M Venkaiah Naidu pitches for home-grown food security

Chennai: Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday stressed the need to focus on home-grown food security rather than imports so as to guarantee food security. On the side of economics, this would reduce the country’s import burden as nearly six million tonnes of pulses were coming from overseas. 

The government, civil society, scientists and researchers must share knowledge and expertise with farmers to make agriculture sustainable and nutrition-rich, he said while inaugurating the National Consultation on Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition, held at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation.

Quoting from the worrisome data from the latest UN SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) report, which said malnutrition has risen for the first time in over a decade, Naidu said it was “quite distressing” that malnutrition in India persisted “at unacceptable levels” despite efforts taken by successive governments at the Centre and in various states. 

The quantitative and qualitative deficits in food intake, environmental conditions and access to health were some of the major contributory factors of malnutrition, he explained, while calling upon the “policy makers and politicians” to focus more on malnutrition.

Stressing the need for increased awareness about the nutritional value of different foods so that people could make informed decisions, the Vice-President said: “It is time that we diversify our food production by moving away from mono-cropping of major cereals (rice, wheat) to a system that integrates a variety of food items including small millets, pulses, fruits and vegetables”. 

The Vice-President later participated in the valedictory of ‘OSKON2018’, an Ocular Surface and Keratoprosthesis Conference of Sankara Nethralaya, a premier eye care institute in the city. In his address, he pitched for increase in facilities to treat cataract, glaucoma and other ophthalmological problems. 

“Since 80-90 per cent blindness is avoidable, we need to increase eye care facilities to treat cataract, glaucoma and other ophthalmological problems. Blindness from glaucoma can be prevented if diagnosed and treated early,” he pointed out. 

He said the Union government and various state governments as also the private sector were working shoulder-to-shoulder in reducing blindness through comprehensive eye care services. The need of the hour was to ensure that these services were available in rural areas, particularly the remote parts of the country, Naidu said.