Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

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Dr. Dhanya Praveen

Member since
Organization: Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
Country: India
Field(s) of expertise:
I am working on:

I was involved in climate modeling, Uncertainty and Extremity Analysis and participatory research works for understanding vagaries in climate and its implications on the farming communities of semi arid tracks of South India . I was involved in Awareness, Outreach and capacity building programmes training govt officials on Climate and disaster Management

This member contributed to:

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      There must be decentralized planning and action for ensuring an equitable public distribution system among the needy is highly recommended. It must be ensured through continuous evaluation/ performance monitoring and take necessary corrective steps to ensure accountability and access to adequate quality and quantity food in an equitable way. 

       

      See the attachments:

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      Suggestions:

      1. Incentives for sustainable Farm management especially for maintaining diversified cropping systems will definitely help in the long run to ensure soil health. Apart from that imposing taxes for the use of fossil fuels. extension and other agricultural
      2. Additional incentives to even agricultural extension service professionals as a boost to enhance responsibility on reducing methane and nitrous oxide emissions due to overuse of fertilizers.
      3. GPS tracking facilities will help in assuring the timely monitoring and management of emissions and other impacts of overuse of fertilizers.
      4. Time to time, Stakeholders should be called for comprehensive action to address the issues of efficient fertilizer applications especially to tap traditional knowledge on the use of locally adapted seeds and livestock varieties and for producing on-farm fertilizers  like compost, manure etc.
      5. Scaling up organic agriculture as part of Climate smart Agriculture initiatives as not only National programmes but even at local level.

       

       

      See the attachments:

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      Thank you for the opportunity.

      The producing companies should take into account all the aspects of value to the consumer needs (nutritional and economic ). This is possible only through enhancing the capacity and awareness level. In India, its essential to develop value chains to improve nutrition. There are multiple actors at multiple levels that have responsibilities to this value chain. Strategies need to be developed for strengthening coordination among the key players. There need to be convergence of schemes, not within the department but also converge the various sectors and the actors who are working to help the farmers and customers.

      The need of improving the quality of value chains for nutrition enhancement links to a series of integrated processes starting with rainwater and watershed management, improved input use efficiency, soil health management, need-based fertilizer recommendation, integrated weed and nutrient management, pre- and post-harvest management, agro processing and value addition etc. Periodical assessments of value chain analysis need to be carried out for effective functioning and enhancing viability to benefit ordinary (below average and average) customers.

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      Thank for the opportunity. A few missing points are suggested.

      Under Action Areas (Page.16)

      There is adequate indication of the need to have integrated actions among the key players of nutrition. However the issue of close relationship of climate variability, change on food and nutritional security is completely ignored in the draft.  Unprecedented changes in the weather will affect the access to food, food intakes behaviour etc.. especially during heat waves and droughts. Tacking   Nutritional insecurities during of Climate Change and related disasters.

      • It’s a very well known fact that Climate change could affect amount of food produced, variety and nutritional value of food  and the Cost of food, However there is no mention of all these factors are not all mentioned in the the action plans .
      • Not only food , the availability Water -the key source for maintaining the metabolism of the body – gets affected by Climate changes and Disasters
      • Air pollution (GHG emission) has a direct bearing on the iron absorption rates in the body
      • Tacking Nutritional insecurities during Climate Change Disasters: The disruption of transportation and communication facilities may impact emergency responses with respect to food security and nutritional securities (other natural disasters- Earthquakes .will take longer recovery period).
      • Risks in the access to health services and finance -including the most marginalized and most vulnerable – during disaster period (Emergency, recovery / response period )is needed ( Page .6)

      Under The aim

      • “to end all forms of malnutrition and leaving no one behind; Whether this is completely achievable ?
      • It may be better to have achievable aims as its very difficult to end the all forms of malnutrition.

      Action area 1: Sustainable, resilient food systems for healthy diets

      The report should analyze the concern of nutritional security with a Cross-sectoral livelihood perspective. Not only the small and marginalized strata. The modern lifestyles are actually adding to the malnutrition among rich strata of the society and children and old aged are the mostly hit category.

      Action networks

      • There should be an National Action Plan on Nutritional security and state level action plan  for better implementation. There need to be nodal centre working to coordinate the activities for better implementation.[The establishment of an action network should be communicated to the joint FAO/WHO Secretariat in writing by the convening country. The joint Secretariat will also disseminate the action network information, news and tools]

      Technical Support for implementation

      The Nutrition Decade will strive to improve synergies in the provision of technical assistance by governments and international organizations in the context of development aid, as well as by NGOs, philanthropic foundations and the UN system.

      In the backdrop of National vulnerability to nutritional insecurity, Governments is implementing various programmes and schemes for education, nutrition and health care for the women .To evaluate the efficiency of the Social Welfare Department’s various schemes of Ministry of Health and family welfare in improving the health and social status in children and women through qualitative and quantitative assessments based on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) could also be done. An online portal dash board showing the performance and achieved targets and key milestones with respect to each nutritional components can be taken up.

      Governance

      The Nutrition Decade will not seek to establish new structures but will facilitate broad consultation among stakeholders to seek alignment of priorities, policy instruments, and monitoring mechanisms.

      To have a Micro level planning framework for monitoring and  evaluation for the priority scheme/ area/district and ensure success in each plan is necessary.

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      Thanks for the opportunity to share and express our views.

      Since the Bali Action Plan arised out of COP-13 in December 2007 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) gained focus and are used in a number of ways to meet the requirements of climate change adaptation and mitigation.

      ICT revolution in India serves as a great support especially to the small and marginal farmers with information, input supplies and marketing. It also facilitates socio-economic development in rural India.

      The latest telecom policy also ensures improved broadband penetration in India. Some of the ongoing facilities of ITC in India are- e-choupal, e procurements, Kisan Kerala, Project Friends, Aaqua, Rice knowledge management portal, e Mitra, Lokavani,  e-krishi, Mahindra Kisan Mitra, IFFCO Agri-portal, Village knowledge centers (VKCs), village resource Advisories/centres (VRA/Cs)- Indian Space research organisation, etc. 

      Digital Inclusion of farmers, farms, their perceptions, concerns and needs, strategic intervention of ICT in farming systems etc has been launched in Indian agriculture as part of Climate SMART Village projects, however it can go a long way in our country to revive and make the agriculture ecosystem more resilient to climate variability and change.

       

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      I would like to add a few points to my contribution

      Cultivating pulses requires a mission mode initiatives not only on Climate Smart Crops  but Climate Smart Soils which is more sustainable and is the need for increases resilience to climate change, and improves ecosystem services.

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      For increasing agricultural growth through enhancement of production and productivity of crops; Government of India is implementing, through State Governments various Crop Development Schemes/ Programmes viz National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) etc.

      Pulses production in our country relies largely on rainfall as pulses are mostly grown in rainfed areas. Pulses witness huge fluctuations in prices depending upon rainfall. Even with lots of awareness programmes for promoting pulses, our country imports pulses to meet the gap between domestic production and demand. The Government promotes production of pulses through National Food Security Mission and pulses promotion programmes and announces Minimum Support Price (MSP) for pulses every year to support farmers. However MSP needed to be locally referenced as the many risks including climate related that the farmers are facing have local connotations. This will also encourage farmers to take up pulses production on a larger scale and will enable India to help achieve self-sufficiency in pulses in a few years.

      Even though Pulses have been in our traditionally diet, in the form of ‘Idly, Dosai, Vada (Snack), Sambhar (Vegetable Curry) , Kheers (Sweets), changing consumption patterns, the introduction of new snacks like breads etc. has paved ways for ignoring this rich nutritional seeds.

      Two very famous Pulses Delight recipes have been added here.

      Recipe for ‘Sukhiyan'

      - Put Green gram (Mung Bean) in the Pressure cooker with a pinch of salt by adding around 2 cups of water. 

      - Heat the Ghee in a heavy bottomed pan,

      - Add the grated coconut, mix well.

      - Add the cardamom powder and the green gram mix to the pan.

      - Saute it well for a couple of minutes and then remove from the stove.

       

      Recipe for  Green Gram Kheer (Parippu Pradhaman)

      Ingredients:
      Cherupayar Parippu/Moong dal: 200 gm
      Jaggery (sharkara): About 400 gms (increase or decrease according to your sweet tooth)
      Ghee: 1 heaped tsp.
      Thick coconut milk: 1 to 1 1/2 cups.
      Thin coconut milk: 3-4 cups.

      Dry roast spice garnish:
      Dry ginger/chukku: 1 small piece, lightly crushed.
      Cardamon: 10-15.
      Jeera: 1/2 tsp.

      Spice for seasoning:
      A tsp of rasins, cashewnuts, and about a handful of finely sliced coconut pieces
      One tsp of ghee for roasting.

      Method:

      - Heat a pressure cooker and add a heaped tsp of ghee ,Lightly roast the parippu and pour 3-4 cups of thin coconut milk into the cooker. Pressure cook for 5-6 whistles.

      - Meanwhile, put the jaggery into a deep bottomed pan, add 1/2 to 1 cup water and melt it. Once it boils, it will foam out, so pls stay close and once it boils, simmer and switch off the fire....allow it cool slightly and strain it into a metal strainer....this is to remove the dirt, if there are any. Incase if you are very sure that your jaggery is clean....just melt it in 1/2 cup water and keep aside

      - Open, the cooker and mash the green gram lightly, some like it really mashed up add the melted jaggery and mix well. Bring it to a boil and simmer it for 20-30 minutes....stirring all the while and taking care that it does not stick to the bottom.....melted jaggery will be reduced by half. While it is simmering away, dry roast the cardamon, jeera, and the dry ginger

      - Cut coconut pieces into thin strips. Powder the dry roasted spices. Add the thick coconut milk into the cooker, after adding the thick milk, do not allow it to boil as this might make it curdle....once it starts to boil switch of the fire and add the grounded spices. Finally, heat a tsp of ghee in another pan and fry the coconut pieces until they are lightly browned, then add the cashewnuts, and raisins..... Sprinkle them on top of the payasam. Kheer is ready.

       

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      As part of supporting the UN Decade we would like to focus on technical support in evaluating the efficacy of national and state governments schemes on nutritional improvement of children, lactating mothers, and old aged populations in our country.

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      First of all thank United Nations for the Decade of Action on Nutrition and for for the opportunity to express our views. In India, poverty eradication is our major challenge. The Article 47 of the Constitution of India states that, “the State shall regard raising the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people and improvement in public health. We have National Mission on Sustainable agriculture (NMSA) under National Action plan on climate change, and National Food Security Mission (NFSM) as the key missions to ensure food security. However our nutrition program also needs to be carried out in a mission/campaign mode as the “Global Nutrition Report 2016” once again demonstrates India’s slow overall progress in addressing chronic malnutrition. Despite having  National Pulses Development Project (NPDP) and National Food Security Mission  for pulses (NFSM-P) Even though we Have  Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) since 1975 and national coverage of the mid-day meal scheme since 1995,  the efficacy of this programmes needs to be frequently revisited through  time tested monitoring and evaluation techniques through multi-sectoral coordination. As in today’s world food consumptions pattern has changed, hence Policy level interventions such as providing tax benefits to restaurant that cater focused attention on nutritional stuffs will help in  larger reachability and meeting  objectives of UN-DAN.

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      I had the opportunity to be part of some of the Rapid Rural Appraisals on the Jasmine (Jasminum sambac, grandiflorum,auriculatum) farmer’s fields of the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, South India. Farmer’s had an opinion that the common pollinators like dwarf bees and butterflies are found only in sizable counts nowadays due to dry spells and extreme heats conditions in their areas. They pointed out that  the harsh scents of pesticides, could also be a reason behind this change. They have adopted intercropping with seasame, peanuts, and long beans was considered as the viable autonomous adaptation options by the farmers. There is training need for Sensitizing the farmers for maintaining Pollinator Friendly Farm lands through Farmers training Institutes or Krishi Vignan Kendras inorder to sustain the ecological balance and hence attracting more pollinators.

       It is very essential to take up more research activities and prioritize monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of climate change on pollinator distributions and their present status of pollinators in a scientific way and maintain Agriculture biological diversity especially a country like India which is a signatory for the Convention to Biological Diversity and in the context of thriving to achieve the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      It is to share a project which has strong women empowerment component at the grass root level

      Bringing back the traditional crop cultivation is carried out as a part of enhancing the coping capacity of the women farmers of the highly vulnerable tribal women farmers of Attappadi region of Kerala, South India, with the help of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). This initiatives rae done through the Neighbourhood Groups (NHG) of the Kudumbashree, a poverty eradication mission of the state of Kerala. Under this initiatives, native seed varieties of vegetables, millets and pulses sourced from the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) and the Desi Seeds Collective are distributed only to the women farmers. These activities are carried out under the Mahila Kisan Shashakthikarna Pariyojana (MKSP) of NRLM. It is proposed that the productivity under this cultivation will be used merely for the self-consumption of families which will take care of their nutritional demands and to prepare seeds for the next season.

    • Dr. Dhanya Praveen

      Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
      India

      Thanks for the opportunity. In recognition of its significance in the daily nutritional requirement of living beings, the organization of this forum in the International Year of Pulses demands great attention.

      In our country India, people have a larger dependence on pulses a food crop as well as cash crop. Due to failure of monsoon, climate change impacts,  the rates of pulses have gone up beyond imagination.

      1. As far as my working state Telangana (Newly formed State) - is concerned, even though it is a frequently drought hit region, people go in for cotton cultivation which is water intensive. During my field works, I could understand that it is very hard to make the communities follow our instructions and make them understand the need to change the existing mal cropping practices and shift to pulses crop from cotton, considering the need of the hour as part of the changing climate scenario. Capacity building on this aspect is very essential.

      2. It is highly essential for the scientific community to understand the physiology of the pulses crops (Green Gram, Red Gram, Black Gram )and develop more ( Crop Simulation model based ) scientific knowhow on the same as to anticipate the probable changes in crop responses due to likely changes in the climate .

      Thank you & Best regards,

      Link To New Publication

      http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147541#sec022

      http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NWT7pYGazj87fdemW5GB/full

      Dr.Dhanya Praveen, Ph.D.,
      Scientist, Climate Change Division
      Environmental Protection Training and Research Institute
      Gachibowli, Telangana-500032, India.