By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
Soumya Swaminathan, chairperson, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), and former Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), on Thursday said that India needs to look beyond a cereal-centric approach to identify diverse nutritional sources for ensuring food and nutritional security.
Dr. Swaminathan was speaking after inaugurating a one-day workshop on ‘Societal Connect: Empowering Agri-Enterprises – Bridging Science, Sustainability and Society’ organised by the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST). The problem, she said, lay in the poor dietary diversity of Indians.
“We have to look at sources of nutrition beyond the cereals. If you look at the nutritional profile of Indians, we are actually not doing very well. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), 40% of Indians cannot afford a healthy and nutritious diet. National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) data also tell us that people are not eating a nutritious diet as defined by them,” she said.
Dr. Swaminathan also stressed the need to build the capacity to add value to agricultural and allied products. She observed that India was not doing well in the area of value addition. “We have a lot of raw material. We send that raw material to another country like Thailand, Vietnam or other south-east Asian countries who do the value addition. Then the value goes up by 10% or 20% and then the profit is made by that country,” she said.
Expressing concern over anti-science movements, Dr. Swaminathan emphasised the need to build scientific literacy in the population so that they can differentiate between what is true and what is completely fabricated.
C. Anandharamakrishnan, Director, CSIR-NIIST, who presided, said India must focus on increasing its agricultural and food product exports through value addition, innovation, and entrepreneurship. By strengthening agri-enterprises, India can enhance global competitiveness while ensuring domestic nutritional security, Dr. Anandharamakrishnan said.
H.N. Mishra, Emeritus Professor, Indian Institute of Technology – Kharagpur, was guest of honour. Experts from the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM Thanjavur), was the Guest of Honor for the event. Experts from NIFTEM Thanjavur, Spices Research Institute, Coconut Development Board, NABARD, IIT Kharagpur and NIIST participated in the technical sessions on agricultural innovation, value-addition technologies, and enterprise development.
