42 per cent of India's children stunted: FAO expert

Addressing an International Conference on Sustainable Development and Governance Building, commerce and community, Peter Kenmore, India Country Head, Food and Agriculture Organisation United Nations, today said India housed more hungry people than any other countries, over two million, about the same as Sub-Sahara Africa.

Countries like India should have more farmers with small holding as they tended to produce more from less land. Small holders produced 80 per cent of food from eight per cent of land, he claimed.

He emphasised the need for optimum utilisation of available water so efficiently practiced by the farmers of Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh.

An enabling policy environment should provide support for such innovation, he said.

The three-day conference, which began yesterday, is being jointly organised by Amrita University and Deakin University, Australia.