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Action plan for hunger-free India proposed

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Improving productivity of small farms will help the most "Improving productivity of small farms will help the most in eradicating poverty"

SHARING A THOUGHT: V. Vaidyanathan, honorary Secretary & Treasurer, Medical Research Foundation ( left), with M. S. Swaminathan, Agriculture Scientist at the 12th Sri V. Venugopal Endowment lecture in Chennai on Tuesday. V. Govind, grandson of late V . Venugopal 9 extreme right), looks on. — Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI: Citing the slide in agriculture growth rate as a cause for concern, agriculture scientist and chairman of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), M.S. Swaminathan on Tuesday proposed a multi-pronged action plan to make India `hunger-free'.

He was delivering the V. Venugopal Endowment Lecture on `Mission 2007: A Hunger-free India and Every Village a Knowledge Centre' here.

Restructuring of delivery systems relating to nutrition support programmes should involve panchayats and local bodies, he said. The lecture was organised by the Medical Research Foundation and Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya.

Dr. Swaminathan said that community grain and water banks should be promoted, as this would widen the food security base. While panchayats should be roped in for this, the programme should be financially supported and regulated by the state to ensure social inclusion and sustainability.

Improving the productivity and profitability of small farms could make the greatest contribution towards eradicating poverty, Dr. Swaminathan said.

The key to achieving this would be to enhance soil health, irrigation water supply and management, he said.

It was also important to diversify farming systems and provide value addition to farmers.

He called for a policy to enlarge opportunities, including non-farm employment, for remunerative self-employment in rural India. In addition, there was an urgent need to introduce support systems to make Self-Help Groups (SHGs) sustainable. Micro-finance should become livelihood finance and SHG Capacity Building and Mentoring Centres should be set up to facilitate this.

A National Food Guarantee Act should be introduced, combining features of the Food for Work and Employment Guarantee Programmes, covering rural and urban markets.

It would be appropriate to operationalise the Food Guarantee Act on August 15, 2007, which marks the 60th anniversary of Independence.

He dwelt on the importance of creating Village Knowledge Centres to provide generic and dynamic information in areas relevant to rural livelihood and agricultural marketing.

Knowledge connectivity should be a key component of Bharat Nirman, designed to provide a new deal to rural India.

`Mission 2007' is a national initiative launched by an alliance of nearly 80 organisations to set up a knowledge centre in every village by the 60th anniversary of Independence.

T.S. Surendran, vice-chairman of Medical Research Foundation, said V. Mohan Rao, instituted the endowment in the memory of his father, V. Venugopal, to disseminate valuable information on preventive, curative, and research-based data on health and health care.

K. Ravishankar, CEO, Medical Research Foundation, said an arrangement had been reached with MSSRF to have teleconnectivity with the village knowledge centres.

V. Govind, grandson of V. Venugopal, and his family members were present on the occasion.

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