World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Here in Rajasthan (India) as in parts of Ethiopia, lack of water is the big problem. (..) In common with approaches tried by donors such as the World Food Programme in Ethiopia, Eficor asked the villagers what their priorities were. Water – or lack of it – was, unsurprisingly, a key concern. Farmers in Rajasthan have land, but often leave areas uncultivated because of the lack of water.

India expects a record harvest of rice and wheat, but officials have warned that huge food stocks could be wasted due to lack of adequate storage facilities. (..) The waste of food grain has raised concerns in a country where more than 40 percent of children are underweight. (..) It is estimated that about seven percent of food grains are wasted due to lack of storage space and inefficient transportation.

Rural women entrepreneurs in Rajasthan produce a nutritious food supplement as take home rations for pregnant mothers and underfed infants. (..) The supplement, which goes under the label of ‘Raj Nutrimix', has been developed by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and in consultation with the Government of Rajasthan. (..) “We discovered that producing this supplement is a perfect fit because it addresses two urgent needs: An uninterrupted supply of nutritive food and a regular source of income for poor rural households,” says Dr Nikhil Raj of WFP, who coordinates this project.

The state government's focus on farming may have earned Punjab the label the "bread basket of India," but it has stifled the growth of manufacturing industries that the state needs to catch up with the strongest performers. (..) Farmers sitting on some of India's most fertile land - Punjab means "the land of five rivers" - are reluctant to sell their fields to make way for industry.

Despite progress on many fronts, India's high malnutrition rate, low birth weight and maternal mortality rate continue to rival those of sub-Saharan Africa. (..) There is an increasing body of research that points to the way forward. (..) We've seen it from Rwanda to India, when women have secure rights to the land either jointly with their husbands or on their own, the family does better in a host of ways: improved education, improved nutrition, improved health.

Roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under age 5 suffer from malnutrition, a sobering reminder of the persistence of poverty and hunger in the world’s largest democracy, according to a major report released on Tuesday. (..) The extensive food subsidy program that India already operates allocates grain and kerosene to the poor. Yet the distribution system is rife with corruption and inefficiency, and some analysts estimate that 40 percent of the subsidized food never reaches the intended recipients.

Rice exports from India, the world’s second-largest producer, may more than double this year on a record crop and as importers seek alternative to expensive supplies from Thailand, a shippers’ group said. (..) Cheaper rice, staple for half the world’s population, may further cool global food costs (FAOFOODI), which dropped for a fifth month in November, according to the United Nations.

(..) Tribal dominated Baran figures prominently as a “hot spot” in the list of 22 Rajasthan districts (comprising 65% of the state) that have been designated as being “food insecure” in a 2010 report jointly prepared by the United Nations World Food Programme and the Institute of Human Development.

With Thai and Vietnamese prices rising, India has already become a significant global supplier, offering rice in a recent Iraqi tender and to the United Nations' World Food Program. Officials have said India will export at least two million tons of ordinary rice over a period of four to six months—but inland transportation and port constraints may limit the country's overall monthly exports including premium Basmati grades to 500,000 tons a monht, the consultant Mr. Zwinger said.

Almost one billion people around the globe go to bed hungry every night, but it is "excess nutrition" that kills more, according to world's largest humanitarian organisation IFRC. (..) "Food alone will not be the answer.... Government needs to plan for providing livelihood to poor families and produce more food in sustainable manner," Mihoko Tamamura, World Food Programme director (India), said.