Pawan went to attend a wedding reception with his mother and father. There was a good variety of food items. He tasted many items and left many items in the plate. This was done by many guests attending the party. His parents drew his attention to the amount of food wasted in this manner.

(a) Why was Pawan’s parents concerned about the wastage of food?

(b) What steps you can suggest to ensure food security?

(a) With Indian population reaching 1.3 billions by the end of year 2020, we will require about 240 million tonnes of grains production every year. In order to produce such an enormous amount of grains, we need extra land for cultivation which is beyond our scope as it is surely going to create ecological disturbances. Therefore, it is essential to wisely use the available food resources and prevent wastage.

Further due to unemployment, poverty and inflation, millions of Indians are unable to get adequate meals. Hunger and rampant malnutrition of poor sections of human society can be managed by proper utilization of food items served in the lavish parties of marriages, birthdays, inaugurations, etc and by giving extra food to needy people.

(b) We can adopt the following methods for ensuring food security.

(i) Development of diseases resistant, high yielding crop varieties having low maturity durations.

(ii) By improving production management.

(iii) Crop protection management.

(iv) Proper storage and distribution of agricultural produce.