17 Oct 2013|Noida | Amity University Campus, Sector-125 Noida
Amity Institution of Food Technology organises a Panel Discussion on the Theme-“Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security & Nutrition"
On the occasion of World Food Day, Amity Institution of Food Technology organized a Panel Discussion on the Theme-“Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security & Nutrition” at Amity Campus, Sector- 125, Noida
Dr. Abhijit Kar, -Senior Scientist, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; Mr. A Subramani- DGM, Mother Dairy, Delhi ;Dr. W. Selvamurthy -President (Honorary) - Amity Science, Technology & Innovation Foundation (ASTIF) and Dr. Sunil Saran- Sr. Vice Chairman, Amity Science ,Technology and Innovation Foundation presented their views during the Panel Discussion.
Addressing the gathering, Dr. Abhijit Kar, -Senior Scientist, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi highlighted the issues related to Food Security in terms of their availability. He stressed that in India, farmers need to prioritize the production process. Citing an example, Dr. Kar said that presently, onion prices have reached the sky and following the trend, more and more Indian farmers would grow onions next year in their fields and obviously, with the bumper harvest of onions in the market, farmers would bear huge losses. Dr. Kar, further, stated that once the production is over, it is not the availability but the accessibility that becomes a major issue. India produces over 250 million of food grains which is enough to feed its entire population. Post harvest mechanisms and technologies have to be improved. Dr. Kar also suggested looking into the co- product recovery and value addition of crops by properly extracting the co- products of crops and processing them.
Sharing his views on Food Safety with respect to availability of unadulterated food, Mr. A Subramani- DGM, Mother Dairy, Delhi said that safe food is a right of each and every person. Outbreaks related to food safety issues are increasing which calls for strengthening the food safety systems. He stressed that production should carried out in such a way that natural resources that are being used during the production, do not become extinct for future generations.
Dr. W. Selvamurthy -President (Honorary) - Amity Science, Technology & Innovation Foundation (ASTIF) highlighted various issues related to Food Security in India. He remarked that today, India is self sufficient in terms of the production of food grains but population is growing very fast and cultivable land is dwindling. Adding to the concern is wastage of food post production which amounts to 30- 40% of the total production. The need of the hour is to develop sustainable supply systems and efficient post harvest technologies. Dr. Selvamurthy remarked that although, India is the largest producer of milk in the world but per animal production is very low in India as compared to other countries. Citing measures to improve Food Security in India, Dr. Selvamurthy stressed that wastelands have to be made cultivable; Hill Agriculture and Soil less cultivation has to be encouraged and Public Distribution Systems should supply fortified food to avoid pilferage.
Dr. Sunil Saran- Sr. Vice Chairman, Amity Science, Technology and Innovation Foundation raised the concern abut the huge wastage that is caused during post production of food grains. He remarked that every year, the post production wastage of food grains lead to a loss of 44 thousand crores and what we waste in India every year is the consumption of UK every year. He suggested adopting holistic approach to deal with Food Security issues and called for setting up more soil testing labs in India so that Indian farmers can check micro- nutrients in the soil and accordingly, work on the soil and increase the nutritional content in the food grains.
The lecture was attended by hundreds of students and faculty members.