INDIA / FOOD SECURITY BILL

India’s parliament passed a food security bill making it one of the largest welfare schemes in the world. About 800 million people will be guaranteed subsidized food. (IFAD)

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:23
• Production Date: 26 August 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT - IFAD
• Subject Topical: AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; FISHING; NUTRITION
• Geographic Subject: INDIA
• MAMS Id: U130826f

Description

STORY: INDIA / FOOD SECURITY BILL
TRT: 2.23
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / TAMIL / NATS

DATELINE: 9-15 AUGUST 2013, KOLLI HILLS, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

Shotlist

9-15 AUGUST 2013, KOLLI HILLS, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

1. Pan right, various types of minor millets
2. Med shot, little millet variety
3. Close up, finger millet variety
4. Wide shot, woman farmer in millet field
5. Close up, hands weeding in millet field
6. Wide shot, Malliga Seerangan drying millet
7. Close up, drying millet
8. Wide shot, Malliga eating millet dish with her family
9. Close up, child’s hand in plate of millet
10. Close up, Malliga eating
11. SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Mallliga Seerangan:
“Nowadays we’ve started eating millet. That’s why we’re going to hospital less and our children are also growing very healthy.”
12. Wide shot, woman farmer fertilising millet field
13. Close up, hand dropping fertiliser
14. Close up, seed distribution in seed bank
15. Med shot, Malliga receiving seeds at seed bank
16. Wide shot, Malliga and men sowing seeds with row making machine
17. Med shot, Malliga sowing seeds
18. Close up Malliga sowing seeds
19. Med shot, Malliga and man pulverising millet in mill
20. Med shot, Malliga pouring millet
21. Close up, man’s hands checking flour
22. Wide shot, Malliga and others packing Kolli Hills Brand
23. Close up, Kolli Hills Brand on scale
24. Wide shot, Kolli Hills Natural Food Shop
25. Med shot, customer in shop
26. Close up, customer paying money
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr E.D. Israel Oliver King, Principal Scientist. M S Swaminathan Research Foundation:
“The State will pay and the farmer will directly get the benefit, a fair price they can get it through this process and this will really help the farmers to continue to cultivate these millets.”

15 AUGUST 2015, CHENNAI, INDIA

28. Wide shot, Professor M.S. Swaminathan at his desk
29. Close up, Professor Swaminathan’s face
30. SOUNDBITE (English): Professor M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation:
“I’m very happy because I see the fulfilment of a mission. The mission was not just for millets alone. The mission was for sustainable food security. That means sustainable livelihoods of our people.”

9-12 AUGUST 2013, KOLLI HILLS, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

31. Tilt up from Malliga pouring millet in bowl
32. Med shot, Malliga stirring millet in bowl
33. Med shot silhouette of Malliga stirring millet in bowl

Storyline

India’s parliament passed a food security bill today (26 August) making it one of the largest welfare schemes in the world. About 800 million people will be guaranteed subsidized food.

According to the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, which has been promoting the revitalisation of millet farming since the early 1990s, minor millets could be the answer to India’s food security problems.

With up to 30 times more calcium than rice, high amounts of iron, fibre and micronutrients, these millets are far more nutritious than their replacement staples rice and wheat. With more than one third of the world’s malnourished children living in India, eating millet could make a big difference. Farmer, Malliga Seerangan, noticed a change when her family started eating these millets.

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Mallliga Seerangan, farmer:
“Nowadays we’ve started eating millet. That’s why we’re going to hospital less and our children are also growing very healthy.”

Millets are also very hardy crops. They need little water and can grow without irrigation or synthetic fertilisers. Unlike wheat, they can withstand a two degree change in temperature, making them far more resilient to climate change.

The M S Swaminathan Foundation and Bioversity International, with funding from the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the European Commission, have been working with farmers in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to encourage a return to cultivating and consuming millets.

They set up village seed banks to conserve and provide quality seeds, ran trainings in new farming methods, provided mills to reduce the drudgery of processing the millets and commissioned a chef to develop new millet recipes to encourage people to eat them. Malliga and other women farmers in the village decided to commercialise their favourite recipes and they created the Kolli Hills Brand of millet products which are now sold across Tamil Nadu state.

But nationally, the millets market is still very limited, which is why the Food Security Bill will make an enormous difference to these farmers. The Bill legislates for the provision of subsidised food for the country’s poorest people. It has listed minor millets as one of the types of crop the government will be procuring for distribution.

M S Swaminathan Foundation’s Principal Scientist, Dr Oliver King, explained:

SOUNDBITE (English) Dr E.D. Israel Oliver King, Principal Scientist. M S Swaminathan Research Foundation:
“The State will pay and the farmer will directly get the benefit, a fair price they can get it through this process and this will really help the farmers to continue to cultivate these millets.”

The Government of India has traditionally promoted only rice and wheat. The founder of the Foundation, Professor M.S. Swaminathan, was instrumental in getting millets included in the Bill.

SOUNDBITE (English): Professor M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation:
“I’m very happy because I see the fulfilment of a mission. The mission was not just for millets alone. The mission was for sustainable food security. That means sustainable livelihoods of our people.”