New Delhi, Aug 13 (Inditop.com) With Indians eating less cereals and pulses, the government must recast its food policy and launch a nutrition literacy movement fast if it is serious about addressing the problem of malnutrition, experts warn.
Their suggestions come after some alarming official statistics that say the per capital consumption of cereals and pulses in both urban and rural India registered a sizeable decline over the past decade.
“India is the land of pulses. But today we are compelled to import it from other countries,” said noted farm scientist M.S. Swaminathan, credited with India’s Green Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s that saw food production jump manifold, using better seeds and irrigation.
“Our former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s vision on the Technology Mission on Pulses has not been followed up properly by the government,” Swaminathan told IANS, lamenting that it was ironical that lentils – a rich source of protein – costed over Rs.100 per kg.
“There should be a nutrition literacy movement to educate people on what should they should eat and should not to eat,” he said, referring to the increasing propensity among the urban population to eat junk food.
In a recent statement in parliament, Minister of State for Food K.V. Thomas said the per capita consumption of cereals in rural India declined from 760 grams per month in 1993-94 to 710 grams in 2004-05, while for cereals it fell from 13.4 kg to 12.12 kg.
In the case of urban areas, he said, the consumption of pulses dropped from 860 grams to 820 grams, while that for cereals declined from 10.6 kg to 9.94 kg, during the same period.
In fact, in the latest Global Hunger Index of the California-based International Food Policy Research Institute, India is ranked a poor 66th out of 88 developing countries and transitional economies.
“Despite years of robust economic growth, India scored worse than nearly 25 Sub-Saharan African countries and all of South Asia, except Bangladesh,” said the report, saying India was placed under the “alarming” category.
Minister Thomas told IANS that the reason behind low consumption and low productivity of food, especially, pulses, was less availability of arable land and low remuneration paid to farmers for their produce.
“Agriculture acreage is reducing. The production of cereals and pulses is not remunerative any longer,” he said, adding steps were being taken to ensure that farmers use better technology and seeds to improve productivity.
Noted social scientist George Mathew, who is the founder-director of the Institute of Social Sciences here, said urgent steps were needed to bring down the prices of cereals and lentils.
“The high prices of pulses and cereals affect consumption. People then look at changing their food habit. This will seriously hamper the country’s effort to address the issue of malnutrition,” Mathew said.
“Eating habit of every section of the society is different. The poor want to have simple rice and dal (pulses). They are satisfied with it. But if they are forced to change their food habit, there can be implications, since they are not bothered about malnutrition.”
