World Food Day, 16th October 2025
Today, while we celebrate World Food Day, my thoughts in the context of India run as below. We have established ourselves as leaders in food production, Storage and distribution through our strategic food grain reserve “ Food Corporation of India “ , NFSA ( National Food Security Act) and “Public Distribution System“ targeting poor and ultra-poor. We have attained our national distinction as the largest producer of milk, highest in Millet, Pulses production as well. We stand second in wheat, vegetable and fruits production, third in cereal and fourth in oilseed production. In spite of such abundance, we hold the stigma of being the home for world’s most malnourished having more than 195 million such people, most in the base of the societal pyramid ( poor and ultra poor) in most vulnerable geographies like the tribal hinterlands. These are mainly children, women, old, the disabled and persons suffering from chronic illnesses. We have the world’s largest women and children targeted program with a grass-root structure as ICDS ( Integrated Child Development Services) , and POSHAN Abhiyan that’s handling this vexed problem and we begin to see some islands of success. Universal eradication of malnutrition remains a far cry. While we fight malnutrition, we have begun experiencing the double burden of obesity. While obesity is more prominent in urban areas, malnutrition is largely a rural phenomenon, including the urban slums and among migrant labour. Globally the debate for Food System Transformation has begun with utmost sincerity, bringing together government, civil society, academia and research institutions. India is also in the forefront of this dialogue and debate. Under the above-stated backdrop probably it is the time to call for action to see a true alignment between the food subsystem and the nutrition subsystem. Nutrition is not widely understood as an integral part of the food system due to historical divisions- Agri-professionals looking at production, yield, economics and supply chain management etc. Whereas the Nutrition professionals have remained confined to Public Health domain looking at dietary intake, health outcomes. Thus food and nutrition professionals and policy influencers have chosen to remain within their disciplinary silos. No doubt there have been instances of several bright minds in the country making bold attempts to bring an alignment. Still there seems to be a lack of Policy Coherence to bring the food system and nutrition system together while discussing the Food System Transformation. Nutrition is often assumed to be a part of the food though technically so its understanding among the community and institutions have remained confined to their respective domains. An attempt to name the National Food Security Act as the National Food and Nutrition Security Act, naming the State Food Commissions as the state Food and Nutrition Commissions, failed to catch the imagination of an integrated approach. Probably it is the time now when we are debating the subject of Food System Transformation to refocus our attention to bring complete alignment of the food system with the nutrition system. My call for action, therefore, would be to be strategic for promoting the concept of 1. GROW Right i.e. making our farmers to be mindful of crop diversity by growing right crops that is nutrition rich, climate-resilient, environment friendly and economical by coming together through viable, scalable and sustainable producer groups, predominantly women-led farmers empowered systems. 2. EAT Right meaning educating our millions of mothers and children about the importance of dietary diversity, nutritional intake, healthy food through a widespread nutrition education initiative combined with a massive behaviour change communication campaign using local traditional social media of folk arts, music, dance, drama etc. Today’s technology would be a great enhancer to such efforts. Can every school have an Oil Board like the Sugar Board, can nutrition education not become a part of our curriculum ( like disaster management today is in our curriculum across the educational system). NM Prusty, Vice Chair
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