Sustainable food security in India-Domestic production and macronutrient availability

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 3; p. e0193766
• Main Authors: Ritchie, Hannah, Reay, David, Higgins, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 23.03.2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Agricultural economics; Agricultural policy; Agricultural production; Availability; Balance sheets; Biology and Life Sciences; Calories; Commodities; Conservation of Natural Resources; Crop Production; Crop yield; Crop yields; Crops; Demographic aspects; Diet; Dietary Fats; Dietary Proteins; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Economic aspects; Economic development; Economic growth; Elasticity of demand; Food chains; Food prices; Food production; Food security; Food Supply; Forecasting; Health aspects; Household wastes; Humans; Hunger; India; International trade; Malnutrition; Medicine and Health Sciences; Models, Theoretical; Nutrition; Oryza; People and Places; Population; Poverty; Prices; Proteins; Sanitation; Self sufficiency; Sustainable development; Trends; United Kingdom; India; Washington DC; Scotland; Edinburgh Scotland; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193766

India has been perceived as a development enigma: Recent rates of economic growth have not been matched by similar rates in health and nutritional improvements. To meet the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) of achieving zero hunger by 2030, India faces a substantial challenge in meeting basic nutritional needs in addition to addressing population, environmental and dietary pressures. Here we have mapped-for the first time-the Indian food system from crop production to household-level availability across three key macronutrients categories of 'calories', 'digestible protein' and 'fat'. To better understand the potential of reduced food chain losses and improved crop yields to close future food deficits, scenario analysis was conducted to 2030 and 2050. Under India's current self-sufficiency model, our analysis indicates severe shortfalls in availability of all macronutrients across a large proportion (>60%) of the Indian population. The extent of projected shortfalls continues to grow such that, even in ambitious waste reduction and yield scenarios, enhanced domestic production alone will be inadequate in closing the nutrition supply gap. We suggest that to meet SDG2 India will need to take a combined approach of optimising domestic production and increasing its participation in global trade.