Workshop on 'Mitigating Malnutrition through Farm-Women Empowerment'

17 October 2017, Ludhiana

ICAR-ATARI, Zone-1, Ludhiana, organized workshop on 'Mitigating Malnutrition through Farm-Women Empowerment'.

Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra , Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR),  Chief guest of this event explained wide range of issues and realities linked to malnutrition in India during his address. He stressed upon women empowerment through their proper education for tackling the grave situation of malnutrition in the country. Dr. Mohapatra emphasized other important points on the status of health and nutrition in India viz., higher incidence of malnourishment in rural areas and women compared to their counterparts, food discrimination against girls etc. He suggested popularization of nutritious foods, Nutrition Gardens, bio-fortified foods such as orange flesh sweet potato, and harnessing traditional wisdom on nutrition management through the involvement of grandmothers. Dr. Mohapatra raised a concern on widespread incidence of anaemia in the states of Punjab and Haryana especially among the women. He stated that children can’t be healthy if their mothers are not healthy and under such conditions the brain development of the child is significantly hampered. Later, DG, ICAR also released a book entitled “Mitigating Malnutrition through Farm-women”

Dr. B S Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU Ludhiana stressed upon the role of women in combating malnutrition and leading the society in the right direction. He also appreciated the role of ATARI Zone-1 in guiding PAU’s KVKs on the path of higher productivity and efficiency in the state of Punjab.

Dr. Rajbir Singh, Director, ICAR-ATARI briefed about the activities and initiatives undertaken by this institute on mitigating malnutrition through farm-women. He elaborated about various activities and programmes organized by KVKs in relation to celebration of National Nutrition Week and Breast Feeding Week.

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More than 100 farm-women and KVK personnel participated in this workshop.

 (Source: ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Ludhiana)