Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security

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Attaining food security has been a major challenge for the nation since independence. In order to meet the demand of our ever-increasing population growing at the rate of 1.8 per cent, we would need, in 2030,

• 260–264 million tonnes of food grains
• 130-152 mt of milk
• 151-193 mt of vegetables
• 84-106 mt of fruits
• 10-14 mt of meat
• 4-5 mt of eggs
• 10-14 mt of fish and
• 12 mt of edible oil

to provide adequate nutrition to a population of 1.3 billion people. This emphasizes the necessity of producing more food at an accelerated pace. The pressure will be further compounded in view of the shrinking arable land and depleting natural resources.

Besides, nutritional insecurity, unemployment and hidden hunger caused by deficiency of micronutrients, will have to be given priority attention. To achieve the desired objective, there is need for

• a paradigm shift from commodity centered to ecologically sustainable farming system

• a renewed thrust to implement effectively various technological options generated by the scientists representing different disciplines.

Agriculture in India has attained resilience mainly on account of

• improved technologies
• better crop varieties
• better infrastructure
• irrigation
• weather forecasts and
• diversified agriculture.

Efficient agriculture rests heavily on management of natural resources, such as soil, water, energy and biological diversity. In meeting the needs of population pressure, farming will have to meet the twin objectives of producing more and conserving natural resources. Obviously, this would be achieved through the role of science and effective interactions among scientists to generate required technologies.

The manifestations of natural resource degradation often result in

• large-scale soil and water erosion
• salinization
• waterlogging
• over exploitation of ground water resulting in declining water table
• deteriorating water quality and
• chemical degradation.

A time has now come to pay serious attention to conservation of our natural resources for sustainable agricultural development.

Strategies to achieve food and nutritional security would involve application of new technologies, like

• biotechnology,
• information technology,
• meteorology,
• microelectronics,
• communications

in a big way. While these technologies are powerful tools in our arsenal to meet the emerging challenges, they need to be used with greater scientific care and discretion.

As we stand on the cusp of a new millennium, face to face with formidable challenges and equipped with equally powerful technologies, the question before our scientific community is not "Are we going to meet the challenge?" but "Can we do it without harming, or better still, conserving our environmental assets?"

We, at the Congress, intend to discuss all these relevant and critical issues and come out with a shared vision for the food, nutrition and environmental security for our people as we take first step into the new millennium.