WFP's assistance in India has shifted from food delivery towards capacity development to support India's own schemes to reach its nutritional objectives and the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of underweight children by 2015.
WFP now provides technical assistance to enhance the quality of food being provided by the government by given assistance and advising them on fortifying the food with vitamins and micro-nutrients. Its scientists and food technologists work with the governments to ensure that people have adequate calorie intake and so also potassium, and iron and other micronutrients in food.
WFP's $6 million budget in India mostly goes into Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa to provide fortified food to mostly tribals among whom the prevalence of malnourishment is quite high. "It is no longer the issue of hunger in India. But, the issue is that of malnutrition. WFP has been supplying fortified food to some of the tribal belts in India," said Gian Pietro Bordignon, representative & country director, UN WFP.
Prices of food articles rose by 5.8 per cent in India, the lowest increase among 15 developing countries for the period ending February 2007-08, a joint report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said. Despite this, the government here has been coping with the needs and the requirements, he added. WFP now provides food fortified with vitamins and micro-nutrients, said Jan.
Jan was in Bangalore to participate in the India leg of the