Discuss the structural food deficit of Kerala and how the Central pool has been used to address inter-state food imbalances.

Kerala's food deficit is structural rather than seasonal. Its paddy area fell from 8.82 lakh ha in 1974-75 to 1.96 lakh ha in 2015-16, and rice output fell from 13.76 lakh MT in 1972-73 to 5.49 lakh MT [1]. The Central pool is grain bought by the Centre and handed out to states. It has long connected surplus and deficit regions, and Kerala is the clearest example.

Structural roots of Kerala's deficit

• Low profitability: Rising wages have pushed up the cost of growing paddy, so farmers earn less from it [1].
• Change in land use: Paddy land has steadily gone to other crops and to non-farm uses [1].
• Policy has not reversed the trend: Output has not recovered despite state help to paddy farmers [1].
• Outcome: A rice-eating state depends on rice from neighbouring states and from the Centre.

Central pool as the balancing tool

• Institutional base: In December 1947 the government removed all food controls at once. Prices rose steeply and controls had to be brought back [3]. This failure led to state-managed grain, and the FCI and the Agricultural Prices Commission were set up in 1965 [3].
• Zonal era (1976): The southern rice zone of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Pondicherry left out Kerala. The Centre took on Kerala's needs directly from the Central pool [2]. This protected prices in the surplus states and made the Centre Kerala's main supplier.
• NFSA era: Grain moved between states rose from 225.16 lakh tonnes (2008-09) to 349.19 lakh tonnes (2012-13). This moved grain to deficit states and freed storage in procuring states [4].
• Portability: One Nation One Ration Card lets NFSA beneficiaries collect rations at any fair price shop in the country [5].

Limitations

• Dependence on the Centre: In 1976 the Cabinet cut the rice procurement target from 5.5 to 4.4 MT, even while promising to meet Kerala's needs [2]. What a deficit state receives depends on central stocks.
• Logistics strain: The scale of movement needed an inter-ministerial committee with the Railways to monitor it [4].

Overall, the Central pool has shifted from supplying states behind zonal walls to supplying a single national market, and it has cushioned Kerala's shortfall. For the long term, the Centre should keep allocations to deficit states predictable, and Kerala should work to make paddy farming profitable again. Together these would make food security in line with SDG-2 less dependent on one supplier.