i live in Kashmir valley which has historically survived on rice as a staple diet. even today, due to political, historical and social reasons, everyone (actual

i live in Kashmir valley which has historically survived on rice as a staple diet. even today, due to political, historical and social reasons, everyone (actually everyone) has a stock of 100-400 Kgs of rice at anytime during the year. this "stock" is religiously followed by every household. This also means for a small family, "survival" in case of trouble is much more reasonable because like rice, historically every family just "adjusts" whatever family needs are. families do not "move out" unless there is a house ready to move into. that means, for the most part, a family in difficult times has only daily milk and something to have with rice to survive. i have done that, every kashmiri has been there so its pretty much normal. About grocery stores, we still have an informal system of agriculture. there are no big chains, a farmer can bring his/her produce to a market and have small retailers who buy in small quantities (5-50kgs, depending) and sell that produce on their small shops. your "farmers market" is "the" market so the prices do not fluctuate much or like, there is no corporation that can influence prices