Ants Sing ‘Food For All’!

In my last article ‘Let us do an ant in life’ I have shared a view on my learning about a democratic spirit and how religiously it preserved by an insect community. The tiny creature of almighty how nicely is bound by their duties and responsibilities to their society. For their own appetite they toil together. The working class of their community is working day and night in search of food. When it is found, it is for all. They are piously bound by the divine rule of nature and survive cohesively. To get equitably distributed with a morsel of food is their habit and not inflicted by an iniquity a moment. ‘Food for all’ is a highest practiced slogan of their livelihood.

Pix by Amit K Sikder

Hunger and poverty is a looming disaster for long. A global consensus is on work always to contain it. Meanwhile an unwarranted blow of Covid pandemic has hit the resolution harshly. A number of factors like a relatively low agricultural production in sync with population influx, high prices of produce etc contribute to the concern abysmally. Given all these matter of concerns, to come up with a suitable remedy now suffers a massive setback.

In the meantime the second wave of the pandemic has started to invade us. So a lockdown call is on anvil. A number of European countries already have started to exercise it. Amid this hurly-burly to reach to the marginal class with a reason of their survival is facing a severe bottleneck.

According to United Nation (UN) data an estimated 821 million people in world was suffering hunger in 2018.  And in between the belligerence of Covid-19 ruthlessly slaps the UN resolution on achieving the Zero Hunger Target by 2030. Leaders across globe united at the UN in 2000 and come up with a broad consensus called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to tackle poverty with 2015 deadline. The target of curtailing the figure of poverty to half was very successfully met by 2010, well ahead of the deadline.

To keep the spirit alive the United Nation strives for more effort and launched the programme Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the mandate for 21^st century. “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” was the key note of the UN line-up. Key focus areas covered under the goal: ending hunger and ensuring access to safe and nutritious food by all; ending all forms of nutrition; doubling agricultural productivity and incomes of marginal producers; ensuring sustainable food production system; increasing flow of investment in agriculture; correcting and preventing trade restrictions and distortions in global agricultural markets and adopting measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets. In this regard UN agencies like World Food Programme (WFP), World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) come across very successfully with their respective efforts.

Now policies and priorities are at loggerhead. The drastic fall in per capita income due to low working scope is pushing more numbers into the poverty trap. The unfavourable climatic condition, low credit supports all are severely affecting the agricultural productivity and rural livelihood today. In our country the growth of agriculture and its allied sectors has remained stagnant for last six years and thereby hitting the farmers’ income to an appalling level according to the Economic Survey 2019-20 released on January 31, 2020. From the market context it again prove to be painful as the growing population and their demand put huge pressure on supply and finally the price of produce is skyrocketing. And thus for the marginal class fulfilling the appetite everyday is going to be a distant dream.  

The pandemic is keeping us in such isolation where the whole spectrum of the allocation pattern of resources is suffering a big.

To survive with this crisis an ant song of ‘Food for all’ for the time being will be a best practice of self-reliance. Now in every community to share food with each other will be a best ‘Ant’ practice. For our appetite we all come together. Fighting it together will make the journey easier. When the pandemic will over the ‘Ant’ philosophy will help us to fight poverty with a new enthusiasm.

Ref:   https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/food/index.html