Produce more coarse grains to meet pandemic nutrition challenge
India will provide free food grains to more than 800 million poor people during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, nutrition security is more important than food security in the coronavirus crisis, experts say. Sandip Das reports in Nature India 15 April 2020.
Amidst the world’s largest lockdown to check the spread of the novel coronavirus, India today announced easing restrictions for the agriculture sector from 20 April 2020. This will allow farmers to harvest standing crops that may feed a population of over 1.3 billion and support traditional exports.
Among the world’s largest producers of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, vegetables and milk, India was faced with a tough agrarian challenge as farming activity halted, following the lockdown on 25 March 2020, just ahead of the harvest and sowing seasons.
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) swung into action to transport at least 10 MT of food grains every month from India’s grain surplus states to grain deficit states. Under the world’s biggest food security programme, FCI procures and supplies around 60 million tonnes (MT) of rice and wheat grains annually. However, MS Swaminathan, father of India’s ‘Green Revolution’, says that merely providing food security will not be enough. The country needs to move swiftly to provide ‘nutritional security’. While around 800 million people are provided with ‘calories’ through NFSA, “The focus should now shift to pulses, oil seeds, vegetables and other commodities such as fish and eggs”, he told Nature India.
India is also among the global leaders in the production of pulses, legumes and millets, which are rich sources of nutrition. The COVID-19 pandemic now necessitates nutritious food for the masses more than ever, according to Rajeev Varshney, Research Programme Director for Genetic Gains at ICRISAT. “It’s high time to include other coarse cereals as they are highly nutritious. We need to keep our people healthy and with stronger immune systems.” Varshney emphasised that it is a good time to revisit India’s agricultural research policies: “We can develop new and better varieties through genomics-assisted breeding. But there should be supportive policies to accelerate the release of new crop varieties in the national system.”
[Thanks to member Andrew B; note that Rajeev Varshney was invited by TAAI to present at last year’s Hugh Bunting Memorial Lecture at Reading]
