Farmers' wholehearted support and their economic wellbeing are vital for creating a sustainable food security system in the country, according to eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan.
Wrapping up a session on food and nutrition security, held as part of a three-day conference on hunger and poverty here on Monday, he said those who expressed their views on the proposed national food security law should keep in mind the plight of farmers, who constituted two-thirds of the population.
Statutory rights
Contrasting the Right to Food with other statutory rights such as the Right to Information, Dr. Swaminathan, who is the chairperson of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, said that while the Right to Information Act could be implemented with the help of files, the Right to Food law could be implemented only with the help of farmers.
“Otherwise, you can [only] have a wishful thinking,” he told the delegates at the conclusion of the conference.
Describing the proposed law as the most complex legislation, Dr. Swaminathan counselled caution while enacting it. The debate on the legislation should not degenerate into calculating the below the poverty line and above the poverty line population.
The country's rich biodiversity should be capitalised for successful implementation of the food security law.
Coordination
Greater coordination among the Union Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Women and Child Development was necessary for not only saving money but also getting the maximum out of the important schemes of the Union government, he said.
Referring to the outlay of Rs.22,000 crore for the National Horticulture Mission, Dr. Swaminathan said that if the authorities had only included one home scientist with experience in nutrition in every district of the country, nutrition could be mainstreamed with the Horticulture Mission.
This would be the “horticultural remedy for nutritional malady.”
The Union Food Processing Ministry should see to it that food parks were set up where home science colleges were located.
Partha Das Gupta, principal adviser (agronomy), Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Development, referred to a project being implemented in different States and said there was no one-to-one correlation between the average annual rainfall and high productivity.
The System of Rice Intensification by itself was not a magic wand; its success lay in proper implementation.
Child under-nutrition
Victor Aguayo, chief, Child Nutrition and Development of Unicef, said the progress in child under-nutrition in India had been extremely slow. Comparing India with China and sub-Saharan African countries, he pointed out how India was behind the other nations in nutritional parameters.
He called for an improvement in breast-feeding practices, complementary food and feeding practices, feeding for children who were sick and/or undernourished and nutrition for adolescent girls and women.
Soumya Swaminathan, coordinator (Research for Neglected Priorities) of the World Health Organisation, explained how countries such as Mexico, Brazil and China were able to effectively tackle the problem of stunted growth.
