The Hindu Businessline With the Centre’s initiative, the UN General Assembly declared 2023 as the international year of millets. Nutri-cereal crops or millets are the main sources of micronutrients such as calcium, fibre, protein, iron, etc. Given the higher level of Micronutrient deficiencies among the large population of India, the continuous reduction in area under nutri-cereals can pose a threat to nutritional security. Recognising the importance of these crops as well as popularizing...

-Hindustan Times India ranked 107th out of 121 assessed countries on the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI). Although there are some measurement issues in the GHI, the report says there is high malnutrition in India due to rice-wheat biased policies. Malnutrition in India manifests itself in terms of triple burden – underweight especially among poor, hidden hunger (deficiency in micronutrients), and overweight. The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) was introduced to...

-Press release by FAO dated 6 July 2022 The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition report shows the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition Rome/New York: The number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (1), according to a United...

-Newsclick.in Experts worry that with the government aggressively promoting a "singular reductionist corporate-controlled silver bullet solution" like fortified rice, a myriad of diverse local and natural solutions will get neglected and even eroded. Synthetic fortification of rice is not proven to be effective and can be toxic to many Indians, according to a report prepared by the Right to Food Campaign. The report was released following a three-day fact-finding visit to Jharkhand...

In the previous news alert, we looked at the under-nutrition problem in the Bundelkhand region in terms of 3 indicators -- proportion of children under 5 years who are stunted (height-for-age); proportion of children under 5 years who are wasted (weight-for-height); and proportion of children under 5 years who are underweight (weight-for-age). However, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data also indicates that severe under-nutrition like severe wasting and anaemia among...