Lok Sabha Question No. 1054 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-08
Subject: Nutrition Smart Village Programme
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Ramesh Chandra Majhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1054

TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.12.2023

## NUTRITION SMART VILLAGE PROGRAMME

## 1054. SHRI RAMESH CHANDRA MAJHI

Will the Minister of Women & Child Development be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  strengthen  the  POSHAN  Abhiyaan through the Nutrition Smart Village programme in the country;
- (b) if so, whether the Government proposes to identify  villages across the country through the Network of All India Coordinated Research Project on Women in Agriculture (AICRP-WTA);
- (c) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  criteria  fixed  for  selection/identification  of villages for the said purpose;
- (d) whether the Government has evaluated the initiative before its launch in the country; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and the outcome of such evaluation and the extent to which such initiatives have strengthened India's campaign against malnutrition?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

- (a). The  Nutri-Smart  Village  programme  was  launched  by  Hon'ble  Agriculture Minister  on  10  November  2021  which  is  being  carried  out  by  ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar  along  with  its  13  AICRP  on  Women  in  Agriculture  Centres.  The Government  has  already  implemented  the  Nutri-Smart  Village  Programme  in  75 adopted villages which has also helped in strengthening the POSHAN Abhiyan.  The Nutri  Smart  Village  programme  will  help  in  achieving  the  nutritional  goals  and ultimately strengthen the POSHAN Abhiyan campaign.
- (b). To  commemorate  with  the  75th  Independence  of  India  a  programme  on 'Nutrition Smart Village' was initiated to strengthen the POSHAN Abhiyan. This new initiative aimed to reach out 75 villages across India through the network of AICRP on Women in Agriculture in 13 States and 23 districts of India as under:
- (c). The data from 4th and 5th NFHS identified three underlying factors for child under nutrition i.e., poor access to food, poor women's health and child care practices, and poor health and environment. Hence, the economically backward villages or the villages  having  more  small  and  marginal  farm  land  holdings  as  well  as  nutritional problems  have  been  selected  for  implementing  various  interventions  under  Nutri Smart Village programmes with the focus on cultivation of bio-fortified grains, millet, fish, poultry, vegetables, Mushroom, Nutrition & Health education, Capacity building programmes etc.

| Sl. No.   | Name of the AICRP Centre   |   Number of Villages to be Adopted |
|-----------|----------------------------|------------------------------------|
| 1.        | CCSHAU, Hissar             |                                  5 |
| 2.        | PAU, Ludhiana              |                                  5 |
| 3.        | UAS, Bangalore             |                                  5 |
| 4.        | UAS, Dharwad               |                                  5 |
| 5.        | MPUAT, Udaipur             |                                  5 |
| 6.        | PJTSAU, Hyderabad          |                                  5 |
| 7.        | GBPUAT, Pantnagar          |                                  5 |
| 8.        | VNMKV, Parbhani            |                                  5 |
| 9.        | AAU, Jorhat                |                                  5 |
| 10.       | CSKHPKV, Palampur          |                                  5 |
| 11.       | TNAU, Madurai              |                                  5 |
| 12.       | CAU, Tura                  |                                  5 |
| 13.       | RPCAU, Pusa                |                                  5 |
| 14.       | ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar     |                                 10 |
|           | Total                      |                                 75 |

Selection Criteria for the Villages

Key indicators for selection of villages were:

- Nutritional status (Poor consumption pattern and low dietary intake): Identification of  the  nutrition  issues  based  on  data  obtained  by  regular  national  monitoring  and surveillance of the consumption pattern, dietary intake and nutritional status of the population conducted by Primary Health Centres.
- Accessibility of the villages : The villages should be located within 50 KMs radius from the implementing organization for regular monitoring.
- Prevalence  of  mono-cropping  and  low  crop  diversification :  Scope  for  crop diversification increases the dietary diversity at household level with an aim to reduce incidence of malnutrition.
- Non-existence or non-overlapping : It didn't overlap with any other nutrition-based programme by other government and non-government agencies.
- Scope  for  conducting  nutrition  awareness  programme :  It  was  conducted  at individual as well as household levels through methods like trainings, demonstrations,

health  camps,  Focus  Group  Discussions  on  issues  like  malnutrition,  anaemia, balanced diets, related health illness etc.

(d) & (e).    The objectives of the development of Nutri-Smart Villages are promoting nutritional awareness, education and behavioural change in rural areas involving farm women and school children, harnessing traditional knowledge through the local recipe to  overcome  malnutrition  and  implementing  nutrition-sensitive  agriculture  through homestead agriculture and Nutri-gardens. In this context, a total of 2500 nutri-gardens and 90 nutri-farming were established under Nutri-Smart Village programme as per the needs of the farming community, available resources and market preferences for promoting  gender  friendly Nutritional Enhancement,  Livelihood  Upliftment  and Entrepreneurship Development. A key plank of Mission POSHAN 2.0 is to enable the right kind of nourishment through Poshan Vatikas or nutri-gardens that are being set up across the country to provide easy and affordable access to fruits, vegetables, medicinal  plants  and  herbs.  To  encourage  diet-diversity  and  consumption  of wholesome local produce, around 6.4 lakh Poshan Vatikas have been developed at or near AWCs.

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