Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh

Recently, Government launched ‘Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh’ to tackle the problem of malnutrition in India.

• The Union Government has launched ‘Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh’ (BPKK) with the aim of reducing malnutrition in India.
• BPKK is a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones to help enable better nutritional outcomes.
• As part of Poshan Abhiyaan, Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has partnered with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh project.
• India’s first Poshan Atlas: BPKK would be accessible to policy-makers, administrators, experts and communities in order to help meet nutritional outcomes in the country.

Objective

• The Kosh aims to promote and reinforce healthy dietary practices both at the individual and community level and tackle malnutrition in a sustainable manner.
• BPKK database will provide insights on traditional crop varieties & encourage them in a particular region to promote dietary diversity.
• This is a step forward in the direction of ‘Evergreen Revolution’ that will bring together the nutritional needs of citizens with India's cropping patterns and agricultural production.

Plan of action

• The Kosh aims to reduce malnutrition among women and children across the country, through a multi-sectoral results-based framework, including agriculture.
  
  • There is need for convergence between agriculture and nutrition to tackle the challenge of malnutrition.
• A five-point action programme: WCD Ministry is to set up a band of community hunger fighters, who will be trained to deal with hunger among women, especially pregnant women and children by following the five-point action programme.

1. 1. Ensure calorie rich diet for women, especially pregnant women and children.
   2. Ensure protein intake in form of pulses to eradicate protein hunger among women and children.
   3. Eradicate hidden hunger due to micro-nutrient deficiency such as vitamin A, vitamin B, Iron and Zinc.
   4. Ensure supply of clean drinking water.
   5. Spreading nutrition literacy in every village, especially among women with children less than 100 days’ old.

• Implementation of the five action plan: Ministry of Jal Shakti is already working on providing clean drinking water to every household in the country.
• India’s National Nutrition Mission has already brought a new energy needed to eliminate the Malnutrition menace.

Why BPKK?

• Lack of proper nutrition among children not only affects their physical development but also their brain development.
• Malnutrition is cause of death of children below the age of five years.
• Loss of traditional knowledge: In this age of globalization, modern food systems have resulted in loss of knowledge and consumption of traditional and local nutrient rich foods. Consumption of industrialised and processed food products has increased.
  • Globalisation has result in replacement of nutrient-dense millets, suited for cultivation under the water-strapped conditions of India, by other grains.
  • Super grains: Increased awareness about suitability of millets from both a nutrient standpoint and agricultural logistics is now catalysing the slow restoration of these super grains.
• There is need to bring together the science of implementation along with the science of communication, to ensure that nutrition is key priority along with hygiene and clean drinking water.
• Solving the malnutrition challenge will bring about a dramatic change in India’s development and help it attain all the SDGs.

Other steps undertaken

• Government is conducting ‘POSHAN Maah’ (Nutrition months) to undertake nutrition related activities across the country.
• The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana Scheme (PMMVY) has reached out to 10 million beneficiaries by compensating for wage losses during maternity leaves takes.
• Anganwadi workers, Anganwadi helpers and state agencies have helped to keep nutritional goals alive, and digitally linked beneficiaries with the government through daily updates on dashboard.