TURA, Oct 17: World Food Day, which falls on Sunday, October 16, this year, was celebrated on Monday by the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Community Science under the Central Agricultural University, Tura with an invited lecture from Chenxiang Rimchi Ch Marak, Senior Associate (Nutrition Unit), NESFAS.
During the programme, Marak spoke on the role of indigenous food in global food security as well as on the importance of preserving traditional knowledge and mapping of wild edible foods to address food security. She encouraged the students to identify locally available food items particularly greens to tackle the issues of stunted growth in children and anaemia in women as well as children. She also highlighted the work that NESFAS is carrying out throughout the State of Meghalaya and its neighbouring states.
Dr Jyoti V Vastrad, Dean of the College spoke on the significance of world food day celebration and topics such as hidden hunger and alarming statistics on malnutrition.
A kitchen garden set up by the students where vegetables such as tomatoes, brinjal and chillies were grown, was showcased by Dr Natasha R Marak, who also chalked up the programme.
According to Marak, the garden will be maintained by the students and once harvested will be used to augment their daily diets in keeping with this year’s theme of ‘Leave no one behind’, to ensure that every individual has access to nutritious food.
