The Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Protection and Price Control, R. Sakkarapani, has said discussions are on to provide coconut oil and groundnut oil through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
“We have held internal discussions within departments regarding this, and will soon discuss it with the Chief Minister,” he said, after inaugurating the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative to create awareness on, and promote, millets and backyard kitchen gardens among students, farmers and Biodiversity Management Committee members at M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai.
He said the State government will introduce finger millet (Ragi) in PDS from May 2023 for all ration cardholders in the Nilgiris and Dharmapuri. “We will provide two kg of Ragi,” he said. He noted that since millet production was low in Tamil Nadu, its consumption had also declined. But the government was taking steps to introduce millets in the people’s diet, he added.
Soumya Swaminathan, Chairperson, MSSRF, said, “When we look at the health of the Indian population, it is very worrying. We have a high rate of anaemia, and the prevalence of diseases like diabetes and hypertension is on the rise.”
Noting that the Indian diet had become very imbalanced, she said food security was assured, but nutrition security was still a concern. She said a recent survey by the National Institute of Nutrition showed that only around 10% of Indians ate the recommended quantity of fruits and vegetables.
“The problem of an inadequate diet is not only with the poor, but also with the middle and upper classes of society, and therefore, massive programmes on food and nutrition awareness are required to bring about a change in behaviour,” she said.
She suggested that the government consider introducing millets in school meals.
Achalender Reddy, Chairperson, National Biodiversity Authority, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, stated nutritional facts about millets and pseudo-millets. He said biological conservation was essential not only to prevent biodiversity loss, but also to protect food species, especially millets, in the country.
