Mission SEHAT aims to align agriculture and health for nutritional security

After the consolidation of the country’s food security by ensuring abundant grain production, the next pertinent step is to focus on nutritional security to manage health-related issues attributable to poor or flawed nourishment. This requires converging policies and programmes of the agriculture and health ministries. The Mission SEHAT (Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation), launched last month jointly by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), seems a well-intentioned move in that direction. It seeks to achieve the twin objectives of promoting production and consumption of nutrition-rich foods, and reorienting public-health policies with greater emphasis on prevention, rather than cure, of common diseases. 

This initiative, notably, has come amid the growing apprehension that modern high-yielding crop varieties are, in general, less nourishing than their older versions. This notion is not wholly unfounded. Ample scientific evidence exists to back it. Studies have shown that most strains of food crops bred since the mid-20th century have up to a 38 per cent lower content of vital nutrients like calcium, iron and phosphorus than their traditional counterparts. This could, indeed, be one of the key causes of rampant undernourishment and malnutrition despite the availability of sufficient food grain, vegetables, and fruit. The latest National Family Health Survey-6 (2023-24) reveals that 19.7 per cent of the population of the country have body mass below normal, while 27.3 per cent of men and 30.7 per cent of women are overweight or obese. Both low weight and obesity are the signs of flawed nutrition. In the case of children, the incidence of nutritional abnormality is even more worrisome, and also more conspicuous. As many as 31.8 per cent of kids below five years are underweight, with 29.3 per cent being “stunted” (too short for weight), and 5.2 per cent being “severely wasted” (extremely low weight for height). 

The health and agriculture ministries could, obviously, not be unaware of this disquieting state of affairs. Yet they have so far been following their own agendas, disregarding the intimate linkage between the health and the quantity and quality of food intake. While the agriculture ministry has been striving to ensure enough food to meet the basic minimum calorie requirement of the growing population, the health ministry has focused primarily on treating diseases, including those resulting from improper nutrition, instead of tackling the root cause of these ailments. 

The Mission SEHAT can be viewed as a bid to address this issue holistically. It envisages aligning agricultural development and crop-production programmes with public-health schemes to harness their synergies to combat the ever escalating peril of lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, retarded physical or mental growth, and even major killers like cancer and cardiovascular disorders. Appropriate nutrition is believed to be one of the significant ways to ward off these maladies. 

The official note on the Mission SEHAT points out that the country’s health strategy would now shift from “a reactive, treatment-based model to a proactive, prevention-focused approach”. The five-pronged action plan mooted for this purpose comprises the following. The first is the promotion of biofortified crop varieties possessing genes that make them innately rich in micronutrients like iron and zinc, and some key vitamins whose deficiency causes what is usually dubbed as “hidden hunger”. This component of the plan also includes boosting the consumption of naturally nutrient-dense grains, such as millets and ragi. The second is popularising integrated farming systems, which combine crop farming with allied farm activities, such as horticulture, animal husbandry, beekeeping, fisheries, poultry, and piggery. This increases the overall availability of relatively nutritious foods, lends nutritional diversity to diets, and boosts farm incomes. 

Third comes advancing agriculture-linked strategies to check non-communicable and lifestyle diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and other health abnormalities. This is proposed to be done by encouraging the consumption of functional foods rather than processed, oil-rich and unhealthy products. The fourth prong aims to lift the occupational health and safety of farmers and farm workers by reducing exposure to toxic and hazardous pesticides and other chemicals. The fifth, and the final, component of this flagship programme envisages a broadbased, as also collective, approach to the health of human beings, livestock, and the environment by integrating ongoing research and development programmes in these fields. It also aims to minimise the damage being constantly caused to the environment and health of living beings. 

While this plan seems quite comprehensive and well-conceived, there is also an urgent need to reorient crop-breeding strategies to lay as much stress on improving inherent nutrient profiles of plants as on the increase in their productivity. At present, new plant varieties are approved generally on the basis of criteria like higher yield, better resistance against diseases and pests, suitability to agro-climatic conditions, and the overall quality of the produce. Nutritional superiority is often not given its due weight. Inherently more nutritious products are better than those that are fortified with additional nutrients after harvest. 

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