New Delhi: The times when the country’s top leaders appealed to citizens to skip meals to accommodate the nation’s collective appetite are long behind us, thanks to the adoption of High-Yielding Varieties (HYV) and fast-tracked agricultural advancements. However, in the pursuit of becoming an agriculturally surplus state, has the country overlooked the nutritional aspect of its daily necessities? A United Nations (UN) report highlights a sobering reality: with 194.4 million undernourished people, India has the largest prevalence of undernourishment in the world in absolute terms.
Expert voices suggest that these unfavorable figures are causing a double barrel attack on the national exchequer and healthcare ecosystem, quite evident from the fact of rising cases of anemia and even high prevalence of NCDs.
Delivering the keynote address at the ETHealthworld Nutriwell Conclave Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) CEO, Ganji Kamala Vardhan Rao underlined that, “Though India has become a leading producer of rice, wheat, oil seeds, milk, vegetables across the globe but we are still falling short in delivering micro nutrients to children, women of the underprivileged sections of society, particularly rural and trial areas.”
Citing a research paper from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) he stated that before the invention of HYV (High Yield Variety) seeds the components like riboflavin, niacin, and other micronutrients used to constitute around 32-37 per cent of the nutritional aspect but with the exponential rise in population we started focusing on improving production after which their share went down and the report here highlights that have we compromised on nutritional security at the hands of food security.”
Uncovering the potential reason behind the drop in nutritional value of grains, Rao explained that, because we (researchers) manipulated the DNA of grains, the percentage of micronutrients may have gone down.
The absence of essential micronutrients is also linked with the steep rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) prevalence in the country, which is placing a significant burden on financial health. Attributing this with a 2015 WEF report, the senior government official flagged that between 2010 and 2030, India is estimated to lose approximately $4.2 trillion of national income due to NCDs.
In his address he also noted a gradual decline in the average life expectancy of people due to rapidly changing dietary practices and other related factors.
To address such challenge the G Rao, said, “We need to fill micro nutrients in an appropriate manner and options like millets will play a key role in it and there is a positive rise in the adoption of millets by the food processing industry currently the figures stands at 7 per cent and is likely to move up in the future.”
“Furthermore the FSSAI has also proposed 13 millets to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CDC) for including them under its food standard guidelines and codes of practice,” Rao added.
