‘Support farming to boost food Act’

Kochi: Renowned agriculture scientist Dr M. S. Swaminathan on Sunday said that the success of the Food Security Act hinged on the support given to agriculture by the government and proliferation of farming.

Speaking at a national seminar on the Act here, he said that by footing huge import bills on farm products, such a scheme cannot be sustained and hence the thrust should be on promoting farming.

However, he said that certain states in the country like Punjab and Haryana were witnessing a situation of farm grains rotting when there was shortage of supply of food to a vast section, which is termed a situation of 'green mountains and hungry millions'. The estimated amount of rotting grain is 70 million tones. He said that the Food Security Bill was mooted against this backdrop.

Dr. Swaminthan said that despite the economic progress made in the past two decades malnutrition was still a big problem. "Around 40 percent of children below the age of five are malnourished while one out of five newborns shows low birth weight which can affect their overall development. These are serious issues to be tackled for the nation," he said.

He said that under nutrition, protein hunger and hidden hunger, which was related to deficiency of micro-nutrients, needed to be battled to achieve food security goals.

The relevance of Food Security Act is that it is a legally enforceable right and has grievance redressal mechanism and recognises woman as the head of family. "A total of 80 crore people will be covered by it, 75 percent of whom are in villages. Apart from food grains, millets too are supplied which makes it special," he said.

Kochi Open Forum chairman K. J. Sohan, Union Food Minister Prof K. V. Thomas, Dominic Presentation, MLA, and Prof K. Aravindakshan also spoke on the occasion.