The undernourishment of children in millions implies that one generation of people are not being allowed to reach their full active potential. On the other hand, the centralised systems of welfare including PDS, and other programmes of food and nutrition safety nets that the Government has set up have hardly worked, as people in the rural and tribal areas, where much of the underdevelopment still occurs have little control over the management and running of these systems. Thus enormous subsidies given to run these systems in terms of Government of India finances, international finances and direct food resources are rendered to nought, as misappropriation, and poor management result in distress and hunger and hunger conditions continuing the same as ever before. The poorest communities in this country, which is what we are concerned about when we talk about food security, can just as well do without these institutions for all the good that they do to these communities through their supports for nutrition and feeding. In this context, programmes of food for work perhaps could have much potential. But, regrettably, the centralised, bureaucratic manner of planning and implementation of most of the food for work programmes makes them opaque and incomprehensible to the community. The result is that these programmes are perceived as mostly employment generation programmes, and there is little sustainable output at the end of these programmes. The opaque manner of implementation of these programmes also results in people being underpaid, and much of the food being siphoned off. The situation is much worse, when the wage component in part or in whole is food, as the margins for approximations are much higher and there is more room for wrong calculations than when the payment is in terms of cash. The state on its part acts with the least sensitivity on issues of fundamental concern like food security, and happily goes ahead removing subsidies for the most essential commodities in the rural economy. Thus even the little that people could purchase soon goes out of their reach, and in a macabre twist of circumstance, the rising hunger of people gets reflected as an apparent surplus which necessitates further subsidies for just storage management and engenders debates on increasing food exports, shifts from food production to cash cropping, etc. There is thus a need for looking at people's own initiatives and resources for management of hunger and food shortage, and examine systems of decentralised management that could help channelise local surplus, and thus reduce the huge losses in transportation. Having worked with marginalized and underprivileged communities for long, Agragamee has been looking into the issue of food security and has made sustained and long-term efforts for ensuring food security in tribal villages with the emphasis being on self-managed structures which would address questions of equity and access at the same time. One of the visible outcomes of these efforts is the Community Grain-bank, which has helped several village communities overcome seasonal hunger, and also escape from the debt trap, which was the root cause of the hunger cycle. Given below are some examples of successful grain banks in different villages, which need to be examined closely to help develop an understanding of the conditions and circumstances by which a community on the verge of starvation can pull itself out of the worst situation and emerge with at least the basics of self-reliance and sustainability. One also must necessarily look at the coping mechanisms within each case of success which can give us a pointer to the flexibility that needs to be developed to ensure that the entire community, and the most vulnerable sections, within the village community, landless, the widows, and perhaps even orphans can be supported through such community managed safety nets.

2. CASE STUDIES OF GRAIN BANKS

2.1. Galusahi Village, Mayurbhanj District

Galusahi, the headquarters of Galusahi Panchayat is a village of mixed tribal communities of 135 households, situated 8 kms. from the Block headquarters of Sukruli, in the District of Mayurbhanj. It has an Upper Primary School, and an Anganwadi Centre, and is also a Primary health Sub-centre with an ANM and a Village Health Worker. Despite being endowed with these facilities, not all the hamlets of Galusahi are developed. Following a socio-economic survey of the Panchayat, amongst other things, Agragamee found that the Kolhos of Galusahi village constituting a hamlet of 35 household are an extremely marginalised and underdeveloped group. The reasons for this, Agragamee found was that Kolhos are like puppets in the hands of the dominating sections of the village the Gonds, the Bathudi and Goudas. The Kolhos work in the houses of the aforementioned sections for 6 months, and then migrate in search of work for the other 6 months in a year. Apart from being almost completely ignorant of the different Government Programmes, facilities and provisions meant for them the Kolhos were also deeply in debt, and thus almost worked like bonded labourers for the members of the other communities. Thus, Agragamee started a programme of awareness generation and food security in the village with focus being on the Kollhos. Women and men of the Kollosahi were called for several meetings and awareness building camps, so that they would be able to know their rights. Along with this, they were also encouraged to start a grain bank. Two men and three women were identified by the village to form the grain bank committee, and ensure its proper management and upkeep. Budhiram Sinku emerged as a leader in the process, and played a major role in ensuring proper management and record keeping. According to Budhiram Sinku: the Community Grain bank is a symbol of the progress and unity in the village. He says that in the initial days, the local people from other communities opposed the efforts of Kolho Sahi to set up a Community Grain Bank several times. But, the unity of the Kolhos, helped them face the opposition bravely, and gradually all the conflict subsided. The villagers first collected 6kgs of Paddy per household. Only paddy was collected in the grain bank for the first two years, subsequently, other millets have also been stored. By the end of 2000 – 2001, the Kolho Sahi had 23Qtls and 47kgs of grain. In addition, the women of Kolho Sahi have started their own savings, which now amounts to 3qtls of rice, and also Rs.1500/- in the bank. The village has taken a collective decision that the women's grain and cash fund will be used only at the time of an emergency, which would be decided by the women's committee. Grain is leant from the community grain bank at 20% interest, which helps the grain bank grow steadily. Transparency is ensured through collective decisions for lending, and repayment. The people have constructed a house, which ensured proper storage of the grains. In the above Sahi, Agragamee has started a Night school centre. The income generating fund sanctioned as part of the night school programme ahs been converted by the community to grain, and is used for running the school. Agragamee's awareness generating programmes have helped the people access the different Government schemes like Indira Awas residential unit, hand pump, pond, approach road to the village, and ensure their proper implementation.

2.2. Goudaguda Siriguda Village, Rayagada District

The different picture that this village presents strikes the visitor at first glance as one approaches Goudaguda Siriguda. Located in Hadiguda Panchayat of Kashipur Block of Rayagada District the settlement is almost completely hidden by fruit trees in almost every garden and every patch of backyard is surrounded by vegetative fencing that produces firewood,and other products for their daily needs. The village has 65 tribal households, who depend on dongar cultivation and forests for their livelihood. The 54 years of independence enjoyed by this country, have not ensured either education, health or even drinking water for the people of this Hadiguda Panchayat, but, the village of Gouda-Siriguda, has taken several measures under the initiative of its women and youth organisations to access the different Government programmes, and has developed a significant measure of self-reliance. Kashipur Block has always had a high infant mortality, as also several instances of starvation. The prime reason for this is the landlessness of the people of this region. On top of this, there is also a heavy indebtedness amongst the tribals of this region. Thus what ever they produce from agriculture is over within 3 to 4 months of harvest. During the rainy season, people do not have much stocks of food; neither is there ready employment for the people. During this time, the people are forced to go the moneylender for food loans. The moneylenders take the returns in terms of crops, with a 100% interest rate. The inability to repay a loan can often result in the loss of land to the landlord. Often, the people have to turn to alternate foods, like wild roots and tubers, mushrooms, mango kernels and tamarind seeds, etc., as hardly anything is available. This affects the health of the community in an adverse way. Observing all this, Agragamee started a series of grain banks in the different villages. As an incentive and encouragement, Agragamee assured a matching contribution of grain to each village, which could raise its own collective grain savings. Thus, in Siriguda Goudaguda village, Agragamee gave 13qtls of ragi to their contribution of an equal amount, and a grain bank with 26qtls was thus begun. The village identified three women and two men as members of the grain bank committee for management and record keeping. This input from Agragamee, and the subsequent dialogue initiated with the village on the long term implications of a grain-bank, and its role in helping fight hunger and indebtedness drew a positive response from the village, and in 1994, the members of the village got together for a collective cultivation of a ‘Dongar'. The 12 qtls. Of ragi and 3 qtls. Of niger from this cultivation were saved in the community grain bank. The village, kept up its efforts at making sure the grain bank was sustained and well managed. At present, the village has 116qtls of grain in its community grain bank. This averages to 1qtl 80 kgs of grain per household. The management and continuation of the grain bank is done collectively, with the members of the committee taking the responsibility for the checking default, and ensuring record keeping. Initially, the village was eager to ensure that the grain bank grew. So the interest rate was fixed at 50%. Now, since the village feels it is self-sufficient, the interest rate for borrowing has gone down to 20%. The grain bank has also helped them to ensure that the private contractor would not enter into their village, and they would take up village development works through the village committee. Delays in payments of bills by the Panchayat or the Block, are buffered by stocks in the community grain banks. Having ensured sufficient buffers in their community grain bank, people now are also able to make space for crops like vegetables, and even fruit trees, so that they have a nutritional supplement. The village has also been able to help other villages during times of need by lending from their grain bank. To store the grain, the community had constructed a house, which was however proving inadequate, as also difficult to maintain, as it kept needing repair and maintenance. Now, however, the Panchayat has sanctioned a community hall for the village, which is being constructed with village contribution so that part of it can be used for grain storage. The village has not just been satisfied with ensuring a sustainable grain bank, however. They have taken up a concerted and sustained action against liquor, and ensured that there no alcohol is brought to the village. So strong is their determination, that the inevitable part of any marriage ceremony, the liquor given to the girls side by the groom, has also been stopped, and village encourage anybody taking marrying a girl in their village to give cash or grain instead of liquor. This has resulted in the village generating a savings of Rs. 25,000/- as cash in addition to having a grain bank.

2.3. Siriguda Village, Rayagada District

The village of Siriguda, completely different from the above mentioned Siriguda-Goudaguda is located beside the main road linking Kashipur to the District headquarters of Rayagada, with its Panchayat and Block headquarters in Kashipur. One of the earliest adopted villages of Agragamee, the people of Siriguda have organised and asserted their developmental rights in many ways, and have emerged as a village others in the area can look up to, and follow as an example. In Siriguda, the grain bank began in the year 1984 with a small matching contribution from Agragamee, to help them buy grain. The village could not however rest satisfied with this one grain bank, and soon, the women started a grain bank of their own, with a management and terms and conditions that were completely separate from the village grain bank. Then, the Innovative Education centre started by Agragamee for primary education felt that the children also should have a grain bank, and so a separate grain bank by and of the children also was begun. All this perhaps helped the village consolidate their excess production, and ensure that it was not siphoned off by the market with increased consumerism. The women of the village, under the leadership of now well-know Sumoni Jhodia took up a campaign, and stopped all liquor brewing in the village. This did not help much, as men still went to the neighbouring village of Renga, and indulged in the habit. They took a collective decision and decided to impose strict fines on those who came to the village drunk. This worked, and soon, the major drain on the resources of the tribal community: liquor was checked almost completely. This helped the grain bank grow, and with an initial interest rate of 50%, the stocks steadily increased. In the meanwhile, the village took up community development work in the year 1991. They had to run several times to the Block office to finalise the various formalities that the work involved, and the work stretched to two seasons, when it should have been completed in just a month or so, but, there were two major advantages, which helped the village realise how the contractors cheated them. The first one was that the work was strong and it has lasted till date. The second equally important outcome was that not only had every one in the village who could work found employment, but the people were also able to save on the wage payment to the village. This was very heartening, and with the savings, the people of Siriguda bought 12 bags of grain. This added substantially to their savings. But, the people also found that the management and storage of the three separate grain banks was becoming increasingly difficult. So they merged it into one grain bank. Which might have meant that they children lost out, but the women continued in the decision making as members of the committee. The community grain bank now has 150 qtls. of grain, and is more than adequate to meet the food needs of the members of the village during the monsoon. With educated young people in the village, the people of Siriguda have ensured proper record keeping and management of the grain, which is stored in the middle of the village in a ferro-cement bin provided by Agragamee. What one needs to note, however is the sensitivity that can develop within a village community, which helps to ensure food security for everyone through institutions like the grain bank. Tirnath Jhodia of Siriguda village was having a hard time in the months of July-August, last year, 2001, because he did not have enough to eat. Tirnath is one of the handfuls of tribal families in Siriguda who do not have land. He has to subsist on sharecropping and wage labour. Suddenly one day, Sumoni found that the hearth was not lit in Tirnath's house. She went in to enquire what had happened. Tirnath's wife explained that there was nothing to eat in their house. Sumoni was aghast. She demanded to know: why they were not taking from the Kutumbha Panthi (community Grain Bank) when there was so much of stock left over. We have already an outstanding loan of 2.5qtls, which we have not been able to repay for the last three years she explained. Sumoni immediately called a meeting of the village committee, and they decided that regardless of the default, they would loan Tirnath another 50 kgs of grain, which would see him through one month, after which the harvest would start coming in and help the family have something to eat. This saved Tirnath and his family, who were at their wits end, and were planning to migrate, despite having two small children to look after. This year, after the harvest in January, Tirnath, has been able to repay his loan to the community grain bank partially.

2.4. Village Mankadamundi, Koraput District

When Agragamee first stepped into this village of 32 Scheduled tribe families, in Chikamba Panchayat of Dasmantpur Block in 1993, it was the anomaly that struck the workers. There were plenty of water resources in the village, and eagerness amongst the villagers to improve, but their economic condition was poor. As part of its efforts for Community Grain Banks, Agragamee encouraged the villagers of Mankadmundi to start a grain bank. The villagers managed to raise 16 qtl grain to which Agragamee supported with a matching contribution, to help the village have a starting grain bank of 32 qtls. The people responded positively to the various development inputs of Agragamee, eager to avail of the benefits and show their willingness to improve their lot. Agragamee entered into a dialogue with the people to find out, why they were not able to use the abundance of water resources in the villages to improve their income. They found that their major problem was seeds and soil fertility. As a one-time support, Agragamee gave the village Rs.4000/- worth of seeds and fertilisers. The people capitalised on the support, and eagerly took to vegetable cultivation. That season, they were able to sell vegetables worth Rs.32,000/-. After, this, there was no holding the villagers back. They saved part of the returns from the vegetable cultivation each season, and bought their own seeds, and continued to produce vegetables every season to be sold in the market. This gave them the supports that they needed, and they ensured that the grain bank in the village was faithfully maintained each year. Taking the cue from the moneylender, in the initial years, they decided that they would borrow grain from their grain bank at interest rates equivalent to what they were giving to the moneylender. The grain bank started to grow. In a few years' time, it had grown to give them a substantial surplus, which could help them tide over the seasons when production was not good. The interest rate was brought down to 25%. This encouraged the marginal farmers families to use the grain bank as and when they needed, provided that they did not default. Not content with just the grain bank, the people have also decided that part of the savings would be converted to seed bank, as that was necessary at the time of sowing, and not everybody was left with surplus after the harvest to store as seeds. Now Mankadmundi village has 90qtls of grain, which is stored in a community storage bin made of bamboo, woven into a mat. This locally available storage method is viable over long periods, and has helped the community successfully meet its storage needs.

2.5. Talagudi Village, Nawrangpur District

Situated in the Gudigaon Panchayat of Tentulikhunti Block in Nawrangpur District, this remote village, which probably has not had a visit by a Government official in human memory has proved that the human spirit and organised action can achieve much with but a little bit of help. The people of Talgudi had a gold mine, but were unable to use it, indebted and bonded as they were to the money lenders of Lamtaguda, just about 4 kms down the hill from their village. Thus, the paddy they produced from the abundant water resources in the village was sucked out by the debt and heavy interests slapped on them when they went to the money lenders for loans. This cycle continued year in and year out, till Agragamee happened upon this village in its work in the Upper Indravati Region. Intense dialogue helped identify the problems in the village, and the villagers themselves came up with the suggestion that Agragamee help them start a grain bank, as they had done in neighbouring villages. Thus in 1993, Agragamee's matching contribution of 3qtls of grain helped the village start a small grain bank with 6qtls. the villagers took good care of this precious stock, and used it in their time of need. Soon, with interests that should have gone to the Sahukars of Lamtaguda flowing into their own grain bank, their stock of savings began to swell. This was aided by the paddy production with the help of the water in the village. Agragamee also took up a programme of primary education through an alternative education centre, and the villagers happily sent their children to school. In time, the villagers came to know of Agragamee's education complex in Goudaguda, and decided to send some of the girls from their village to study in Goudaguda. Three girls joined the school two years back. The enthusiasm of the villagers was indeed encouraging and a watershed programme to help the people capitalise on the land resources, and develop sustainable systems of production was taken up. The people used this opportunity, and dug a pond in the village. They also wished to share their knowledge and learning with people from other villages, and organised a Krushak Mela (famers' festival) on their own, using the suplus grain from their grainbank. The famers' festival drew more than 300 farmers from different villages in the region, and created much enthusiasm for improved methods of farming, and techniques like contour bunding, waste re-cycling by composting, which could help conserve soil and organic resources, and help increase productivity markedly. The villagers of Talagudi also proudly advertised their efforts at forest protection, which had resulted in one of the largest protected forest patches in the entire region. Now Talagudi can boast of several things, including8 children going to Ashram schools, who will be soon passing out of their middle schools, a grain bank of 129qtls of stock, improved cultivation which has enabled the production of vegetables, and in creased the production of paddy and other grains, which has helped improve their grain bank, as also increased their income, and nutritional levels of the children, a village pond, which they use for fishery, and most importantly, an active Mahila Mandal, who have ensured the sustainability of the grain bank, and say very firmly that the grain bank will last in their village until they die.

2.6. Lalusahi Village, Gajapati District

This model for self-sustenance through grain banks has been taken up by other voluntary organisations also, and in several tribal regions, villages communities, encouraged by inputs from voluntary organisations with grass roots presence and identity have formed grain banks and taken the first essential steps to fight indebtedness and other forms of exploitation. One such village is Galusahi in Narayanpur Panchayat, Rayagada Block, adopted by Society for the Welfare of Weaker Sections (SWWS). Situated 22 kms. from the Block headquarters, and with little Government supports other than an Upper primary school, the village had for long been in the clutches of the local money lenders, who were lending them money at exorbitant rates of interest. The entry of SWWS provided the opportunity and impetus for the people of Galusahi to critically examine their own situation, and seek alternatives. Following a series of discussion, SWWS encouraged the people to form a grain bank, assuring a matching contribution. However an initial scepticism, held back some of the families, and the first contributions came from only 16 out of the 30 tribal households in the village in the year 1993. Raising 10kgs of Paddy, each, these 16 families drew a matching contribution of 2qtls of paddy from SWWS. Setting an example to the rest of the families in the village, these 16 families, took full the responsibility for the proper management and record keeping of their grain bank of 3.6qtls and continued to take from it when ever necessity dictated, ensuring a default free repayment with 30% interest. This had the desired impact, and in 1995, the rest of the families joined, and the grain bank started growing faster with support and contributions from the entire village. A further impetus was given by the digging of an irrigation pond in the village, which enabled increased production in the village, and helped check all tendencies for default. A programme of extensive plantation was taken up in the village, which helped generate income as well as firewood, and was instrumental in checking soil erosion. The members of the village committee for the Community Grain Bank, headed by Tankadhar Bhuyan and took up responsibility not only for ensuring continuation of the grian bank, but had the leadership ability to look into different developmental works in the village. Thus, the inputs provided by SWWS were followed up properly. A Mahila Mandal was formed, and the cash savings helped women in the village have independent decision-making. Proving their ability in successfully managing their savings, the women's group received Rs.25,000/- as revolving fund from DWCRA (Development of Women & Children Programme) in 1997. the women have used this fund to start a small business and have been able to benefit by this support given to them. The entire village is well on its way to self-reliance, which is proved by their determination not to go to the local moneylenders for any loans. The cash loans from the women's groups and the food loans from their grain bank helps the members of the village tide over most crises.

3. SALIENT ISSUES FOR MICRO-LEVEL SUCCESS

It would perhaps be useful to look at some of the salient features that emerge from this combined initiative of voluntary organisations and the tribal communities and find out what are the essentials for success and sustainability:

3.1. Decentralisation & Community Centred Planning & Management

The first point that needs to be noted is that once the grain banks had been initiated, the management and sustainability of the grain-bank was left to the villages, with Agragamee providing a minimum monitoring input at the time of harvest and collection of grain. No rigid rules of interests and terms and conditions for borrowing, etc. were put into place. This resulted in each village community responding to its micro-situation as it thought best, and in several innovations for increasing the grain storage, as also in coping mechanisms being put into place. But this has also resulted in political manipulations in several villages resulting in a dwindling away of the grain-bank. The questions that arise is how much monitoring is required: Essential and sufficient, with questions of cost-effectiveness being kept in mind. The other question is also, that in a socio-political scenario, will more monitoring result in controlling the political manipulations in a village, how can a village be helped to emerge self-reliant, overcoming the manipulations of the vested interests?

3.2. Coping Mechanisms

Like the example of village Siriguda in Kashipur, several villages have dealt in a sensitive manner with default within the village. They have been able to check the default of the more affluent sections of the village through transparency, and strict monitoring, while enabling the poorest sections access grain, even though, they had not been able to repay the previous years' outstanding loans. This is a decision only a village community, which is more of a large extended family can take, and the right or wrong of this can only be discussed in the context of that particular community. The justification of this lies in the proven sustainability of the grain-banks in these villages, where successful maintenance of stocks have been ensured, even though several families in the villages have been defaulting due to poor harvests. These villages have also ensured proper record keeping, and as it is a collective decision, with the condition of the poorer families apparent to all, there is little dissent in these decisions.

3.3. Innovations

These include examples like the one in Siriguda Goudaguda, where the village decided to convert ritualistic liquor drinking into savings. There are other examples also, where villages with substantial quantities of buffers have decided to save part of the grain as a seeds bank, so that they would not have to buy seeds at twice the rate of the grain during the time of savings. In several villages, these seed banks have sustained, parallel to the grain banks, and enable the people to produce their own quality seeds for their crops, and not rush to the market and thus avoid getting trapped by the cash economy. Communities have also made the interest rates on borrowing flexible. When poor harvests have affected the entire village, collective decisions to drop the interest on the borrowings entirely have enabled the different members check default, and repay faithfully. On the other hand, the interest rates at the initial stages, which equalled that of the moneylenders, ensured a certain discipline of repayment, which helped the grain bank to grow. One might question this large interest rate, but, then it need to be noted that the surplus, or the profits was flowing back to the community, which would help them develop sustainable buffers in the long run.

3.4. Storage

Villages with successful grain banks have evolved their methods of storing. But, several villages start facing increasing problems, as the grain savings go up, and the grain has to be stored in different households, and enormous precautions have to be taken for avoiding pest attacks. There is often a grain loss of 10% to 30 % in several cases. Agragamee took up an experiment with ferro-cement grain-storage bins in some of the villages like Siriguda, Haliasahi, Lakirisi, etc. The loss of grain is reduced if the grain is properly stored in these bins, with measures taken to prevent moisture. But, the quantity of grain stored in these bins is limited, and so one needs to look at larger units.

3.5. Long-term Food Security- the Question of Entitlements

The magical answer to food security is however not community grain banks. in looking at the success stories, one also needs to examine why these succeeded, and several others failed. One of the major reasons for failure of grain banks is successive poor harvests and landlessness. When a tribal community has a fairly equitable distribution of land in the village, like is the case with Sarambai, Siriguda, and some of the other villages, the grain bank is sustained with ups and downs even through periods of poor harvest. But, when the land distribution is highly skewed within the village, then sustainability of the grain bank becomes difficult due to several reasons. In such cases, alternate income generating programmes need to be thought of, and land settlement in the name of the landless needs to be considered. This is an essential issue that must be thought of if a community is to be helped out of poverty and enabled to take the first steps towards self-reliance and food security. A case in point in Haliasahi, a hamlet of Landless bonded labourers. Through Agragamee's support, this village could shake off generations of bondage, and also managed to buy small amounts of land. Now, this village has a sustainable grain bank, and is well on its way to self-reliant development. Apart from this, one also needs to look at problems of productivity, and markets. In tribal areas, people are often forced to cropland that is considered wasteland. The States attitude is that these lands should not be brought under cultivation. But, they fail to see the compulsions of the tribal people who have been deprived of low land, and are forced into shifting cultivation. Provisions like the settlement of uplands in the name of tribal owners should be brought into force, along with mechanisms and techniques and trainings to develop productivity on these lands. Tribal communities also suffer from poorly developed markets, leading to very poor returns from valuable cash crops that they produce like oilseeds, pulses, and millets. Efforts to improve the market, would help the returns to the tribal communities, and help the have improved food security.

3.6. Need For Micro-level Planning and Initiative

One also needs to realise that food security is linked to the livelihood systems and natural resource base of the people. Unless there is an effort at the micro-level to initiate participatory planning with a systematic and conscious involvement of the poorest of the poor, for improved resource development, management and use, food security cannot be guaranteed, neither can the survival of grain banks. This requires efforts for training and skill transfer to enable marginalised communities to develop the necessary capabilities. These essential backward linkages need to be considered along with grain banks if there is to be a meaningful 4. MACRO-ISSUESThis experiment of Agragamee, which is being replicated in different tribal villages, by different voluntary organisation, could also inform essential macro-level policies and perspectives for food security. It would be useful at this juncture to examine what these are so that we can take the learning forward:

4.1. From Grain Banks to Food Banks; the Need for Nutritional Security

Tribal communities produce a range of food items including cereals, millets, pulses, oil seeds, and vegetables, in their practise of shifting cultivation. The produce is sold at throwaway prices as the seasonal harvests, and the inability of the tribal producer to stock most of his produce makes it buyers' market. Paradoxically, however, when the lean season returns, the tribal people once again buy these food items from the market once again at a loosing bargain. To compound the situation, the several nutrition schemes for the rural and tribal areas like the ICDS scheme, the mid-day meal scheme, etc. import food to the tribal areas as essential supplements to the vulnerable sections of the population. If methods of conserving food items within the community could be worked out, with for example Anganwadi centres being supported to purchase the items from within the community, instead of having them come in from far off places, thus engendering huge costs in transportation management, etc., then the resultant economic benefit flows back to the community, and the subsidies necessary can also be reduced. Such an experiment has not been tried out on a large and sustained basis, but several groups and organisations across the country have developed nutritious mixes from locally available foods which have had a marked acceptance within the community, being produced by women's groups themselves, and helping in fighting serious cases of deprivation. A serious consideration of these steps involves providing back-up support for infrastructure, management, processing and storage technology, and capability development. Yet in the long run, this could only have the benefit of enabling communities conserve their surplus and emerge more self-reliant.

4.2. Linking With Food for Work Programmes

This is an experiment, which has been seldom tried out. In the present situation, the rural areas could do with supports for food for work, as falling income and production levels force distress migrations in millions in different states across the country. This necessarily means large grain supports to the rural community, which could be diverted from the overflowing food corporation godowns. However, rather than centralised systems by which one agency or institution takes up the onus of implementing and managing the entire works, systems of decentralised storage and implementation could be worked out with the involvement of the Panchayats and the village communities accompanied by well defined systems of transparency, to check leakages and misappropriation. The operational framework of grain banks could well be applied to this system of channelising buffers for productive work, and the community could be involved in planning its own developmental interventions with a long term vision. This is the greatest challenge in the issue of grain banks and food security, where the domain expands from a village level management of its surplus, to a larger question of channelising surplus for constructive developmental inputs with community based planning, decision making and management.

4.3. Bankability of the Grain Banks

A conventional banker would shy away from the Community Grain bank approach and system for the many obstacles, risks, limitations, it has, and the meagre profitability. A clear comparison with a rural bank draws out the well defined advantages a community grain bank has in a rural situation of marginalisation and poverty, where the stake-holders are involved intrinsically in the decision making, and management processes, with no hidden priorities of profits over the people.

4.4. Can the Government Run Grain Banks ?

It has been found that the best way to kill innovation and initiative of the people is to allow the Government to take over a system developed in a micro-cosmic reality, and come up with its formulas for its expansion and replication. But, if an innovation is to have a larger implication, then, the state must needs be involved. The question is how to expand without loosing the essence of the innovation. There are few cut and dry answers for this, but the question of engendering processes that start from the villages and Panchayats, and ensure a transparency at all levels and stages should essentially be the first considerations for such a step.