India ’ s Food Security Strategy and its Impact on the Food Surplus State of Punjab

of Punjab. Primary data have been obtained through interviews held with farmers during the various research projects and peers.. Results and Discussions Poverty Status At the time of independence, the country faced twin nutritional problems threat of famine and acute starvation, and chronic under nutrition. Former existed due to the lack of national and regional food security systems. The latter existed due to low dietary intakes because of lack of purchasing power among poorer segments of the population. For the measurement of poverty monetary cut-offs could be fixed in terms of either income or expenditure, however, expenditure is comparatively more stable than income over time. So, consumption expenditure has been considered more appropriate and relevant measure of the level of poverty (Joshi 1997). Planning Commission has defined the poverty line in terms of monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE). And, the most commonly used poverty index is ‘Head Count Ratio’ (HCR) that refers to the proportion of total population falling below the poverty line. MPCE at 1973-74 prices (table1) corresponding to a calorie intake of 2400 for the rural and 2100 for the urban areas stood at Rs. 49.63 and Rs. 56.96. Updated by suitable price indices to ensure the same purchasing power MPCE during 2004-05 gradually increased to Rs.356.30 for the rural and Rs. 538.60 for the urban areas. However, these poverty lines that met nutritional norms in the base year do not directly