In many low- and lower-middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where mixed crop-livestock farming is widely practiced, livestock keeping provides income, food, nutrition and other benefits for the rural poor.

According to the latest FAO report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world (1), more than 720 million people faced hunger, and around 3 billion people did not have access to a healthy diet.

We hear a growing chorus of warnings from members of the food and nutrition security community about the dire consequences of the war in Ukraine on global rates of hunger and malnutrition.

On July 15, the Centre issued a notification moving power tillers (PT) and their components from the “free” to “restricted” category indicating a clear intent to provide protection to the domestic industry.

India has the world’s highest number of undernourished children and the largest school-feeding programme – the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme – but limited evidence is available on the intergenerational impact of the programme.

Introduced in 2013, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) brought about fundamental reforms in the public distribution system (PDS) and most importantly, declared a legal ‘right to food’.

Despite the will, many developing countries lack the resources to deal with a problem that ravages at both the national and individual level. We need smarter, context-specific solutions on nutrition that can catalyze sustainable change.

The 2020 farm laws have been opposed by several farmers due to their possible use for corporate takeover of agriculture, removal of APMC mandis, and dilution of minimum support price and public procurement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions of social interactions, affecting both the supply and demand for food. These disruptions to jobs, income and food supply magnified and exacerbated existing inequalities.

Possibly even more than a public health crisis, Covid-19 is an economic crisis manifested most severely in the labour market. In the face of the pandemic, the structure of the labour market typifies the extreme vulnerability of workers in India.

Data and the building of country-level data-related capacity is central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In 2014, the Global Nutrition Report called for a “Nutrition Data Revolution” (IFPRI, 2014).

India’s Covid-19 mitigation efforts should be to prevent child undernutrition now rather than to treat it later.

Agriculture in India needs to get the markets right, in the first place. Only then can the raising of farmers’ incomes to a reasonable level become a reality. Across space or over time, farmers should be able to trade freely with certainty.

There are several lessons to learn from the experiments in the past, like the repeal of APMC in Bihar and the institution of e-NAM, which have elements of the current farm acts.

The MSP system, in place since the mid-1960s, was part of the country’s drive to reduce dependence on food imports.

In his 2019 book “Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crises and Change”, Jared Diamond starts by interrogating the word ‘crisis’.

While ensuring food and economic security for the poor is obviously a high priority, we cannot ignore the clear linkage between unhealthy diets and the severity of the pandemic.

In Ethiopia, the average person eats just 42kg of fruit and vegetables per year. This is far below the WHO recommendation of 146kg per year. Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals, vital for our body.