Maharashtra Governor calls bringing a policy for promotion of Cultivation and Consumption of Nutricereals

Published by News Desk June 13, 2019

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Mumbai, June 13 The Governor of Maharashtra Vidyasagar Rao has asked ministers for agriculture, women and child welfare, food and civil supplies and tribal affairs to work closely to introduce a policy of procurement and distribution of Nutricereals through public distribution system in Maharashtra.

Such policy, said the Governor, would result in enhancing the income of marginalized farmers and in tackling the issue of malnutrition and other lifestyle diseases, especially in the Scheduled Areas of Maharashtra.

The Governor was speaking at a meeting of Ministers for Agriculture, Women and Child Development, Tribal Development and Food and Civil Supplies at Raj Bhavan, Mumbai on Wednesday (12th June).

The meeting was convened by the Governor to discuss the findings of a report on Nutricereals prepared by the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad under the leadership of the Academic Director of the Bharati Institute of Public Policy Dr Ashwini Chhatre.

The report notes that Maharashtra is a surplus state in terms of production of nutricereals. However the procurement of nutricereals and their distribution through public distribution system would allow reinforcement of traditional dietary patterns and also help in moving towards nutritional security.

The Governor said that such policy should focus on encouraging farmers to produce nutricereals. He asked the concerned department to explore the possibility of developing value-added products from nutricereals and to invest in research and development of such products. He further asked the government to take steps toward enhancing productivity of nutricereals by involving universities, academicians and agro-industries. In this connection, the Governor called for taking up a pilot project in one district of the State having scheduled areas.

Minister for Agriculture Chandrakant Dada Patil, Minister for Women and Child Development Pankaja Munde, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Jayakumar Rawal and secretaries of the concerned departments were present.

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