Food and Nutrition

Featured Articles
December 6, 2022
The water that you eat
Need to shift to a more sustainable diet without compromising on major nutrients and calories
Historically, India has been a net exporter of virtual water (Image: PxHere)
August 21, 2022
Floods – a boon than a bane!
Floods are not feared, but rather welcomed by the Mishing communities from Majuli island in Assam as they bring bountiful fish- a rich source of food, nutrition and livelihood for the community.
The Majuli island, a haven for fish (Image Source: Usha Dewani, India Water Portal)
June 19, 2022
Hidden treasure: Adivasi’s traditional food diversity
Odisha Millets Mission is trying to bring back the glory of millets in tribal areas
A range of millet recipes and ready to cook items are sold by Millets on Wheels in Jashipur block in Mayurbhanj district. This initiative is supported by Odisha Millets Mission (Image: Odisha Millets Mission)
April 16, 2022
Towards food system transition
The report looks at what the transition could look like in ten specific foodscapes
Foodscapes for people and nature (Image: TNC)
January 30, 2022
Budget briefs by Accountability Initiative: Highlights from key programmes
MGNREGS: Even after the inclusion of additional funds amounting to Rs. 25,000 crores via supplementary budgets, allocations were 12 per cent less than the previous year's revised estimates
A school boy from Tilonia drinks from a tap from a rainwater harvesting tank (Image: Barefoot photographers of Tilonia)
January 18, 2022
Dietary diversity – key to tackle malnutrition among children
The recent NFHS-5 data finds that stunting and wasting among under five children in the country is on the rise. Why is this so? What could be the way out?
Millets for dietary diversity (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Conservation of water commons through community fishery
The village institution collectively framed rules for the governance and management of these water commons
Foundation for Ecological Security
Posted on 08 Apr, 2021 02:00 PM

Located in the Bichhiya block of Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh, Changariya is a small village comprising 265 households.
The efforts have resulted in the revival of the ponds. (Image: FES)
COVID-19 and social protection: Impact in the agriculture sector
Lower transaction costs, minimal leakages, and immediate delivery make a strong case for direct cash transfers, says study.
Deepak Varshney
Anjani Kumar
Ashok K Mishra
Shahidur Rashid
Pramod K Joshi
Posted on 01 Apr, 2021 01:10 PM

COVID-19 induced significant economic and social disruptions in India. Rural households, including smallholders, were affected by loss in migrant income, livelihood and farm and non-farm income.
Access to credit increased farmers' expenditures on farm-related activities. (Image: Pixy.org)
Study detects high levels of arsenic in cooked rice in Bihar
Need to remove arsenic from the food chain and not just drinking water in endemic areas
Debapriya Mondal
Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman
Sidharth Suman
Pushpa Sharma
Abu Bakkar Siddique
Md. Aminur Rahman
ASM Fazle Bari
Ranjit Kumar
Nupur Bose
Shatrunjay Kumar Singh
Ashok Ghosh
David A Polya
Posted on 03 Mar, 2021 08:01 AM

Extensive evidence of elevated arsenic in the food chain, mainly rice, wheat and vegetables exists.
Median excess lifetime cancer risk of 2 per 10,000 from food arsenic exposure in Bihar. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Managing groundwater demand: the way forward
Substituting groundwater irrigation by canal irrigation will not help in maintaining the current levels of food production in India. Managing groundwater demand will, finds a study.
Meha Jain
Ram Fishman
Pinki Mondal
Gillian L. Galford
Nishan Bhattarai
Shahid Naeem
Upmanu Lall
Balwinder Singh
Ruth S. DeFries
Posted on 02 Mar, 2021 07:25 AM

Groundwater reserves are depleting at rapid rates in India, which is one of the world’s largest consumer of groundwater with it  providing 60 percent of the irrigation needs of the country.
Groundwater, a valuable resource! (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Economic survey 2020-21: Some highlights
The economic survey recommends integration of agriculture with nutritional outcomes
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 30 Jan, 2021 11:20 AM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2020-21 in the Parliament on January 29, 2020 - the first day of the Budget session. The survey has analysed various topics from economic growth, fiscal stance, state of banking and more.
The Economic Survey 2021 pushes for urgent reforms in production and post production in agriculture (Image: PixaHive)
Budget 2021: Will agriculture sector get a boost?
Solutions are needed that will increase productivity while maintaining sustainability
Simi Mehta
Ritika Gupta
Anshula Mehta
Sunidhi Agarwal
Nikhil Jacob
Posted on 28 Jan, 2021 10:15 AM

The agriculture sector is confronted with high price volatility, low returns, low productivity and weather risks.
The government could consider a shift from the price support system to an income support system. PM-KISAN is a step in that direction, but the assistance under that is lacking. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Budget 2021: Cash transfer and urban employment guarantee can help blunt the economic blow
Expand Rs 500 per month cash transfer to poor non-farmer and urban households: Prof Santosh Mehrotra
Arjun Kumar
Ritika Gupta
Posted on 26 Jan, 2021 11:03 AM

To revive India’s growth story and to cash in on our rapidly closing demographic dividend window, Prof Santosh Mehrotra, a human development economist suggests four essential proposals that must be included in the Budget 2021. This includes an increased expenditure in infrastructure, health sector and an urban employment guarantee programme.
There should be an increased expenditure in infrastructure to create jobs in the construction sector. (Image: PxHere)
Budget 2021: Policy measures in the nutrition sector
Nutrition interventions need to be strengthened to protect people already at the margin of subsistence.
Shruti Ambast
Protiva Kundu
Shivani Sonawane
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability
Child Rights and You
Posted on 25 Jan, 2021 11:34 AM

India's food security policy framework includes many proven nutrition interventions. In 2015, India committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger.
Children eating their mid-day meal at a worksite school in Andhra Pradesh (Image: ILO Asia Pacific, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Cereals drain India dry
A study on virtual water flows in interstate trade of cereals in India shows that cereals are rapidly draining the states that have the most critical levels of groundwater.
Harris
Francesca et al
Posted on 20 Jan, 2021 11:14 AM

Agricultural stagnation and inefficient irrigation systems

Agriculture continues to be an important sector for the Indian economy and for food security with more than half of the workforce being employed in agricultural activities. Greater use of improved crop varieties, irrigation and fertilisers have contributed to major improvements in crop yields in India.
Cereals and millets at a bazaar in Nizampet, Hyderabad (Image Source: Aditya Madhav, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Child malnutrition rises in five years, as per NFHS-5 data
The estimated increase in child stunting is only the tip of the iceberg.
Gurinder Kaur
Posted on 13 Jan, 2021 10:08 AM

Government of India has recently released the data of the first round of National Family Health Survey-5, 2019-20.
Children born between 2014 and 2019 are more malnourished than those before. (Image: PxHere)
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