FOOD SECURITY

Realizing that food is the basic physiological need for the human being and apperciating the fact that among all the needs , the need for the food is the strongest and directly associated with the survival of the human life , food security continues to be the core concern of livelihood security.

'Food security' envisages adequacy, stability as well as economic and physical access to food to all people at all times . There may be enough food but if the poor don't have access to it , the food security will not be complete.

Besides ameliorating the soil and water conservation regime which adds substantially to the enhanced food production, forest products reinforce the food security in many ways. Human history corroborates that forests have always been a source for large number of non- wood forest products which directly contribute to the food basket of the people in the form of edible fruits, flowers , gums, leaves, roots, tubers etc. During lean agricultural season, even the agricultural communities supplement their food requirement from the forests. Furthermore, income generated from sale of surplus NWFP enables the poor to have access to food.

In the Indian rural context where mixed farming is in vogue , cattle are an important component of the socio- economic set up. In the complex chain of food web, cattle are secondary food producers too. They derive their food from the forests, which they convert into animal proteins in form of milk , fat, meat and other dairy products to be used by human beings .Although the carrying capacity has been viewed as a constraint by foresters, PPA endeavors to accommodate multiple use of natural resouce on sustainable basis so that food resources are available to the people as well as cattle.