Agriculture & Food Security is a fundamental concept, not an act or scheme, which globally means ensuring all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for an active, healthy life. In India, the concern for food security originated from the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943. The problem of chronic food shortages was largely solved by the Green Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which made the country self-sufficient in food grain production.
The concept was codified into a rights-based legal entitlement through the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, which was signed into law on September 12, 2013, retroactive to July 5, 2013. The NFSA aims to provide food and nutritional security by covering up to 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population.
The Act works through the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), where eligible persons are entitled to 5 kg of food grains per month. Until recently, these were provided at subsidized prices of ₹3/kg for rice, ₹2/kg for wheat, and ₹1/kg for coarse grains. A significant recent change is that the Central Government began providing these food grains free of cost to beneficiaries from January 1, 2023, a provision extended for five years from January 1, 2024. The Act also mandates a maternity benefit of not less than ₹6,000 for pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Food Security connects directly to the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (now PM-POSHAN), all of which the NFSA converts into legal entitlements. The Food Corporation of India (FCI), established in 1965, is the key institution for procurement and storage. Furthermore, the right to food is often interpreted by the judiciary as being part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.