Horticulture For Nutrition Security

Malnutrition-under nutrition and imbalanced nutrition-is a major health problem in developing and developed countries. The recent National Health Survey-2005-06 says “India loses 2-3 per cent of its GDP every year due to undernutrition among children in the age group of up to two years”. According to the report “Nutrition in India” even among wealthy only about 7 percent children between 6 and 24 months receive adequate feeding, health care and environmental health. The FAO of the UN declared 2014 as year of family farming with the intention of making each family a farming unit to meet the nutritional requirement. The Indian National Science Academy focused on micronutrient security as priority for research and action. The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi released two policy papers related to organic farming and related approaches to make homesteads self sustainable. Being a sub-continent enjoying temperate, sub-tropical and tropical climate along with arid climate and a longer coastal eco-system India has the strength of biodiversity, traditional wisdom and adequate natural resources-soil, water and energy. “There is a horticultural remedy for every nutritional malady” says Prof. M.S. Swaminathan. Fruits, vegetables, spices and aromatic plants are the reservoirs of much needed fibre, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, lipids, flavourants, odourants and essential phyto-chemicals. Horticulture for Nutrition Security carries 21 chapters authored by 43 well known scientists. Four preambles are added to get the most authoritative information on Nutrition Security. The book has a FOREWORD by Prof. V.L. Chopra, Former Member, Planning Commission (Science) GOI and Former Director General ICAR New Delhi. The book is devoted to Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, the Father of Green Revolution for his commitment to make India hunger free by 2030.

Contents: Foreword. Preamble-I: Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN-2014. The State of Food and Agriculture-2014 in Brief: Innovations in Family Farming. Preamble-II: Micro-nutrient Security for India: Priorities for Research and Action Report by Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. Preamble-III: Policy Paper No. 30: Organic Farming: Approaches and Possibilities in the Context of Indian Agriculture Issued by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), New Delhi Preamble-IVPolicy Paper No. 7: Diversification of Agriculture for Human Nutrition Issued by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), New Delhi. Introduction. 1. Aetiology and Consequences of Malnutrition and Way Forward/Mahtab S. Bamji. 2. Economics of Family Farming 7 K.V. Peter, Binoo P. Bonny and A. Prema 3. Nutrition Garden in the Context of Nutritional Security/P. Indira and K.V. Peter 4. Good Agricultural Practices and Organic Farming (GAP and OF)/K.V. Peter, S.Nirmala Devi, P.G. Sadhankumar and T. Pradeepkumar. 5. Organic Spices/B. Suma and T. Pradeepkumar. 6. Vegetables and our Health 67 B. Singh, T.K. Koley and Aastik Jha 7. Advances in Plant Sciences for Nutritional Security/Mehanathan Muthamilarasan and Manoj Prasad. 8. Food Supplements to Complement Urban Food Security/K.V. Peter and Binoo Bonny. 9. Fertility Management for Horticultural Crops in Acidic Soils of Warm Humid Tropics/P. Sureshkumar and P. Geetha. 10. Chemistry of Macronutrients Fixation in Acidic Soils/B.B. Basak and Rajiv Rakshit. 11. Rootstocks for Abiotic Stress Management in Fruits/S.K. Mitra and T.K.S. Irenaeus. 12. Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Horticultural Crops/Anant Bahadur and Amit Kumar Singh. 13. Shelflife of Fruits and Vegetables-Interventions to Prolong/R.K. Pal and A. Maity. 14. Physiology of Spoilage of Temperate Fruits/Parshant Bakshi, Ganganpreet Kour and F.A. Masoodi. 15. Resistance to Abiotic Stress in Vegetables and Spices/K.V. Peter, S. Nirmala Devi, K. Nirmal Babu and P.G. Sadhankumar. 16. Azadirachtin: Its Structure and Insect Activity/Pathipati Usha Rani. 17. Nanotechnologies for Crop Production/J.C. Tarafdar. 18. Environment-Sensitive Male-Sterility in some Food Crops/K.B. Saxena and M. Bharathi. 19. Indigenous Leaf Vegetables/P.G. Sadhankumar, S. Nirmaladevi and K.V. Peter. 20. Potatoes for Nutritional Security/Brajesh Singh, B.P. Singh and Pinky Raigond. 21. Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) for Food and Nutrition Security/K.V. Peter and Binoo Bonny. Index.