After Gujarat, other states shift to fortified wheat flour

Inspired by Gujarat, over half-a-dozen other states have decided to provide fortified wheat flour in place of wheat grain through public distribution system (PDS) to check surging malnutrition rate.

“After the successful launch of the programme in Gujarat in 2006, over half-a-dozen other states have decided to provide nutritious fortified wheat flour instead of wheat grain,” President Roller Flour Millers Association of India President R K Garg said at a day-long workshop.

States other than Gujarat which have decided to go for fortification of wheat flour are– Punjab, Tamil Nadu,Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan.
The decision to shift to fortified wheat flour came in the wake of the Central government”s instruction to states in 2008 that at least 50 per cent of the wheat distributed through ration shops should be in the form of wheat flour, Garg said.

Concerned over increasing rates of malnutrition of about 70 per cent at national level, the government decided to add nutritional value in the food.

In Bihar and Madhya Pradesh the malnutrition percentage is above 80. The nutritional deficiency causes diseases like anemia, loss of fertility and eye vision.

Accordingly, micro-nutrients like iron, folic acid, Vitamin A and Vitamin B12 were mixed with the wheat grain during grinding process to prepare wheat flour, Garg said.

He said around 30 PPM (Particle Per Micro-nutrients) are added in a kg of wheat grain in the process of fortification of wheat flour, he added.

Speaking about advantages of wheat flour fortification, Principal Secretary, Gujarat, S K Nanda said in his speech that the government of the western state started the fortification of foodgrains with edible oil in 2005 and than extended it to wheat in 2006 to enrich the foodgrain.

Principal Secretary, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Bihar, Tripurari Sharan said the state government has decided to launch distribution of fortified wheat flour through PDS system on trial basis in two districts–Vaishali and Muzaffarpur.

This would be subsequently extended to other districts, he added. He said in place of 14 kg of wheat grain, the government has now decided to provide 13 kg of fortified wheat flour through PDS shops.

Sharan demanded that the Union government should provide subsidy to state governments for providing nutritional food security.

Ajay Naidoo, Chairman GAIN Board and former minister in Nelson Mandela government talked about successful successful example of fortified wheat flour made available in South Africa and over two dozen other countries.