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Indian scientist wins award for fortifying millet

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    World Affairs
  • Published
    6th Sep, 2022

Context

Telangana-based agriculture scientist Mahalingam Govindaraj has won the coveted 2022 Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application for developing a variety of pearl millet rich in iron and zinc.

  • The variety, named Dhanashakti, is the world’s first biofortified pearl millet or bajra which was released for cultivation in 2014.


What is Food fortification?

  • It is the process of adding micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) to food.
  • Food fortification is a proven and effective strategy to meet the nutritional needs of a large number of people across various sections of the society.
  • The efficacy of the fortification standards introduced by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will depend on enforcement.

Advantages

  • Reduces the risk of death from infectious diseases. 
  • Standards-based fortification can help advance overall health goals, starting with maternal health.
  • Fortified foods can help fill the gaps, in need of speedy remedial nutrition. 
    • It prevents and eliminates the nutritional deficiencies.

Various efforts taken by India in this regard

  • Milk cooperatives in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Assam and Maharashtra are fortifying their products.
  • Targeting children, the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh governments have begun using fortified oil for their mid-day meal schemes.
  • West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are now distributing fortified wheat flour through the public distribution system
  • The Maharashtra government has started a pilot project.
  • The FSSAI is also working with small local suppliers, for instance local flour grinding mills, to get them to add premixed micronutrients.

About Norman Borlaug Field Award

  • Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation, is presented every October in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, by the World Food Prize Foundation. 
  • This $10,000 award recognizes exceptional, science-based achievement in international agriculture and food production by an individual under the age of 40. 
  • Awardees emulate the same intellectual courage, stamina and determination in the fight to eliminate global hunger and poverty demonstrated by Dr. Norman Borlaug as a young scientist working in Mexico in the 1940s and '50s.

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