Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar launched a Coffee Table Book today, along with Dr. Hameed Nuru, Representative and Country Director, UN World Food Programme in India, to commemorate five decades of partnership between the Ministry and the agency towards addressing food and nutritional security in India.Speaking at the event, Shri Tomar said “Given the importance of rural India and linkages of agriculture with multiple targets of Sustainable Development Goal 2 -the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare continues to play a critical role in achieving the collective target of ‘ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture’. Organisations like UN World Food Programme are prime partners of the Ministry in this endeavor”.
Addressing the gathering, Dr. Nuru said “WFP’s journey in India has been a long and successful one. It has been fortunate to witness significant positive changes in the food and nutritional security status of people, and substantial efforts made by the Government to address malnutrition. The successes achieved have been, in large part, due to the strong relationshipbetween Government of India and WFP, and the commitment of the Government and people of India towardsuplifting the nation — towards a better and brighter future”.The Coffee Table Book – 50 years of Partnership for Change- showcases key milestones achieved by the Government of India in its efforts to make the nation free from hunger and malnutrition and WFP’s role in this endeavour. Some of the major turning points in India’s journey towards food and nutrition security captured in the book include the Green Revolution, the White revolution, improvements in livestock and dairy development and digitization of food safety nets.