Mysore's CFTRI in initiative to reduce chronic hunger in parts of Orissa

The Hindu, March. 19, 2010
This model can be carried out in other hunger hotspots also: Dr. Swaminathan


The Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) here, in association with the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, and other organisations, have launched an initiative to end chronic hunger in the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) regions of Orissa by 2015.

The initiative is part of an integrated approach to achieve Millennium Development Goal-1 in hunger hotspots and reducing hunger by at least 50 per cent by 2015. Other institutions that are part of the initiative include the National Institute of Nutrition, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Foundation for Agrarian Service , World Food Programme and the government of Orissa. This was disclosed by eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan here on Thursday while delivering a special talk on “A Nutrition Secure India: Role of the Proposed Food Security Act” in the first of the CFTRI diamond jubilee lecture series.

Dr. Swaminathan said the objective of the initiative was to develop technologies for specific foods suitable for the people of the KBK region, and to provide them with food that is ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook and to meet both the macro and micro nutrients. He said the CFTRI, Mysore, would play a major role in the initiative.

Benchmark survey
Dr. Swaminathan said the FAS was currently doing a benchmark survey and the initiative is expected to reduce hunger by half in one of the chronic hunger hotspots of India. This method can also be replicated in other such areas, said Dr. Swaminathan.