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by Jana Fortier, Ph.D.
Introduction
In the last few decades, the numbers of people globally who are chronically hungry has been decreasing. Today however, about 9% of people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger. With this many people, roughly 800 million people worldwide are underfed and malnourished and have a chronically unhealthy amount of nutrients.
Many of these people live in South Asia. In India & Bangladesh, there's an average lack of about 100 kcal/day/person. Pakistanis average a lack of 175 kcal/day/person. Nepalis lack an average of 50 kcal/day/person, while Sri Lankans lack about 200 kcal/day/person.
Data from https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment
To make matters more difficult, climate change threatens future food production. While there are many issues, one fix is to plant crops which have adapted to local conditions over thousands of years. In South Asia, local native cultivars tend to use less water and other resources compared to introduced crops. Millets, like Barnyard millet, have traditionally been used as a nutrient-rich subsistence crop.
Echinochloa ‘Barnyard millet’ (Local names jhangora, sama)
is being displaced by introduced species – corn, rice, wheat, etc.
To learn more, read some of our students' thoughts in their various blogs... - Jana Fortier
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