Ihes
Initiative
for Health & Equity in Society
|
February 25, 2013
Dear Friends
Navdanya/ Research Foundation for Science, Technology and
Ecology (RFSTE)/Initiative for Health and Equity in Society (IHES), invite you
to a policy dialogue and interactive session on
India’s Zero Hunger
Challenge
An
Integrated Response to prevent Hunger,
Rural Debt and Depletion of
Natural Resources
on Tuesday, 19th
March 2013 at
Conference Room II (above the dining hall, main building, India International Center, 40 Max Mueller Marg, New
Delhi-110003. The meeting
will starts at 9.30 a.m.
India is facing a triple crisis in the food and agriculture
sector. The first crisis is the ecological crisis and the depletion of natural
capital of biodiversity, water and soil without which there can be no food
security. The second crisis is the agrarian crisis of rising debt and falling
rural income of which the most tragic expression is the 2,70, 000 farmers’
suicide. The third crisis is the crisis of hunger and malnutrition, with every
fourth Indian hungry, every third woman severely malnourished, every second
child wasted and stunted.
These three crises are inter related
and are different dimensions of an ecologically non sustainable and socially
unjust food and agriculture system. Unfortunately, the current policy response
to the three dimensions of a broken food system is fragmented and partial.
Ecological Sustainability has been totally ignored, even though IAASTD (International
Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development) and Navdanya’s research of 25 years
has shown that sustainable agriculture is more productive and hence the only
real solution to hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty. The issue of farmers’
livelihood is not being addressed. In fact, many policy initiatives that are
being proposed risk increasing the vulnerability of our peasants. The hunger
and malnutrition crisis is being addressed, but in a very partial and
fragmented way, without ensuring that the natural resources base is protected
and farmers’ sustainable livelihood ensured. Without protecting the ecological
and social base of food production, there can be no food security. If we
address malnutrition without addressing the sustainability of agriculture or
livelihood security of small and marginal farmers we will not have a lasting
and real solution to malnutrition.
India’s Zero Hunger Challenge is repairing the broken food
system by collectively evolving solutions that recognize the inter
connectedness between different dimensions of the food and agriculture crises
and offer integrated solutions. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon launched the
Zero Hunger Challenge at Rio+ 20 in June
2012.The Zero Hunger Challenge is an attempt to integrate different aspects
of the food system in removing hunger and poverty (See the attachment for the
details).
We hope your presence and participation on ‘India’s
Zero Hunger Challenge- An Integrated Policy to prevent Hunger, Rural Debt and
Depletion of Natural Resources’ will help us to look at the real and lasting
solutions for the food and agriculture crisis.
In Solidarity,
Dr Vandana Shiva
Dr Mira Shiva
Navdanya/RFSTE
Initiative for Health & Equity in Society (IHES)
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