By TC News Desk

Agartala, May 13, 2022: To combat the micronutrient malnutrition in the North Eastern States, especially Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, the ICAR- Central Tuber Crops Research Institute is implementing “Rainbow Diet Campaign” – a nutrient-sensitive agriculture intervention for combating nutrient deficiencies through bioforified tuber crops and nutrition gardens under ICAR-CTCRI NEH Programme.

As a part of this programme, ICAR-CTCRI has signed an MoU with the MTTC&VTC, College of Fisheries, CAU(I), Lembucherra to scale-up bio-fortified tuber crops in Tripura state. Since micronutrient deficiencies like vitamin A and anaemia are considered as public health problem (over 20% prevalence among 5-9 age group), a nutrition-sensitive agricultural intervention strategy was formulated to combat these deficiencies in a natural way.

Under this collaborative effort, a Centralised Seed Production facility was created in the MTTC&VTC to manage the three-tier bio-fortified tuber crops planting material production system in Dalai, Sepahijala and Gomati districts of Tripura.

This facility was inaugurated by Dr. M.N. Sheela, Director, ICAR-CTCRI in the presence of Prof. Ratan Kumar Saha, Dean, College of Fisheries (Virtual) and Dr. Arun Bhai Patel, Professor  & Dean (i/c), College of Fisheries and a team from ICAR-CTCRI.

During the inauguration, Dr Sheela  informed that the biofortified sweet potato crops varieties such as Bhu Sona, Bhu Ja, Bhu Kanti, Sree Kanaka, Sree Arun (Orange Fleshed with β-Carotene) developed by ICAR-CTCRI have high potential to combat Vitamin A deficiency and there is a need to integrate them with local food systems through grassroot level interventions.

Dr Sheela stressed the importance of developing sustainable planting material production system at different levels to make these wonder varieties available to the vulnerable population.

During his virtual address, Dr. Saha stressed that the multi-stakeholder approach and institutionalising collaboration are the key strategies to address the micronutrient deficiencies, affecting children in Tripura. Dr Patel, in his address, has advocated a collaborative approach for addressing the fish value chain issues like high cost of feed, by developing cheap fish feed from tuber crops. Dr T. Makes Kumar, Principal Scientist stressed the need for supplying pest/disease-free planting materials to the farmers and suggested various strategies for ensuring quality at different stages of production.

During the meeting, Dr. P. Sethuraman Sivaumar, Team Leader & Principal Investigator of the project has elaborated the Rainbow Diet Campaign strategy followed in this scaling up intervention and how it addresses the malnutrition problem in Tripura. Dr. Mahesh B. Tengli, Team leader (MTTC&VTC Team) has welcomed the gathering, Dr. VK Naik, Assistant Professor, MTTC&VTC proposed vote of thanks and Dr Ashok Chettri, Assistant Professor and Head, and Dr Vijay Kumar, Assistant Professor MTTC has coordinated the programme.During the meeting, a Tuber Crops Information and Agri-Entrepreneurship Facilitation Centre created to support information and incubation needs of the agripreneurs farmers, small-scale industries and aspiring entrepreneurs, was also inaugurated. Thirty stakeholders participated in the programme.