Entry #3: September 12-16, 2011

Nutritional issues in India

          This is week in class, we covered information pertaining to nutrition in India. Our class discussions and readings included the history and present implications of the Green Revolution, the cycling of nutrients through the environment, and current trends in urban nutrition. As a large, developing country, India is faced with the challenge of providing enough food to its burgeoning population. Part of this challenge includes not only producing enough food, but also producing quality foods so that the population is properly nourished. Additionally, the pressure to produce large quantities of food can lead to resorting to agricultural practices that can harm the environment. It is interesting to examine how India walks the fine line of providing enough food for its population while maintaining the integrity of the environment.

          The Green Revolution was the brainchild of Norman Borlaug, an agro scientist who developed a new string of wheat in Mexico in the 1940s. This new wheat strain was able to be produced in high yields, resisted disease, and was able to flourish in arid climates. Most importantly, this wheat strain was shorter and more compact than the naturally occurring grains in Mexico. This meant that the new “dwarfed” strain of wheat did no suffer from the weight-induced falling problem of the taller, top-heavy, natural wheat strains. As a result of the development of this new wheat strain, wheat production in Mexico increased by a factor of four. It comes as no surprise that when India was facing nationwide famine in the 1960s, the prime minister of agriculture turned to Borlaug for help.

          In addition to incorporating this new strain of wheat, India initiated an overhaul of the existing agricultural system by establishing fertilizer and pesticide factories to produce substances that would help the plants grow and protect them from insect damage and expanding the irrigation system to produce enough water to accommodate the increased plant production (Swaminathan, 2010). As a supplement to the technical changes made in the agricultural system, agricultural universities were also established in an effort to educate farmers on how to obtain the maximum yields from their crops. The new technologies and strategies of the Green Revolution was able to ameliorate the effects of the food shortage of the 1960s by substantially increasing food production throughout the nation. Eventually, the rate of agricultural production outpaced the rate of economic growth, and the government accumulated a surplus of food.

          Although the Green Revolution was instrumental in alleviating the food shortage problem, this agricultural explosion was not without its negative side effects. One of these side effects was the alteration of the cycling of nutrients. As it turned out, the same fertilizers that were responsible for such a marked increase in agricultural output were also to blame for ecological damage and increased health risks via excessive nutrient input into the environment. The fertilizers used in to spur the intense agricultural growth of the Green Revolution were rich in nitrates and phosphates. As I discussed in my second blog entry, nitrates cause a host of health problems for humans. The nitrates in the fertilizer applied to the crops enter the soil, interact with irrigation water, and make their way into the ground water, which is then consumed by humans and can lead to health issues (Townsend et al., 2003). The increased nitrate and phosphate input into the environment by fertilizer use also results in the eutrophication of bodies of water, which results in algal blooms that are harmful to animals living in the area and thus results in the reduction the biodiversity of the region (Filippili, 2008). The continual use of nitrate fertilizers has also reduced the fertility of the soils by increasing the acidity of the soil (Townsend et al., 2003).

          Ultimately, the Green Revolution was a positive thing for India. This revolution increased food production and alleviated hunger across the nation. However, the liberal use of fertilizers has lead to environmental degradation and the presentation of human health problems. Fertilizers are useful in helping produce food for hungry countries, but they must be used in moderation to prevent ecological and biological issues.

          In present day India, food security remains a major issue. By virtue of its large population size, India is not able to rely on world trade to meet to import sufficient amounts of food and must instead focus on domestic production to meet all of its sustenance needs. However, population size is not the source of India’s current food insecurity; the poor distribution system of produced food leads to unequal distribution of produce and results in pockets of the population suffering from hunger (Swaminathan, 2010). Networks of public distribution centers like those found in Tamil Nadu need to be incorporated across the nation to ensure that everyone in India has readily available access to food. These centers provide communal sources of subsidized food, which can be more readily obtained by members of the vulnerable, low-income members of the population (Swaminathan, 2010).

          There is also an interesting nutritional transition occurring in the urban areas of India. In these locations, an increased consumption of animal products, sugars, and fats has been observed. This transition to eating foods with higher fat content, coupled with the decreased physical activity levels associated with the urban lifestyle, has resulted in a greater prevalence of obesity. The upper class urban residents are more likely to be obese than lower class residents (Shetty, 2002). I found this trend interesting in light of the fact that in the United States, it is the lower class urban residents who are more likely to be obese since the only foods that they can afford are high in fat.

          India is an interesting case study in large-scale food production. This large, growing nation has experienced multiple opportunities to develop strategies for feeding its hungry population. It will be interesting to see whether the nutritional transition will spread from the urbanized center into the rural areas and if India will be able to more effectively distribute food to its population.    

           

          

References:

Filippelli, G. M., (2008). The Global Phosphorus Cycle: Past, Present, and Future. Elements. 4:89-95.

Shetty, P.S. (2002). Nutrition transition in India. Public Health Nutrition: 5(1A), 175-182.

Swaminathan M. (2010). Population and Food Security. In S. Kumar, P. Panda & R.Ved (Eds.). Handbook of Population and Development. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Swaminathan M.S. (2010). Beyond the Green Revolution. In M.S. Swaminathan’s, From Green to Evergreen Revolution: Indian Agriculture: performance and Challenges. New Delhi: Academic Foundation.

Townsent et al., (2003). Human Health Effects of a Changing Global Nitrogen Cycle, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 1(5): 240-246.