Chennai:
Even as the Parliament has given a stamp of approval to the Food Security Bill, noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan feels that it addresses only the under-nutrition aspect of the population but fails to fulfill their hunger for protein and micronutrients like Vitamic A, Vitamin B12, iron, iodine and zinc.
Delivering the 16th Convocation address of Tamil Nadu Vterinary and Animal sciences University here on Tuesday, the founder chairman and chief mentor of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation said there are three kinds of hunger ---one catering to undernutrition, the other dealing with proteins and the last dealing with micronutrients.
The Food Security bill takes care of the undernutrition aspect by focusing on wheat, rice, millets but does not cater to protein as well as micronutrients like iron and zinc.
Prof Swaminathan also stressed the need to conserve the geneitic diversity of farm animals while hailing the efforts of the state government.
He said that now to get a pure predigree of Indian cows or buffaloes one has to go to foreign countries like Brazil and Bulgaria respectively.
He said that the ownership of livestock is more egalitarian than the landholding. He also hailed the milk cooperative movement and said that the aim to achieve 200 million tonnes of milk from 130 million tonnes is available.
The noted scientist also expressed concern over under-nutrition in animals. On one hand India is exporting animal feeds on the other hand our animals are undernourished. He said that foreign exchange is necessary but then nutrition is necessary for our farm animals, he said.
He also said that if few fertilizer trees, a pond and a biogas plant in every farm could make dryland farming a success.
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