75 Nutri-Smart Villages To Boost Campaign Against Malnutrition

A total of 75 villages will be adopted by All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) centres and Central Institute For Women In Agriculture (ICAR-CIWA) to develop Nutri-Smart villages, officials said.

The initiative has been undertaken in line with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to all the academicians, agricultural scientists and all the institutions to adopt and transform 75 villages.

As part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, to commemorate the 75th year of Independence of India, a programme on 'Nutrition Smart Village' will be initiated to strengthen the Poshan Abhiyan.

"The new initiative aims to reach out to 75 villages across India through the network of (AICRP-WIA) which is in operation at 13 centres in 12 states of India", said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in an event on Wednesday.

The initiative aims at promoting nutritional awareness, education and behavioural change in rural areas involving farm women and school children, harnessing traditional knowledge through the local recipe to overcome malnutrition and implementing nutrition-sensitive agriculture through homestead agriculture and Nutri-garden.

An intensive awareness campaigns and field activities will also be undertaken for focusing on the concept of Nutri-village, Nutri-food and Nutri-diet to achieve the goal of Malnutrition free villages. An awareness campaign among the women farmers will also be undertaken for their legal rights.

The minister also released 3 publications - 'Technology profile of food products', 'Work participation and women in agriculture in India', and 'Gender Sensitive Agri-Horti Cropping System Model for addressing livelihood nutrition and entrepreneurship' at the event.