Agriculture Food Security Nutrition and Health in North East India

Contents: Acknowledgement. Introduction. I. Agriculture, food and food security: 1. Agriculture, food and public distributing system in North-East India/J.B. Ganguly. 2. WTO and agricultural development in backward regions/A.K. Neog. 3. Agrarian developments and food security in the North-East region/A.C. Mohapatra. 4. Food security policy and practice/Asok Kumar Ray. 5. Agricultural backwardness and poverty of North-East India--an alternative proposition/Banhi Chakraborty and C.R. Pathak. 6. Foodstuffs and population of North-East India/Rituparna Bhattacharyya. 7. Surplus of food or hunger--an analytical note on food security in India and its North-East/Gorky Chakraborty. 8. Strategy for food and nutrition security in North-East India/Zahid Husain. 9. Food production, food problem and public distribution system in North-East India/B.K. Sarma and P.P. Pal. 10. Food and related issues in the North-East/Sukhendu Mazumder. 11. Role of agricultural mechanization in achieving food security/R.K.P. Singh, K.K. Satapathy and M.M. Pandey. 12. Food and nutritional security in the North-Eastern States--an analysis/R.K.P. Singh, K.K. Satapathy and Gurmukh Das. 13. Interrogating the concept of food security--with reference to Assam/Keya Sen Gupta. 14. Food security and the related issues--some reflections on the state of Tripura/Utpal Kumar De. 15. Food and food security in Arunachal Pradesh/R.P. Bhattacharjee. 16. An aspect of food security on the High Altitude Region of the Eastern Himalayas--a case study on the Thingbu-pas of Arunachal Pradesh/Bibhash Dhar. 17. Food security--a case study of Assam/Susmita Priyadarshini. 18. Effectiveness of Targeted Public Distribution System--a case study of Silchar Town of South Assam/Keya Sen Gupta. 19. Spatial distribution and socio-economic well being of Scheduled Tribe population in Assam/Momita Goswami and Lakhahira Datta. 20. Production of Agricultural crops and its security in Manipur/Rajmani Singh. 21. The food problem and PDS in India--national and state scenario/N. Tejmani Singh. 22. Food security and regional planning/Amalesh Banerjee. 23. North-Eastern India, 2021, population growth, food-grain requirement and food security--related issues/Dulal Bhuiyan. 24. Food and nutrition security--an overview Madhurima Chaliha Kalita, Mridula Saikia Barrooah and Mamoni Das. 25. Scarcity and insecurity in the food front in Kokrajhar District with special reference to the Serfanguri Bodo Relief Camp/Sujata Bhadra. II. Nutritional security, nutrition and health: 26. Nutrition and food insecurity--a problem of new millennium in North-East India/P.C. Dutta and B.C. Pradhan. 27. Under-utilized crops for household food and nutritional security/B.K. Sarma and Malini Barthakur. 28. Opportunities for processing and utilization soybean to increase nutritional security in North-East India/R.K.P. Singh and K.K. Satapathy. 29. A study on knowledge of rural women regarding conservation of nutrients/Rulima Bharali, Juliana Sarmah and Manju Dutta Das. 30. Nutritive value of maize and its diversified uses/D.K. Verma and B.K. Sarma. 31. Nutrient consumption pattern in North-Eastern states of India/S.B. Singh, K.K. Datta, K.B. Singh and K.H.N. Vincent. 32. Food habit and nutritional deficiency among the Schedule Caste population in Kamrup District of Assam/Momita Goswami Barooah and Lakshahira Datta. 33. Medical biotechnology in human health and disease in North-Eastern India--a commitment towards the Betterment of society/R.S. Balgir. 34. Health as governmentality deconstructing the myth of good health--a case study of the North-Eastern region of India/B.S. Butola. 35. Nutritional anthropometric assessment of nutrients' intakes in the Dimasa Kachari Adult population of Assam/Debashis Basu. 36. Anthropometrical study among the agricultural workers of Meghalaya/S. Biswas, K.K. Satpathy, R.K.P. Singh, K.N. Agarwal and P. Choudhury. 37. Effects of nutritional status on fertility and mortality among Slum Women of Guwahati/Kanta Chakrabarti. Index.

"According to current statistics and estimates, approximately 36 per cent of the people of North-East India are below the poverty level. In Meghalaya, for instance, 50 per cent of the households are below the poverty level. This, according to the editors of this volume, implies that those who live below poverty level are unable to buy enough food. In almost all the states of North-East India the availability of all the food items taken together are much below the standard as recommended for a healthy life.

The immediate objective of policy makers and official agencies is, thus, to make standard food available to the people. Unfortunately, this remains uncertain in North-East India, and the situation is alarming. A natural corollary of this situation is widespread nutrition deficiency and at least 250 million people in India suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition: out of 100 deaths in rural India, 58 are of children and seven million children are affected by blindness because of nutrition deficiency. The picture of North-East India is dismal in this context.

In view of the above state of affairs the public distribution system has an important role which has, so far, failed to reach the target groups in the countryside. This volume contains 37 papers from eminent experts on aspects of public distribution system, the overall agricultural scenario, food security, nutritional security and the related population and health issues in different parts of North-East India.

Some case studies of various constituents of the region throw adequate light on the existing conditions and are useful in finding solutions to the very acute problems in North-East India in the context of the issues covered by this comprehensive book." (jacket)