India Considers Reform of its Failed Food System
Amartya Sen asserted 30 years ago that hunger is not due to scarcity, but rather to poverty, inequality, and poor management of resources. (Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation 1981). That assertion appears to be borne out by Vikas Bajaj's recent story in the New York Times , "As Grain Piles Up, India's Poor Still Goes Hungry." The hunger problem in India, it seems, is largely attributable to a failed distribution system--a substantial part of the failure attributable to corruption. (I have written some about these issues in relation to India's rural poor and rural development here ). Bajaj writes of rotting grain surpluses in the north of India, while slum dwellers in New Delhi go hungry. He provides this context: Spurred by agricultural innovation and generous farm subsidies, India now grows so much food that it has a bigger grain stockpile than any country except China, and it exports some ...