Sustainable food system is a support to life. The sustainable development goals list has thrust on eliminating poverty and has shown concern for zero hunger on top priority. life is subservient to judicious food consumption. The World Food Day 2022 emphasised on primary focus to address and tackle hunger and strive to eradicate hunger across the world.
Wars, conflict, climate changes and economic recession have created food challenges in many nations. The covid 19 Aftermath added to the food crisis in certain pockets of the world. India is a rich producer of rice, wheat and pulses and has strategic importance in the world food market, but India is also restricting export to mitigate its own challenges in the present global scenario.
India holds the record second largest agricultural land in the world as 60% rural Indian households make their living from agriculture. The share of agriculture in total gross value added (GVA) of the economy has trended around 18 % in India.
In 2021-22 Indian food production in Rice remained 127.93 million metric tonnes, followed by wheat 111.32 million metric tonnes. Pulses production is also very high compared to previous years, which is 26.96 million metric tonnes. In the financial year 2021 India produced over 310 million metric tonnes of food grains.
In 2022 India is expecting more production due to favourable climate and technological know-how. At present India is doing well in terms of food production and India is also a larger producer. Rice and wheat are staple food for people here and some large producer states are U. P produces a large quantity of wheat and West Bengal produces much rice.
It is an admitted fact that too much food is being lost from the field to consumers as per latest survey 13.3 percent of the world’s food is lost after harvesting before reaching to consumers, These Include household waste, grocery stores, and household restaurants. But rice production is under threat in certain areas.
Climate change has created a ground water crisis as groundwater is depleting rapidly. The per capita renewable water resources have also declined from 1909 cubic metres to 1412 cubic meters. Now we need such varieties of crops which require less water but give high yield. The land holding is also decreasing day by day. The common farmer has many challenges.
Consumers need to be educated to adopt the healthy food habits to maintain physical wellbeing and risk of various diseases and allied issues which cast heavy toll. It is important to understand the nutritional value of the food we eat and buy. We need to read the nutritional panel outside the covering packs of items, even double check health benefits and claims such as low in fat or sugar content.
Red meat consumption should be reduced instead of selecting fresh fruits for maintaining body equilibrium. The weight gain should be checked periodically as weight gain spearheads a lot of health Complications like stress level, fatigue and sleep disorder, concentration difficulties, feelings down, and tooth decay.
Healthy food habits demand avoidance of stale food as it is not fresh, palatable or good for eating in a daily diet. Commonly stale can be stale bread, rice, even stale water which remains uncovered which produce a lot of harmful bacteria which can become the cause of diseases for our body.
Indiscriminate use of Junk food is also worrisome. The junk food is commonly high in calories from sugar or fat content and possibly also sodium. These have little dietary fibre, proteins, vitamins, minerals or other forms of nutritional value. Eating junk food regularly can lead to an increased risk of Obesity and some chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and some other concerns.
The clarion call is to use technology-based agriculture patterns to save the food shortage and farmers need to adopt the Government schemes for good production and Government need to ensure the best market prices to farmers and consumers should adopt good eating habits preferable take veggies and fruits and avoid all such foods which are detrimental for our health.
The food safety and standards authority of India and allied departments should develop quality standard foods in market and regulate food safety with keen observations and protect and promote public health.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.