NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 4 Food Security In India 

Food Security In India Class 9 – Given in this post is NCERT Solutions Class 9 Economics Chapter 4 Food Security In India  Important Question Answers. The important questions we have compiled will help the students to brush up on their knowledge about the subject. Students can practice Class 9 Food Security In India important questions to understand the subject better and improve their performance in the board exam. The NCERT Solutions Class 9 Social Science (Economics) provided here will also give students an idea about how to write the answers.

 

Multiple Choice Questions  1 Mark Each

 

1.Until ___________, food security was understood as the “availability at all times of adequate supply of basic foodstuffs”. 

  1. 1950s
  2. 2000s
  3. 1973s
  4. 1970s

Answer – D. 1970s

2. Who added a new dimension to food security and emphasised the “access” to food?

  1. Raghuram Rajan
  2. Amartya Sen
  3. Abhijit Banerjee
  4. Adam Smith

Answer – B. Amartya Sen

3. “Food security at the individual, household, regional, national and global levels exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”

Above is the declaration of__________

  1. 1992, World Food Summit
  2. 1992, World Food Security Summit
  3. 1995, World Food Summit
  4. 1997, World Food Security Summit

Answer – C. 1995 World Food Summit

4. According to the 1995 World Food Summit, what is essential to improve access to food?

  1. Sustainable development
  2. Wealth 
  3. Poverty eradication
  4. Saving Soil

Answer – C. Poverty Eradication

5. When was the special stamp entitled ‘Wheat Revolution’ launched?

  1. 1975
  2. 1978
  3. 1965
  4. 1968

Answer – D. 1968

6. The expanded form of PAP is –

  1. Poverty alleviation programs 
  2. Poverty alleviation propaganda
  3. Poverty abbreviation programmes 
  4. Public anti-poverty programs

Answer – C. Poverty Alleviation Programmes

7. The two most successful crops due to the green revolution are- 

  1. Wheat and Barley
  2. Rice and Pules
  3. Rice and Wheat
  4. Dal and Barley

Answer – C. Rice and Wheat

8. When did the green revolution take place?

  1. 1980s
  2. 1970s
  3. 1990s
  4. 2000s

Answer – B. 1970s

9. Ration shops also known as

    Fair price shops 
  1. Buffer stock 
  2. Public distribution 
  3. Issued food shops

Answer – A. Fair Price shops 

10. The farmers are paid ______ by the FCI for their surplus produce.

  1. Fair Price
  2. Minimum Support Price
  3. Issue Price
  4. Buffer rates

Answer – B. Minimum Support Price

11. In ration shops, foodgrains are sold at _________

  1. Fair Price
  2. Minimum Support Price
  3. Issue Price
  4. Buffer rates

Answer – C. Issue Price

12. The full form of FFW is – 

  1. Family For Food
  2. Food For Family 
  3. Food For Work
  4. Food For World

Answer – C. Food for Work

 

Very Short Answer Type (1 Mark Each)


1. What is the definition of food security?
Answer: Food security means availability, accessibility and affordability of food to all people at all times.

2. When are the poor households more vulnerable to food insecurity?
Answer: The poor households are more vulnerable to food insecurity whenever there is a problem of production or distribution of food crops.

3. What does the food security depend upon?
Answer: Food security depends on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and government vigilance and action at times, when this security is threatened.

4. What is starvation?
Answer: If there is a shortage of food, leading to a spike in food prices in a very wide spread area or is stretched over a longer time period, it may cause a situation of starvation.

5. What is famine?
Answer: A Famine is characterised by wide spread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or decaying food and loss of body resistance due to weakening from starvation.

6. Name the most devastating famine?
Answer: The most devastating famine that occurred in India was the FAMINE OF BENGAL in 1943. This famine killed thirty lakh people in the province of Bengal.

7. Who were the worst affected by it?|
Answer: The agricultural labourers, fishermen, transport workers and other casual labourers were affected the most by it.

8. Name a few places in India with prevalent/prolonged famine-like conditions.|
Answer: In Kalahandi and Kashipur in Orissa, famine-like conditions have been existing for many years.

9. Name a few remote areas of India where starvation deaths are recently reported.
Answer: Starvation deaths are reported in Baran district of Rajasthan, Palamau district of Jharkhand and many other remote areas during the recent years.

10. What was Amartya Sen’s idea of “access” to food.
Answer: Amartya Sen emphasised the “access” to food through what he called ‘entitlements’ — a combination of what one can produce, exchange in the market along with state or other socially provided supplies.

 

Short Answer Type (3 Marks Each)


1. When is food security ensured in a country? Explain the three dimensions of food security.

Answer – 

Food security is ensured in a country only if enough food is available for all the persons, all persons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable quality and there is no barrier on access to food.

Food security has the following three dimensions- 

  1. Availability of food means food production within the country, food imports and the previous year’s stock stored in government granaries.
  2. Accessibility means food is within reach of every person.
  3. Affordability implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet one’s dietary needs.


2. How is food security affected during a calamity? What do you understand by starvation and famine?

Answer – 

  1. Due to a natural calamity, say drought, total production of foodgrains decreases. It creates a shortage of food in the affected areas. Due to shortage of food, the prices go up.
  2. At the high prices, some people cannot afford to buy food. 
  3. If such calamity happens in a very wide spread area or is stretched over a longer time period, it may cause a situation of starvation. A massive starvation might take a turn of famine.


3. What is a Famine? Name the most devastating famine? Who were the worst affected by it?

Answer – 

  1. A Famine is characterised by wide spread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or decaying food and loss of body resistance due to weakening from starvation.
  2. The most devastating famine that occurred in India was the FAMINE OF BENGAL in 1943. This famine killed thirty lakh people in the province of Bengal.
  3. The agricultural labourers, fishermen, transport workers and other casual labourers were affected the most by dramatically increasing price of rice. They were the ones who died in this famine.


4. Who is the food insecure sections of society?

Answer – 

  1. Although a large section of people suffers from food and nutrition insecurity in India, the worst affected groups are landless people with little or no land to depend upon, traditional artisans, providers of traditional services, petty self-employed workers and destitutes including beggars. 
  2. In the urban areas, the food insecure families are those whose working members are generally employed in ill-paid occupations and casual labour market. These workers are largely engaged in seasonal activities and are paid very low wages that just ensure bare survival.


5. Give examples of food insecure people other than casual labourers or artisans.

Answer – 

Other than casual labourers or artisans, following are two most insecure social sections-

  1. The SCs, STs and some sections of the OBCs (lower castes among them) who have either poor land-base or very low land productivity are prone to food insecurity.
  2. The people affected by natural disasters, who have to migrate to other areas in search of work, are also among the most food insecure people.
  3. A large proportion of pregnant and nursing mothers and children under the age of 5 years constitute an important segment of the food insecure population.


6. Write briefly on regional variations in proneness to food security in India.

Answer – 

The food insecure people are disproportionately large in some regions of the country, such as economically backward states with high incidence of poverty, tribal and remote areas, regions more prone to natural disasters etc. In fact, the states of Uttar Pradesh (eastern and south-eastern parts), Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, parts of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra account for largest number of food insecure people in the country.


7. What are Ration Cards? Name the three kinds of Ration cards.

Answer – 

  1. Any family with a ration card can buy a stipulated amount of food items from the government Ration/Fair Price shops where items are sold to people at a price lower than the market price to ensure food security.

(ii)  There are three kinds of ration cards: 

(a) Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the poor

(b) BPL cards for those below poverty line

(c) APL cards for all others.

 

Long Answer Type (4 Marks Each)

1. Describe hunger as an aspect indicating food insecurity, also define the two types of hunger.

Answer – 

Hunger is not just an expression of poverty; it brings about poverty. The attainment of food security therefore involves eliminating current hunger and reducing the risks of future hunger.

Hunger has two kinds- Chronic, and Seasonal

  1. Chronic hunger – Chronic hunger is a consequence of diets persistently inadequate in terms of quantity and/or quality. Poor people suffer from chronic hunger because of their very low income and in turn inability to buy food even for survival.
  2. Seasonal hunger– Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting. This is prevalent in rural areas because of the seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in urban areas because of the casual labour, e.g., there is less work for casual construction labour during the rainy season.

The percentage of seasonal as well as chronic hunger has declined in India post- independence.


2. Write a note on success of the “Green Revolution”. 

Answer – 

  1. After independence, Indian policy makers adopted all measures to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains. India adopted a new strategy in agriculture, which resulted in the ‘Green Revolution’ especially in the production of wheat and rice.
  2. The success of wheat was later replicated in rice. The increase in foodgrains was, however, disproportionate. 
  3. The highest rate of growth has been achieved in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. 
  4. Production of foodgrain in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Assam, Tamil Nadu has dropped. West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, recorded significant increases in rice yield.
  5. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, officially recorded the impressive strides of the Green revolution in agriculture by releasing a special stamp entitled ‘Wheat Revolution’ in July 1968.


3. Describe the working of Buffer Stock in the food security system designed by the government to ensure availability of foodgrains.

Answer – 

  1. Buffer Stock is the stock of foodgrains, namely wheat and rice procured by the government through Food Corporation of India (FCI).
  2. The FCI purchases wheat and rice from the farmers in states where there is surplus production. The farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops. This price is called Minimum Support Price
  3. The purchased foodgrains are stored in granaries, later distributed in deficit areas an among the poorer strata of society, at a price lower than the market price also known as Issue Price. 
  4. This also helps resolve the problem of shortage of food during adverse weather conditions or during the periods of calamity.


4. What is the Public Distribution System?

Answer – 

  1. The food procured by the FCI is distributed through government regulated ration shops among the poorer section of the society. This is called the public distribution system (PDS).
  2. Ration shops are now present in most localities, villages, towns and cities. 
  3. There are about 5.5 lakh ration shops all over the country. 
  4. Ration shops also known as Fair Price Shops keep stock of foodgrains, sugar, kerosene oil for cooking. 
  5. These items are sold to people at a price lower than the market price.
  6. Any family with a ration card can buy a stipulated amount of these items (e.g., 35 kg of grains, 5 litres of kerosene, 5 kgs of sugar etc.) every month from the nearby ration shop.