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THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 13 December 2019 (India’s food basket must be enlarged (The Hindu))

India’s food basket must be enlarged (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Health
Prelims level: Global Hunger Index
Mains level: Promoting agro biodiversity

Context:

Hunger is defined by caloric deprivation; protein hunger; hidden hunger by deficiency of micronutrients.
India is ranked 102 in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) out of 117 qualified countries.
Nearly 47 million or four out of 10 children in India do not meet their potential because of chronic undernutrition or stunting.
This leads to diminished learning capacity, increased chronic diseases, low birthweight 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.

Measures to improve nutrition status:

Nutrition garden guidelines.
‘Nutrition garden’ guidelines 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.
This was introduced recently by the Ministry of Human Resources Development at school level.

Agro biodiversity:

Agrobiodiversity ( relating to diversity of crops and varieties) is crucial in food security, nutrition, health and essential in agricultural landscapes.

Importance of ensuring agro biodiversity:

Today, Only 30 crops form the basis of the world’s agriculture and just three species of maize, rice and wheat supply more than half the world’s daily calories Out of 2,50,000 globally identified plant species, and about 7,000 species historically used in human diets.
Genetic diversity of crops, livestock and their wild relatives, are fundamental to improve crop varieties and livestock breeds.
Agrobiodiversity helps nutrition-sensitive farming and bio-fortified foods. For instance, moringa (drumstick) has micro nutrients and sweet potato is rich in Vitamin A. There are varieties of pearl
millet and sorghum rich in iron and zinc.

Genetic diversity and India:

India is a centre of origin of rice, brinjal, citrus, banana, cucumber species.
Across the world, 37 sites are designated as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), of which three are Indian — Kashmir (saffron), Koraput (traditional agriculture) and Kuttanad (below sea-level farming).
Our promising genetic resources include rice from Tamil Nadu (Konamani), Assam (Agni bora) and Kerala (Pokkali), Bhalia Wheat and mushroom (Guchhi) from Himachal Pradesh and rich farm animal native breeds — cattle (42), buffaloes (15), goat (34), sheep (43) and chicken (19).

Developmental Goals:

The UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 advocates for Zero Hunger and the Aichi Biodiversity Target 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.

Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020):

Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020) was adopted by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) in October, 2010.
The plan encompasses a ten-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders along with twenty targets known as the Aichi biodiversity targets which aim at safeguarding biodiversity and the benefits it provides along with its sustainable use.

Aichi Biodiversity Target:

A set of 20 global targets under the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. They are grouped under five strategic goals:
Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society.
Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use.
Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity.
Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.

Measures to improve agri biodiversity:

The Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law (CEBPOL), a policy advocacy unit of the National Biodiversity Authority, came out with recommendations to increase India’s agrobiodiversity in 2019. These include;
A comprehensive policy on ‘ecological agriculture’ to enhance native pest and pollinator population providing ecosystem services for the agricultural landscape.
The promotion of the bio-village concept of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) for ecologically sensitive farming;
To conserving crop wild relatives of cereals, millets, oilseeds, fibres, forages, fruits and nuts, vegetables, spices etc. for crop genetic diversity healthier food;
To providing incentives for farmers cultivating native landrace varieties and those conserving indigenous breeds of livestock and poultry varieties.
To encouraging community seed banks in each agro-climatic zone so that regional biotic properties are saved and used by new generation farmers;
To preparing an agrobiodiversity index, documenting traditional practices through People’s Biodiversity Registers, identifying Biodiversity Heritage Sites under provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002;
To strengthening Biodiversity Management Committees to conserve agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge.
Developing a national level invasive alien species policy is required to identify pathways, mapping, monitoring, managing, controlling and eradicating the invasive species and prioritising problematic
species based on risk assessment studies.
Loss of crop genetic resources is mainly a result of adopting new crop varieties without conserving traditional varieties.
The consumption pattern and culinary diversity must be enlarged to increase India’s food basket.

Conclusion:

To conserve indigenous crop, livestock and poultry breeds, it is recommended to mainstream biodiversity into agricultural policies, schemes, programmes and projects to achieve India’s
food and nutrition security and minimize genetic erosion.
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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the XDR-TB, consider the following statements:
1. XDR-TB is a form of TB which is resistant to at least four of the core anti-TB drugs including resistance to the two most powerful anti-TB drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin, also known as multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB).
2. According to a WHO report, cases of XDR TB are much fewer than those of the MDR/RR TB, and have been reported from 117 countries until 2017.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both 1 and 2
D. Neither 1 nor 2