Global Food Security Index 2021

The latest Global Food Security Index places India at the 71st position.

 Global Food Security Index 2021

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• Latest GFSI 2021: In October 2021, it emerged that India was ranked 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021. Soon, India was ranked 71st in the Global Food Security (GFS) Index 2021 of 113 countries. The GFS Index is designed by London-based Economist Impact and sponsored by Corteva Agriscience. The 2021 GFSI is the tenth edition of the index, and GFSI is published every year.
• The workings: It measures the underlying drivers of food security based on - Affordability, Availability, Quality and Safety, and Natural Resources and Resilience. It considers 58 unique food security indicators including income and economic inequality - calling attention to systemic gaps and actions needed to accelerate progress toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030. The countries that are models for food security are those that score highly on all four pillars of food security. For example, top-scorer Ireland scores above 92 points for Affordability, and Quality and Safety of food, and above 74 points for the Availability and resilience pillars.
• Latest change: This edition of the GFSI incorporates the "Natural Resources and Resilience" category into the main index. This category assesses a country’s exposure to the impacts of a changing climate; its susceptibility to natural resource risks; and how the country is adapting to these risks, all of which impact the incidence of food insecurity in a country. The category was first introduced into the GFSI in 2017 as an adjustment factor and, given its increasing importance, has been mainstreamed for the first time this year.
• Findings 2021: The Top Rankers are Ireland, Austria, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, France and the US shared the top rank with the overall GFS score in the range of 77.8 and 80 points on the index.

1. India’s Rank - India held the 71st position with an overall score of 57.2 points on the GFS Index 2021 of 113 countries. In comparison to neighbouring countries, it did better than Pakistan (75th position), Sri Lanka (77th Position), Nepal (79th position) and Bangladesh (84th position), but was way behind China (34th position). Over the past 10 years, India’s incremental gains in overall food security score were lagging behind that of Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. India’s score improved only by 2.7 points to 57.2 in 2021 from 54.5 in 2012 when compared with Pakistan by 9 points (to 54.7 in 2021 from 45.7 in 2012).
2. Pakistan's Rank - It scored better than India in the food affordability category and Sri Lanka was even better. On the remaining 3 factors, India scored better than Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

• Concerns: The global food security has decreased for the second year in a row after seven years of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving zero hunger by 2030. Pandemic has been a big spoiler in this battle. While countries have made significant strides toward addressing food insecurity in the past ten years, food systems remain vulnerable to economic, climatic, and geopolitical shocks.
• Suggestions: Action is imperative at all levels–local, national, and global–to end hunger and malnourishment and ensure food security for all. To meet these present and emerging future challenges requires that investments in food security are sustained – from innovation in climate-resilient crop yields to investing in programs to assist the most vulnerable. India has to also realise that it's not just the availability of calories (via PDS supplies), but of nutrition that will matter.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the reason India is lagging behind many nations, especially China, on food security front, despite being a major agricultural power. (2) What are the ways India can create a food system that eliminates hunger and malnutrition? Explain.

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