Author Description

Malnutrition in India, particularly among women, children and adolescents is an emergency that needs immediate attention in this fast growing and developing country. Micronutrient deficiencies are threatening public health in India more and more. Deficiencies of micronutrients drastically affect growth, metabolism and reproductive phase in humans as it does in plants and animals. Cereal and pulse based Indian diets are qualitatively deficient in micronutrients such as iron, calcium, vitamin A and zinc. This is due to a low intake of income-elastic protective foods such as pulses, vegetables, fruits, and foods of animal origin. It is presumed that if we restore the geographical connection between food production and consumption in local food networks it will help in solving this nutritional problem in India. This offers new opportunities to tailor science & technology to location specific patterns of food production and consumption, which may lead to environmentally and socially sustainable agriculture. Despite global pressure (including from science and technology) to focus agricultural cultivation on a limited number of food crops, still many so-called orphan crops like mungbean do exist and are cultivated in location-specific crop rotation systems. Particularly, the seed legumes are of major nutritional importance, especially in developing countries, because they have high protein contents of good biological value. Out of the total sales of mungbean, about half of the sales are within the village which clearly establishes the need for development of infrastructure and facilities at the village level to serve the interests of the farm households. Moreover, it is also necessary to shift the focus of development from the urban market centres (largely developed) to the rural market centres. Linking breeding, nutrition, processing and standardisation of food products, may be designed within the experimental framework of empowering poor farmers. Hence, tailoring plant,