Food zones were once central to India's food management. Trace the move from zonal restrictions to a single national grain market and assess its outcomes.

Food zones were groups of States. Grain moved freely inside a zone, but moving it from one zone to another was restricted. As late as 1976, the Centre formed a southern rice zone of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Pondicherry. It kept Kerala out and supplied it from the Central pool [1]. India's move away from such walls happened step by step, and it has met the country's food-security goals better than its market-integration goals.

Tracing the transition

• Shortage era: At Partition, India kept 82% of the population but only 75% of cereal output [2]. It lifted all controls in December 1947, but prices rose steeply and the controls came back [2].
• Controls built into institutions: The 1950 Foodgrains Procurement Commission recommended rationing and a state monopoly on grain trade [2]. The APC and FCI were set up in 1965 [2].
• Loosening: The 1976 kharif policy added Rajasthan to the northern zone and freed all kharif cereals other than rice [1].
• Surplus era: FCI's job changed from blocking grain to moving it. Inter-state movement grew from 225.16 lakh tonnes (2008-09) to 349.19 lakh tonnes (2012-13) [3].
• Rights era: The NFSA, 2013 and One Nation One Ration Card now cover all 36 States/UTs [4].

Zones & curbs → Wider zones → Central pool movement → NFSA + ONORC
 (1950s–70s)      (1976)          (FCI-led)            (portability)

Flowchart: from walls between zones to portable entitlements

Outcomes: gains

• Deficit States are secure. Moving grain between States meets NFSA needs and frees storage space in procuring States [3].
• Consumers can move. ONORC has recorded 93.31 crore portability transactions [5].

Outcomes: gaps

• Few farmers benefit. Only about 6% of farmers sell to procurement agencies [6].
• Procurement is concentrated in a few regions. The Shanta Kumar Committee urged FCI to shift its focus to eastern UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam [6].
• The market is only partly single. Grain now flows nationally, but mostly through the State's channel rather than through open trade.

In short, India has replaced zonal walls with one national system for distributing food. To make it a true single market, it needs to decentralise procurement, spread it to eastern India and diversify beyond rice and wheat, as the Shanta Kumar Committee proposed [6]. That would bring gains to farmers in line with SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and with the right to food under Article 21.