Challenge of Nourishing Agri-led India: A State-wise Analysis

This study has brought forth a crucial dimension of food security by looking into the economic factors having linkages with nutritional outcomes of Agri-led India's food security. The study is based exclusively on the secondary data sourced from the Reports of National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) conducted under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The focus of the study has been narrowed down to 17 states of India, which have a combined population of 1.105 billion and account for 94.8 per cent of India's domestic product. To arrive at a state-wise measure of malnutrition, a normalized malnu-trition index was constructed combining the indicators of under-nutrition among the children under five years of age and adults in the age group of 15 to 49 years. The notable differences have been observed in the concentration of child malnutrition along the states, rural-urban areas, male-female and caste divides. The state of Madhya Pradesh has emerged as the worst performer in terms of anthropometric indicators of malnutrition. The extent of geographical variations in malnutrition levels enunciated by the study, calls for the state-specific action plans to combat malnutrition with need-based prioritized targeting.