Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 3- Food security

India needs to have a strategy of self-reliance in basic foods, including edible oils.

Sri Lanka, a country with 21.5 million population imported dairy products valued at $333.8 million in 2020 and $317.7 million in 2021.
The island nation’s imports of whole milk powder (WMP) alone were 89,000 tonnes and 72,000 tonnes in these two years.
The 89,000 tonnes of powder imported in 2020 would have, thus, “produced” almost 2.1 million litres per day (MLPD) equivalent of milk.
This is as against the 1.3 MLPD that Sri Lanka produces from its own cows and buffaloes.
It translates into an import dependence of over 60 per cent.
At the other end, we have Saudi Arabia, home to over 35 million inhabitants (including immigrants) and also the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy company.
Almarai Company has six dairy farms producing more than 3.5 MLPD of milk.
The animals are sourced from the US and Europe.
The entire feed and also forage given to them are procured from abroad.
Why is Saudi Arabia taking such pains to produce its own milk?
The answer is food security.
The Saudis — other Persian Gulf countries have also copied the Almarai model — are prepared to pay any price when it comes to ensuring the availability of basic food like milk.

India annually imports 13.5-14.5 million tonnes of vegetable oils, again roughly 60 per cent of its total consumption.
Low international prices meant that the import bill, though high, fell from $9.85 billion in 2012-13 to $9.67 billion in 2019-20.
However, in the last couple of years, retail prices of most oils more than doubled
The value of India’s vegetable oil imports surged to a record $19 billion in 2021-22.

As a country with a population many times that of Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia, India needs to have a strategy of self-reliance in basic foods.

For India, a lesson in food security from Sri Lanka

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