The objectives of the initiative are promoting nutritional awareness, education and behavioural change in rural areas involving farm women

A programme on Nutrition Smart Village will be initiated to strengthen the Poshan Abhiyan. The new initiative aims to reach out to 75 villages across India through the network of All India Coordinated Research Project on Women in Agriculture (AICRP-WIA) which is in operation at 13 centres in 12 states of India besides the coordinating institute located at Bhubaneswar. The information was provided by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar while addressing an event organised by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research in New Delhi.

Under the initiative, a total of 75 villages will be adopted by AICRP centres and ICAR-CIWA, for which the AICRP centres will adopt five villages each with the remaining to be adopted by ICAR-CIWA with an aim to develop 75 Nutri-Smart villages.

The objectives of the initiative 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-garden.

During the event, Tomar released three publications. The publications are Technology profile of food products, Work participation and women in agriculture in India and Gender-Sensitive Agri-Horti Cropping System Model for addressing livelihood nutrition and entrepreneurship.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Kailash Choudhary and Shobha Karandlaje, Secretary, Agriculture, Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, DARE, Dr Trilochan Mohapatra also addressed the event.