On the occasion of world food day (October 16), three districts in India have initiated India’s ‘Zero Hunger’ programme through interventions in farm sector. Those districts are Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Koraput in Odisha and Thane in Maharashtra.
It will be initiated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). These three districts would act as a model of an integrated approach adopting suitable agricultural/horticultural practices.
The programme consists of organisations of farming system for nutrition, setting up genetic gardens and initiation of Zero Hunger‘ training. A genetic garden for biofortified plants/crops contains the germplasm of naturally biofortified crops or such crops through plant breeding. It has plants and crops that help supplement micro-nutrient deficiencies, including iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc among others.