP-RCC. Below this note, I group the interventions into four major areas: employment, local economic development, agricultural development and social safety nets. These are all areas which are increasingly receiving attention as key components of targeted poverty reduction. Please click on the links below to find the full case studies.

Kind Regards,

Paul Steele, UNDP-RCC

Cases from the Local Poverty Reduction and MDG Localization workshop:

Employment Generation: As noted in your query, the creation of employment opportunities is a key component of a successful hunger reduction strategy in the Asia Pacific region. A number of case studies at the MDG Localization workshop highlighted the importance of increasing the availability of employment for the poor and increasing labour productivity. Some interesting examples are ecotourism in Cambodia or, for urban areas, a project in Lhasa, Tibet China presents an example of combining housing and income generation.

Local Economic Development: Other case studies focused on Local Economic Development (LED) projects. Examples include a Thailand case study of One Tambon, One product (OTOP); a case from Indonesia, and the case of Rural Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP) from Nepal. The study from Thailand is a good example of using “local competitive advantage” to create sustainable employment.

Agriculture and Rural Development for Poverty Reduction: A few case studies focused on adding value to agricultural products and income generation through cooperatives. A case from Vietnam shares valuable experiences of decentralized participatory planning and implementation of a commune development plan. Another case from Afghanistan presents the experiences of an Integrated Dairy Development Project that uses innovative approaches for increased milk production; processing for value added products; and marketing involving formation of cooperatives. Social Safety Nets and Micro Finance: Social safety net based interventions were illustrated by cases of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) from India and Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC) from Bangladesh.

Response from Rajeswari S. Raina [rajeswari_raina@yahoo.com]

Respected Prof. Swaminathan and the AP MDG community,

I hope it is not too late to include these cases – in response to the AP-MDG-CoP queries posed by Prof. Swaminathan.

In response to the first question, I attach here some cases of livelihoods opportunities created in the four transects of the Indo-Gangetic Plains in India. This draws from a study we did for the Rice-Wheat Consortium (CIMMYT, New Delhi). The ways in which technological and institutional changes go hand in hand to enable innovation and rural development are highlighted - and the linkages broken with poverty-hunger pathways are discussed.

In response to the second question, in the same study and in other literature, we find an overlap of these categories of hunger. In the IGP transects for instance, hidden hunger is rampant where chronic hunger exists; it is highly differentiated within regions or villages by caste, class and gender (agricultural labour and women being the worst cases of hidden hunger). While these case studies and the lessons from them are useful to understand how rural livelihoods are created and sustained, we must note that just next to these very villages of success, are pockets of hidden hunger overlapping with transient hunger (say the Eastern UP and Bihar transect).

Knowledge – both technological and institutional (social/market related) plays a major role in alleviating poverty, enabling access to avenues and resources for livelihoods, and eliminating hunger. But in South Asia, the organizations of knowledge generation (natural science and social science) are unwilling to address the question of institutional reform (within their own organizations and in the villages). There is evidence that South-East Asian countries have initiated or addressed these institutional reform questions.

Thanking you,
Sincerely,

Rajeswari S. Raina
(Senior Fellow, CPR, New Delhi)

Response from Amitava Mukherjee [mukherjeea@un.org]

Dear Colleagues,

I agree with the observations of the distinguished scholar and scientist, Dr. M.S.Swaminathan that "in many developing countries including India, chronic hunger is related to a famine of work and purchasing power and not to a famine of food in the market". But to my horror I find that major developing countries now also have "famine of food in the market" as well. Take the case of India and China. Hark these facts

• (i) In China where grain supply capability exceeds demand nationwide, which allows it to feed 22 per cent of the world population with only 7 per cent of the world’s available land, for four years (2000 and 2003) grain production faced decline due to a series of national disasters and reduction of available land. The gap in food production has been around 15-20 million tons per annum [See Ding Shengjun: “Grain key to China’s success in achieving national stability”, Jakarta Post, 19 February, 2004, p. 7.] which raised alarm bells in China for increasing grain production as soon as possible. The severe winter conditions towards the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008, in China has made things more difficult. Officials say unusually low temperatures and heavy snowfalls have destroyed crops and greenhouses, and are severely affecting winter food production, “China's winter weather threatens food supplies”, [Wikinews, 31 January 2008]. and their impact on fresh vegetables and fruit have been severe in some places.

Prices for fresh fruit and vegetables have doubled in some of the worst-hit areas. China's consumer price index rose nearly 5 percent for all of 2007, and was up 6.5 percent in December alone, a major part of which was in food prices. [See Daniel Schearf: “China’s Winter Wealth Threatens Food Supplies, Puts Political Pressure on Leaders”, Beijing, 31 January 2008 (http://www.voanews.com/English/2008-01-31-voa21.cfm)] which may exacerbate the state of hunger by constraining people’s economic access to food.

• (ii) Similarly India, which produces over 206 million tons of food Government of India, Economic Survey 2006-2007 (New Delhi, Ministry of Finance, 2005) and has grain reserves in the warehouses of the State owned State Trading Corporation of India of up to 21 million tons, has millions of people suffering from hunger because the per capita availability of food has declined to 390 grams per day in 2006 against a requirement of 510 grams per capita per day.

Unfortunately, hunger does not evoke the same response as other tragedies do, though it is as deadly as many other tragedies. For instance, under-weight births and inter-uterine growth restrictions cause one child death every 15 seconds [See Robert Black as quoted in “The Starvelings”, The Economist, January 26 to February 2008, p. 59.] and the number of people who die from hunger every 3 ½ days is the same number of people who died from the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.

Time has come to increase food production as well. How? There is none who can answer this than Dr. M.S.Swaminathan.

Thanks and warm regards

Amitava (Dr. Amitava Mukherjee)
Economic Affairs Officer and
Ex-Chief Technical Adviser
Public Private Partnership
cum Regional Adviser on Poverty Reduction,
United Nations Economic & Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific,
Bangkok, Thailand. Phone: 66-2288-1939 Fax: 66-2288-3007

Response from Tahlim Sudaryanto [tahlim@indo.net.id]

Dear All,

I would like to share a specific view related to Dr. Swaminathan's query on dealing with transient hunger. It is becoming more important to decentralize management of staple food stocks to be used for emergency cases. In Indonesia this policy is managed centrally by BULOG state on enterprises. It is apparent that the centrally managed style is sometimes not able to respond quickly to disasters, which may happen anywhere and any time. Of special importance are remote and isolated regions. Therefore, it is necessary to decentralize the management and build capacity of local government and communities to response to local specific problems.

Regards,

Tahlim Sudaryanto, Ph.D
Director Indonesian Center for Agriculture Socio Economic and Policy Studies
Bogor, Indonesia.
Email: tahlim@indo.net.id

Response from Owais Parray [owais.parray@undp.org]

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to share some thoughts on this

From a food security point, challenges countries such as Indonesia face are mainly access to food and utilization of food rather than food availability. Country produces or can import enough food to feed everyone except of course when disasters disrupt availability of food stocks. As Mr. Tahlim pointed out it is therefore important that adequate stocks are available in isolated areas vulnerable to natural disasters. Access to food was severely undermined in the wake of the financial crisis in 1997 through reduced incomes as well as inflation. Even now after the country has recovered and is beginning to show high rates of income growth, these two factors continue to be the major problems for people who are below the poverty line or near poor. Recent rise in global prices of food commodities as well as oil will continue to pose a threat to food security in the country. Moreover, poverty being a dynamic phenomenon - a single episode of crisis, like losing a job can make people food insecure. When you have nearly 50% of the population living on $2 or less this situation can be further exacerbated. There are some good examples in Indonesia of labor intensive programs to create short-term employment for people, but they are not a panacea to address structural problems of income poverty. I think it is important therefore that governments play a supportive role in promoting local economic development, an approach that takes a more holistic view of local economies and promotes an inclusive growth model where poor who have limited or no access to economic services (e.g. finance, extension services for farmers etc.) can participate freely without any barriers.

Another important issue which is sometimes overlooked is how food is utilized. This includes diet and cooking methods. Some studies from Indonesia have shown that one of major causes of malnutrition among children is feeding practices. Some small scale initiatives have been undertaken in this direction such as incorporating the "hearth" approach which is like a demonstration project where you bring mothers or care givers together to learn from each other what they are feeding their children. The premise of this approach is that in a community (people with similar socio-economic conditions) there are some children who are not suffering from malnutrition. So, the idea is to see what they are being fed so that others in the community can learn by watching them cook and feed their children. I think this approach was first tried in Vietnam by Save the Children??, thus they may have more to share on this.

regards

Owais Parray
Technical Advisor
TARGET MDGs Project
Jakarta, Indonesia
Email: owais.parray@undp.org

Message from Dr. Amitava Mukherjee [mukherjeea@un.org]

Dear Colleagues,

Apart from the three types of hunger mentioned by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, there is also "institutional hunger", where institutions are defined in the Stiglitzian sense of including laws, customs, usage, practices, organizations, etc, that govern human relationship. Examples of "institutional hunger" are: (a) gender biased hunger where the women eat "last, least and left overs", without having regard to either the quantity or nutritive value of food; (b) the girl child is fed less than the warranted quantity and quality of food because she is "someone else's property"; [See the attached Food Calendars facilitated by Dr. Neela Mukherjee]; (c) people belonging to a particular religious group can not to access certain kinds of food, even when so called "acceptable food" is not there or scarce. There can be many more examples. See my paper in the Indian Economic Journal, Vol. 43, No. 4, April-June 1995-1996, entitled "Institutional Sanctions, Choice and the Secondary Food System: Incompleteness of Sen's Entitlement and Deprivation Thesis as an Explanation of Hunger", .

All the best

Amitava (Dr. Amitava Mukherjee)
Economic Affairs Officer and
Ex-Chief Technical Adviser
Public Private Partnership
cum Regional Adviser on Poverty Reduction,
United Nations Economic & Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Bangkok, Thailand Phone: 66-2288-1939 Fax: 66-2288-3007

Message from Netra Prasad Osti [n_osti@yahoo.com]

Respected Prof. Swaminathan,

I am from Nepal, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet you when we were in New Dehli on an Agro-forestry Workshop in 2002 organized by ICRAF (World Agro-forestry Center).

Yes, hunger in South Asia is caused not only by health, but is also created by problems in education and employment.

We have three distinct case studies in Nepal. I describe them briefly below. Please see the Nepal Agricultural Research Council website (http://www.narc.gov.np/) for more information. One case comes from Terai where disadvantage poor people raise one buffalo that graze on a river side and this helps their food security, also in children education and well being.

In inner Terai, valley and hill people raise poultry (Commercial as well as native where ever available) and this helps with nutrition, education and livelihood.

In the hills and mountain; people maintain agro-forestry systems, from where they maintain livestock for their livelihood, collect firewood, fodder, vegetable and fruit.

I would like to incorporate these areas for further technological intervention and will help in livelihoods of rural people.

Netra Prasad Osti
Senior Scientist (S4)
Animal Nutrition Division (NARC)
P.O. Box 1950, Kathmandu, Nepal