Hunger and the state: a comparative case study of Cuba and India

Abstract

Around 1990, Cuba decided to boost domestic self-reliance in food security, and, at the same time, India adopted neoliberal reforms. In 2018, India ranked 103 out of 119 countries listed on the Global Hunger Index, whereas Cuba is one of the top 15 nations with the lowest scores for hunger in the population. This article examines an alternative to the globally prescribed norm of neoliberal reforms and probes the critical role played by the state in maintaining food security.

Keywords:

• Cuban food security
• food security
• Indian food insecurity
• neoliberal reforms in agriculture
• state
• state-in-society
• state and food security

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Global Hunger Index.

2 Jitendra, “India Claims to be Self-sufficient.”

3 Global Hunger Index.

4 Riera and Swinnen, “Cuba’s Agricultural Transition,” 425.

5 McPherson, “National Food Security,” 70.

6 Riera and Swinnen, “Cuba’s Agricultural Transition,” 430.

7 Riera and Swinnen, “Cuba’s Agricultural Transition,” 438.

8 Dreze, “Democracy and the Right to Food,” 1727.

9 Kohli, “State and Redistributive Policy in India”; Migdal, “State in Society”; Evans, “State-Society Synergy.”

10 Evans, “State-Society Synergy,” 210.

11 Tharamangalam, “Human Development as Transformative Practice,” 395.

12 Evans, “State–Society Synergy”; Migdal State-in-Society, Kohli, “State and Redistributive Policy in India.”

13 Gonzales, “Seasons of Resistance”; Lane, “Cuba’s Green Design.”

14 Gonzales, “Seasons of Resistance,” 721.

15 Riera and Swinnen, “Cuba’s Agricultural Transition,” 419.

16 Gonzalez, “Seasons of Resistance,” 699; Tharamangalam, “Human Development.”

17 McPherson, “National Food Security in Cuba,” 6; Clapp, “Food Self-Sufficiency,” 89.

18 D’Arcy, “Cuba’s Green Revolution”; Tharamangalam, “Human Development”; Gonzalez, “Seasons of Resistance”; Van Cleef, “The Big Green Experiment.”

19 Gonzalez and Alfonso, “Recent Transformations.”

20 Gonzalez and Alfonso, “Recent Transformations,” 4.

21 Gonzalez and Alfonso, “Recent Transformations,” 3.

22 Gonzalez and Alfonso, “Recent Transformations,” 7.

23 Riera and Swinnen, “Cuba’s Agricultural Transition,” 430–31.

24 Gupta and Gangopadhyaya, “Urban Food Security,” 17; Gonzales, “Seasons of Resistance,” 718.

25 Moskow, “Havana’s Self-provision Gardens,” 131.

26 Buchmann, “Cuban Home Gardens,” 708.

27 Moskow, “Havana’s Self-provision Gardens.”

28 Simmon, “An Organic Coup,” 35–36.

29 Frank, “Cuba Releases Agricultural Data.”

30 Gonzale and Alfonso, “Recent Transformations,” 7.

31 Rodriguez and Weissenstein, “Shortages hit Cuba”; Alvarez, “Shortages in Essential Services.”

32 Riera and Swinnen, “Cuba’s Agricultural Transition,” 415.

33 Dreze, “Democracy and the Right to Food,” 1724.

34 “India Tops World Hunger List.”

35 Global Hunger Index.

36 Kapoor, “Dealing With the Hidden Hunger of Our Children.”

37 Sector Wise Contribution of GDP of India.

38 Ghosh, “The Political Economy of Hunger,” 35.

39 Jitendra, “India Claims to be Self-sufficient.”

40 Ghosh, “The Political Economy of Hunger,” 35.

41 Pillay, “India Sinking,” 165.

42 Vyas, “Ensuring Food Security.”

43 Ghosh, “The Political Economy of Hunger in 21^st Century India”; Vyas, “Ensuring Food Security”; Patnaik, “The Republic of Hunger.”

44 Jitendra, “India Claims to be Self-sufficient.”

45 Suri, “Political Economy of Agrarian Distress.”

46 Ghosh, “Globalization and Food Policy Dilemmas, 114–16.

47 Ghosh, “The Political Economy of Hunger,” 35.

48 Pillay, “India Sinking,” 150.

49 Sainath, “A Long March.”

50 “New Evidence of Suicide Epidemic.”

51 “Farmer Suicides Went Up.”

52 Jitendra, “India Claims to be Self-sufficient.”

53 Dreze, “Democracy and the Right to Food”; Ray “Changes in the Food Consumption”; Jha “Food Security In Perspective”; G.S.V. Raghavan et al., “Food and Nutritional Security.”

54 Dreze, “Democracy and the Right to Food,” 1727.

55 Ray, “Changes in the Food Consumption.”

56 Jha “Food Security In Perspective.”

57 Chakraborty and Sarmah, “India 2025,” 13.

58 Ghosh, “The Political Economy of Hunger,” 34; Kalamkar, “Food and Nutrition Security,” 530; Ghosh, S. “India: Nutrition Intake,” 70; Pritchard et al., “Food Security,” 213; Pillay’s “India Sinking” states that more than 860 million Indians are living on less than US$2.00 per day. Nearly 50 percent of the world’s hungry live in India, and this figure has actually increased by 100 percent since 2005 when India hosted only 25 percent of the world’s hungry, 133. Patnaik, “Theorizing Food Security” states that “Globalization can only worsen food deprivation and deepen poverty for the millions of farmers and labourers already in deep distress. The idea that price fall benefits ‘the consumer’ ignores the fact that three-fifths of consumers in a poor country are themselves rural producers dependent for jobs on producers, and deflation harms their incomes,” 63.

59 Motiram and Vakulabharanam, “Corporate and Cooperative Solutions.”

60 Gupta and Gangopadhyaya, “Urban Food Security,” 18.

Additional information

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Anupam Pandey

Anupam Pandey teaches in the Department of International Development Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.