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Govt supports Zero Hunger initiative, states Naidu at MSSR Foundation meet
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Wednesday, 12 August, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d The Government of India welcomes the “Zero Hunger” initiative by UN secretary-general Ban-Ki moon and is committed to support it, according to Union minister for urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation and parliamentary affairs Venkaiah Naidu. He was speaking at “International Conference on Science, Technology and Public Policy to Achieve the Zero Hunger Challenge,” which was held at M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai recently.
Speaking at the session on Policy and Political Support for achieving the Zero Hunger Challenge, Naidu lamented that one-third of the world’s hungry people were in India. “Centre and states must come together to replace politics of poverty with politics of development, to change this scenario,” he said.
He emphasised that there was need to give up populist schemes such as freebies and focus instead on long-term development outcomes, such as crop insurance. Naidu stated that the government was committed on the “Swaminathan formula” for minimum support price for crops and was moving in that direction, delayed due to the financial situation. “Things are improving. Once the economy becomes stronger, we can implement the recommendations,” he said.
Nirmala Sitharaman, minister of state (independent charge) for commerce & industry, spoke of the ongoing discussions at WTO on subsidies. “We have the right to determine what can be done to support farmers and right to public holding of foodgrains. I am glad that Parliament came together on this issue and grateful to the WTO that the peace clause has been extended till a permanent solution is arrived at.”
The minister further spoke about the critical part of pricing on international co-operation with regard to rights of poorest of poor and for nutrition. The government was initiating negotiations on bartering buffer stock in sugar against the requirement of pulses in order to meet the pulses deficit. “The change in dietary pattern because of cost and its effects on nutrition status are serious matters that require consideration,” she said. The government was closely monitoring the prices of ordinary everyday items like onions and would be very sensitive to the needs of farmers, according to her.
Speaking on a positive note echoed by the key speakers, Prof. Swaminathan, expressed the hope that the situation with regard to pulses deficit in India, would improve. “The situation is improving and now pulse acreage has gone up. By next year, we can hope to wipe out pulse deficit,” he said.
The ministers also delivered their greetings to Prof. Swaminathan who turned 90 recently. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh who shared the dais with the BJP ministers congratulated Prof. Swaminathan on getting the parties together on the issue of nutrition security. The increasing pressures of population and climate change were a reality, according to Ramesh. He said, “No other country has four vulnerability indices when it comes to climate change. We need to be proactive and look for solutions, especially with regard to agriculture and food security.”
H K Dua, MP, called for the need for media houses to create greater awareness on the issue of malnutrition and hunger, rather than focussing on obesity or fitness and pointed out the long-term impact that malnutrition would have on a child and her future.
Over 500 delegates including representatives from national and international organisations, academicians, scientists and policy-makers attended the conference, which was held in partnership with ICRISAT (International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), Harvest Plus and BISA (Borlaug Institute for South Asia).
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