Passage

Historically, the biggest challenge to world agriculture has been to achieve a balance between demand for and supply of food. At the level of individual countries, the demand-supply balance can be a critical policy issue for a closed economy, especially if it is a populous economy and its domestic agriculture is not growing sufficiently enough to ensure food supplies, on an enduring basis; it is not so much and not always, of a constraint for an open, and growing economy, which has adequate exchange surpluses to buy food abroad. For the world as a whole, supply-demand balance is always an inescapable prerequisite for warding off hunger and starvation. However, global availability of adequate supply does not necessarily mean that food would automatically move from countries of surplus to countries of deficit if the latter lack in purchasing power. The uneven distribution of hunger, starvation, under or malnourishment, etc., at the worldlevel, thus owes itself to the presence of empty-pocket hungry mouths, overwhelmingly confined to the underdeveloped economies. Inasmuch as ‘a two-square meal’ is of elemental significance to basic human existence, the issue of worldwide supply of food has been gaining significance, in recent times, both because the quantum and the composition of demand has been undergoing big changes, and because, in recent years, the capabilities of individual countries to generate uninterrupted chain of food supplies have come under strain. Food production, marketing and prices, especially price-affordability by the poor in the developing world, have become global issues that need global thinking and global solutions.
QUESTION

CSAT

Hard

Comprehension

Prelims 2016

According to the above passage, which of the following helps/help in reducing hunger and starvation in the developing economics?

  1. Balancing demand and supply of food.
  2. Increasing imports of food.
  3. Increasing purchasing power of the poor.
  4. Changing the food consumption patterns and practices.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Select an option to attempt

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. The passage emphasizes that balancing the demand and supply of food is crucial for addressing hunger and starvation.

Statement 2 is incorrect. While importing food can help mitigate food shortages, the passage highlights that food availability does not automatically solve hunger if purchasing power is lacking.

Statement 3 is correct. The passage explicitly states that improving the purchasing power of the poor is fundamental to addressing food insecurity.

Statement 4 is incorrect. The passage does not mention changing food consumption patterns as a direct solution to hunger and starvation.

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