Swaminathan flays malnutrition despite record output

Noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan on Monday raised concerns over malnutrition among children in the country despite record agriculture output and other agri-based commodities.

Citing the recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) report, where India is ranked 100 out of 119 countries, he sought to know how this could be justified given that India produced over 300 million tonnes of foodgrain, 150 million tonnes of milk and over 200 million tonnes of pulses.

"Latest discussion is on hunger index... In this hall, we can go on talking about our achievements with regard to record production, but outside they talk about what we have not achieved particularly in terms of malnutrition," he said during an awards ceremony here.

"Malnutrition of our children for 1,000 days is very critical for their brain development. Therefore, there is no time to relax."

Earlier this month, an 11-year-old girl in Jharkhand died allegedly due to starvation after being denied food because she did not have an Aadhaar-linked ration card.

Trust for Advancement of Agriculture Sciences (TAAS), a non-profit organisation, awarded the 9th Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Award to Uma Lele, agriculture economist and former senior adviser to the World Bank.

Well known for his leading role in India's Green Revolution, Swaminathan said technology and public policy were crucial factors to address the issue of gap between achievement in agricultural productions and missing on consumption.

"Progress is due to interaction, technology and public policies. Technology is an agent of a change and public policy makes the change possible," he said.

"Technology shows us how to improve productivity while public policy shows how to sustain the productivity, how to achieve the productivity. Technology and public policy are the two wheels of progress," he added.

Trilochan Mohapatra, the Director General of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), said criticism of Indian agriculture by economists was welcome but recognition of the contributions of scientists and farmers was also required.

"We often become gloomy and pessimistic about Indian agriculture and we start presenting its dark side... It is good to criticise and find the gaps so we can fill the gaps adequately.

"But at the same time, it is important to recognise how our toiling farmers are doing and how they are contributing... How Indian science and science-led agriculture made a lot of difference," Mohapatra said.

--IANS

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