Nutritional security of small and marginal farm families in gurgaon division haryana state (India)

India has been self sufficient in food production since seventies and low household hunger rates in rural and urban areas. India compares well with developing countries with similar health profile in terms of infant mortality rate and under five mortality rate. India fares poorly when underweight in fewer than five children is used as an indicator for nutritional insecurity with rates comparable to that of other countries. If wasting [low body mass index (BMI) for age in children and low BMI in adults] which is closely related to adequacy of current food intake is used as an indicator for the assessment of household food security, India fares better. The nineties witnessed the emergence of dual nutrition burden with persistent inadequate dietary intake and under nutrition on one side and low physical activity/food intake above requirements and over nutrition on the other side. The future of sustainable agriculture growth and food security in India depends on the performance of small and marginal farmers. So there are also concerns on nutritional security and livelihoods. The study was conducted in Gurgaon division of Haryana state and two districts from Gurgaon division i.e. Rewari and Mahendragarh were selected randomly. From selected two blocks Jatusana and Kanina, four villages (two from each block) Dahina and Maseet from Jatusana and Kakrala and Rambas from Kanina were selected randomly. From the selected villages a sample of 75 small and marginal farm families from was drawn randomly to make the total sample size of 300 farm families. The results depicted that consumption of cereals (WMS 5.00, Rank I) followed by milk and milk products (WMS 4.76, Rank II), Vegetables (WMS 4.39, Rank III), pulses (WMS 1.45, Rank IV) and fruits (WMS 1.45, Rank V) respectively.