There is an urgent need to improve the GHI ranking by improving India’s Agro-biodiversity.
What is the current situation?
Hunger is defined by caloric deprivation; protein hunger; hidden hunger by deficiency of micronutrients.
Nearly 4 out of 10 children in India do not meet their potential because of chronic under nutrition or stunting.
This leads to diminished learning capacity, increased chronic diseases, and low birth-weight infants from malnourished parents.
The global nutrition report pegs 614 million women and more than half the women in India aged 15-49 as being anaemic.
Why agro-biodiversity is crucial?
Agro-biodiversity (diversity of crops and varieties) is crucial in food security, nutrition, health, and agricultural landscapes.
It helps nutrition-sensitive farming and bio-fortified foods.
Out of 250,000 globally identified plant species, about 7,000 have historically been used in human diets.
Only 30 crops form the basis of the world’s agriculture and just 3 species of maize, rice and wheat supply more than half the world’s daily calories.
Genetic diversity of crops, livestock and their wild relatives, are fundamental to improve crop varieties and livestock breeds.
Without the rich genetic pool, we would not have thousands of crop varieties and animal breeds.
India is a centre of origin of rice, brinjal, citrus, banana and cucumber species.
In India, over 811 cultivated plants and 902 of their wild relatives have been documented.
India’s promising genetic resources include rice from Tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala; wheat and mushroom from Himachal Pradesh; and rich farm animal native breeds.
What are some global initiatives against hunger?
UN SDG - The UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) advocates for Zero Hunger.
Aichi Biodiversity Target - It focuses on countries conserving genetic diversity of plants, farm livestock and wild relatives.
It emphasises that countries develop strategies and action plans to halt biodiversity loss and reduce direct pressure on biodiversity.
What is ‘Nutrition Garden’?
The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) brought out school ‘Nutrition Garden’ guidelines.
It encourages eco-club students to identify fruits and vegetables best suited to topography, soil and climate.
These gardens can give students lifelong social, numerical and presentation skills, care for living organisms and team work, besides being used in the noon-meal scheme.
Students also learn to cultivate fruits and vegetables in their homes and this could address micronutrient deficiencies.
What are the CEBPOL’s recommendations?
The Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law (CEBPOL) came out with recommendations to increase India’s agro-biodiversity in 2019.
These include a comprehensive policy on ‘ecological agriculture’ to enhance native pest and pollinator population providing ecosystem services for the agricultural landscape.
Promoting the bio-village concept of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) for ecologically sensitive farming.
Conserving the crop wild relatives of cereals, millets, fruits and nuts, vegetables, etc. for crop genetic diversity healthier food.
Providing incentivesforfarmers who are cultivating native landrace varieties and for those who conserve indigenous breeds of livestock and poultry varieties.
Encouraging community seed banks in each agro-climatic zone so that regional biotic properties are saved and used by new generation farmers.
Preparing an agro-biodiversity index, documenting traditional practices through People’s Biodiversity Registers, identifying Biodiversity Heritage Sites under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
Strengthening Biodiversity Management Committees to conserve agro-biodiversity and traditional knowledge.
Developing a national level invasive alien species policy and prioritising problematic species based on risk assessment studies.
What could be done?
Loss of crop genetic resources is mainly a result of adopting new crop varieties without conserving traditional varieties.
Similarly, there are concerns on high output breeds for production of meat, milk and egg.
The consumption pattern and culinary diversity must be enlarged to increase India’s food basket.
The indigenous crop, livestock and poultry breeds should be conserved.
For this, it is recommended to mainstream biodiversity into agricultural policies, schemes, programmes and projects to achieve India’s food and nutrition security and minimise genetic erosion.
