Impact of the COVID-19 on Food Security and Sustainable Development Goals in India: Evidence from Existing Literature

Authors

  • Ajay K. SINGH DIT University
  • Sanjeev KUMAR DIT University
  • Bhim JYOTI VCSG Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and forestry

Keywords:

Food security, hunger, COVID-19 pandemic, developing economies, Sustainable development goals, India

Abstract

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s food security was in a precarious state. The outbreak has further exacerbated the country’s food insecurity. In India, the COVID-19 pandemic has a detrimental influence on the food, nutrition, and health security of the poor, pregnant women, children, disadvantaged members of society, small and marginal farmers, daily wage earners, salespeople, and informal labourers. This study assesses the performance of India’s food security before and after the COVID-19 pandemic based on secondary data. This study further examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and SDGs in India based on existing studies. This study reveals that poverty, income inequality, hunger, child malnutrition, unemployment, health insecurity, women’s insecurity, gender disparity, and social inequality have increased in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the aforementioned reasons, India will face some challenges in increasing production activities across the board. In India, the food security and income of vulnerable sections of society would be in peril. This study posits that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be difficult for India to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of no poverty (SDG1), zero hunger (SDG2), good health and wellbeing (SDG3), quality education (SDG4), gender equality (SDG5), clean water and sanitation (SDG6), decent work and economic growth (SDG8), industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG9), reduced inequality (SDG10), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), and responsible consumption and production (SDG12). This study proposed some policy suggestions to help increase food security and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in India in the near future.

Author Biographies

Ajay K. SINGH, DIT University

Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh works as an Assistant Professor (Economics) in the School of Liberal Arts & Management, DIT University, Dehradun. He did Post-Doctorate Research with EDI of India, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (India). He received an MPhil (Economics) from Devi Ahilya University Indore (India), and a PhD (Economics) from IIT Indore (India), the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok (Thailand), and FSC, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart (Germany) as a Research Collaborative Institution.

He has more than 6 years of post-PhD experience in research and teaching. He has been working as an Assistant Professor (Economics) at DIT University, Dehradun for more than 3 years. He worked with EDI of India, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (India), as a post-doctoral fellow for 2 years. He worked with the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) in Anand as a research fellow for 7 months. He also worked with NIT Sikkim as an Assistant Professor for 2 months. He received an MPhil (Economics) from Devi Ahilya University Indore (India) in 2009, and a PhD (Economics) from IIT Indore (India) in 2015. He has also done a post-doctoral research programme at EDI of India, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, from February 2016 to December 2017.

He has published several research papers in reputed national and international journals in various areas such as climate change, agricultural productivity, and agricultural productivity in different climate change scenarios in India; GDP projection at state level in India; assessment of food security at national and cross-country level; estimation of GFSI across economies; and assessment of environmental sustainability index (ESI) and its association with socio-economic indicators. 

I have the competency to use the Chi2-test, F-test, Student’s t-test, and Z-test for independence and goodness of fit. He can also create various indexes to assess the situations of food security, nutritional security, and livelihood security of people using principal component analysis and composite Z-score techniques. I can also use various statistical software, i.e., STATA, SPSS, Eview, and Minitab to handle a wide range of data in the form of cross-sectional, time series, and panel data. He also has the capability to formulate an econometric model in the case of qualitative and quantitative data in socio-economic aspects. I have taught both undergraduate and graduate students in Mathematical Economics, Microeconomics, and Engineering Economics.

Sanjeev KUMAR, DIT University

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Economics at the School of Liberal Arts & Management, DIT University Dehradun. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, India. He received MPhil in Economics from the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. His MA in Economics is from the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala. He was awarded Junior Research Fellowship by UGC for his Ph.D. He also qualified Himachal Pradesh State Eligibility Test. His focus of research lies in the field of industrialization, and labor market dynamics. He has published several research papers in reputed journals. 

Published

2022-08-01

How to Cite

SINGH, A. K. ., KUMAR, S., & JYOTI, B. (2022). Impact of the COVID-19 on Food Security and Sustainable Development Goals in India: Evidence from Existing Literature. GNOSI: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Theory and Praxis, 5(2), 92-109. Retrieved from http://gnosijournal.com/index.php/gnosi/article/view/196

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