India, already a country of billions would need enough grain to feed 394 million more people by the year 2050. Deficiencies caused by lack of or improper nutrition is already a huge problem in India, about 30 percent people are anemic and a lot of regions do not have enough water. A study done by the Earth Institute of Columbia University reports that India could tackle this problem if it would swap crops like rice- which is a type of thirsty crop- with crops which need less water and that would definitely help save water and help improve nutrition.
After the Green Revolution water demand, pollution from fertilizer dramatically increased and that has taken a huge toll on our environment. Kyle Davis, a research fellow at the Earth Institute of Columbia University and also the lead author of the study said, ” If we continue to go the route of rice and wheat, with unsustainable resource use and increasing climate variability, it’s unclear how long we could keep that practice up. That’s why we’re thinking of ways to better align food security and environmental goals.”
The research team analyzed six major grains that are currently cultivated in India- rice, wheat, sorghum, maize and pearl and finger millet. They compared factors like the yield, amount of water needed and the nutritional value of these crops. The team found out that rice consumed an extremely high amount of water and doesn’t rank too high on the nutritional scale too. If farmers in India were to switch to alternative crops like maize, finger millet or sorghum could drastically reduce the amount of water needed for irrigation purposes- a definite 33 percent and also mean a huge increase in iron and zinc production- 27 and 13 respectively.
In some cases the calorific value was lower than scientists expected but Davis thinks that further research will help find a solution to this problem and while the results of the research are encouraging, the team does not think that new policies should be introduced- yet. The team is planning to look deeper into other factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, expenditure to grow and harvest the crop. Davis and his colleagues also want to see if people would be willing to go ahead with this idea. “There are places around India where these crops continue to be consumed in pretty large amounts,” explains David, “and there were even more a generation or two ago, so it’s still within the cultural memory.”
The Public Distribution System (PDS) could also help in influencing farmers to grow these alternative crops. PDS currently subsidizes rice and wheat so that it can help and farmers and low- income households which depend on these crops but the government could encourage PDS to make these more nutritional alternative crops popular amongst people. It is to be noted that alternative grains have started to get more and more attention in India- with some states already commencing with programs to grow more such crops. “If the government is able to get people more interested in eating millets, the production will organically respond to that,” concludes Davis. “If you have more demand, then people will pay a better price for it, and farmers will be more willing to plant it.”