“The Union Ministry of Health believes…. that there are five rats to every Indian. This means that the losses through rodents (of foodgrains) amount to 21.6 million tonnes per annum. This represents nearly 25 per cent of the total production. While this figure of losses…. seems to be too high in the light of the accepted totals of food output and the per caput availability, there can be no gainsaying the fact that the people as a whole have remained undernourished to a larger extent than had been assumed all these years.”
OCTOBER 22, 1966
Food for thought
WHEN THE COUNTRY IS SHORT OF FOODGRAINS, IT CANNOT afford to lose any of it, and most certainly not some lakhs of tonnes of them. The latest annual report of the Food and Agricultural Organisation suggests that rats in India eat away 4.3 million tonnes each year. The assumption is that a rat consumes 9 kilograms a year of foodgrains and the population of rats is equal to that of human beings. The Union Ministry of Health believes, on the contrary, that there are five rats to every Indian. This means that the losses through rodents, amount to 21.6 million tonnes per annum. This represents nearly 25 per cent of the total production. While this figure of losses suggested by the Ministry of Health seems to be too high in the light of the accepted totals of food output and the per caput availability, there can be no gainsaying the fact that the people as a whole have remained undernourished to a larger extent than had been assumed all these years. It is not, however, the arithmetic of the loss but the fact of it that matters, especially in these days of food distress. It is here that the F.A.O.’s guidelines deserve of immediate application. Losses through rodents can, according to the F.A.O., be removed through better sanitation and control measures with rodenticides as the chief instrument. To eliminate insects, micro-organisms and fungus, grains should be stored dry at temperatures below 15 centigrade. On the general question of storage facilities, the F.A.O. rightly emphasises that the type depends on cost-benefit ratio. For instance, rice can be stored in bulk rather than in bags only if large quantities of it pass through the silos. If this be not the case, storage in bags with its higher labour charges, greater spillage in packing, more difficult fumigation and additional costs in extra transport and on bags would still be economical enough. In any case, garnering the grain in proper storage is the obvious way for enlarging its per capita availability.
The F.A.O. report also contains interesting suggestions for enriching the quality of the foodgrain supplied to consumers in the developing countries. Taking rice as an instance, it lays bare the evil of malnutrition inherent in the preference for polished rice which is generally deficient in the B group of vitamins as well as of A and ascorbic acid. There is consequently the high incidence in these countries of protein-calorie deficiency diseases like beriberi, blindness and anaemia particularly in women of child-bearing age. The F.A.O. is aware of the fact that most rice eaters in the Near East and Far East cannot afford any appreciable quantities of supplementary foods like milk and fruits. The only way out is to enrich the rice itself either by preventing serious loss of its protein content or by making good the loss by chemical means where such loss is due to the polishing of rice.
The easier and cheaper method is to avoid protein losses in processing. Despite vigorous propaganda, home-pounded rice rich in protein has not been able to replace milled rice. It would be better under the circumstances to reduce milling to the minimum by replacing highly milled rice by milled parboiled rice and by reducing the amount of washing to which rice is subjected before cooking. The human palate in the developing countries does not appear to be willing to make even this minimum adjustment in food habits. There is therefore the need, in the interest of toning up nutritional standards, for enrichment of raw rice through highly artificial methods. In Haiti, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the premix” has been the weapon against beri-beri. Premix is highly milled rice impregnated (by spraying) with a solution of the requisite vitamins in the right concentration. Enriched rice in this case would consist of one part of promix with one ninety-nine part of the highly milled rice. The premix may conveniently be added in the rice-mill. Experience in the Philippines has revealed practical difficulties in organising, subsidising and enforcing enrichment regulations for this purpose in the mills. Perhaps if our housewives can take after the example set by their Japanese counterparts by doing all this at home themselves, the cost of this enrichment will be low enough as in Japan. The biggest obstacle is obvious of course – how are we going to supply the ingredients of the vitaminous solution to every household and how soon will the Indian housewife be prepared to learn and apply the process of spraying? To arrest malnutrition under these conditions people should be made to prefer as far as feasible parboiled rice while the schemes for improving the availability of protective foods at the cheapest possible prices should be helped to fructify early.
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I