A Study on Alternative Public Distribution System: An Innovative Programme of Deccan Development Society (2004) Study commissioned by Deccan Development Society (DDS), Hyderabad

Over the decades the functioning of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in India has suffered due to inefficient management and lack of proper targeting to improve the food security of the poor. Although, India has achieved self-sufficiency in food grain production and surplus food stocks are available in the FCI godowns across the country, the poor have little access to food as they lack purchasing power. This paradox of surplus food availability in the market and chronic hunger of the poor has brought into sharp focus the lopsided policies of the government with regard to food distribution in the country.

The PDS evolved from a food rationing system introduced by the British in India during World War II. A fixed amount of food rations were distributed to the entitled families in specific towns/cities through The Department of Food, created in 1942 under the Government of India. After the end of the war, the government abolished the rationing system only to reintroduce immediately after independence in 1950 due to inflationary pressures of the economy. Ever since, the Indian government has used the public distribution system as a deliberate policy instrument to overcome chronic food shortages apart from using it for stabilizing food prices and consumption in view of fluctuating food production in the country.

In the present context of the failure of the PDS system to ensure the food security of the poor, it would be relevant to raise some important questions about the food security policies of the government as well as the need for alternative approaches/paradigms of food security. "The Alternative Public Distribution System (APDS) through the Community Grain Fund" conceived by Deccan Development Society is one such programme that breaks away from narrow framework of government PDS that is solely concerned with procurement and distribution of food grains to the target groups. The APDS programme has been conceived by Deccan Development Society with an idea of local solutions for local problems. The programme integrates sustainable agricultural goals such as bio-diversity, natural resource management with community goals of rural livelihoods, food security and socio-economic empowerment of dalits and women based on plural values, local customs and practices and indigenous knowledge.

The study on impact of APDS programme on food security of rural poor allow for three main conclusions. The first concerns the way the external organisation, in this case DDS conceives the situation of farmers, the second, the way the programme is implemented and the third, question of sustainability.  With respect to the first, one can conclude that an approach based on farmers’ situation and needs is necessary to design an appropriate programme like the APDS.  Differences in agro-climatic zone, resource availability together with the nature of dryland agriculture with their diversity of crops and different types of animal husbandry call for abandoning conventional scientific stereotypes of the way farmers are perceived and their needs understood.

Secondly, small scale, low resource farming systems are complex environments where agricultural production is risk prone and heavily dependent on climatic factors, particularly availability of water.  However, risk can be reduced and production increased by exploiting the diversity of such farming systems, as well as by introducing new elements that can create additional opportunities.  Moreover, local knowledge has to be an essential component in understanding these complex systems.  Farmers are the most appropriate people to develop new management practices and to experiment with changes in their farming systems.

Thirdly, the sustainability of the programme largely depends on how the stakeholders perceive their livelihoods enhanced by providing economic well-being and social empowerment.

Thus, the DDS-APDS programme overall breaks away from mainstream notions of development and designed a programme that is ecologically and environmentally sound, economically viable, essentially egalitarian and democratic in content involving local communities.