Promoting dietary diversity through Nutri-Food-Basket and nurturing nutri-sensitive local food-systems

    Priyanka, D and Aravazhi, S and Afari-Sefa, V (2026) Promoting dietary diversity through Nutri-Food-Basket and nurturing nutri-sensitive local food-systems. Working Paper. ICRISAT, Hyderabad.

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    Global Research Program - Enabling Systems Transformation

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    Abstract

    Malnutrition and anaemia remain major public health challenges in India’s tribal regions. To address these issues, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) launched the Nutri-Food Basket (NFB) project in Telangana in 2017, promoting sustainable, food-based nutrition using locally accepted millet- and pulse-based products. Following community consultations, ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat foods were developed and distributed through 157 anganwadi centres to approximately 5,000 children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers over nine months. The intervention combined supplementary feeding with nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene awareness, resulting in reduced wasting, stunting, and undernutrition, alongside improved haemoglobin levels. Building on these outcomes, the programme expanded through the Giri Poshana initiative, reaching over 29,000 beneficiaries across multiple districts. Women-led enterprises were established to locally produce the food products, strengthening livelihoods and food systems. The programme has evolved into a scalable, nutrition-sensitive value chain model integrating agriculture, nutrition, entrepreneurship, and government support, with potential for adaptation in Africa through South-South cooperation.

    Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
    Divisions: Global Research Program - Enabling Systems Transformation
    CRP: UNSPECIFIED
    Series Name: Enabling Environment success and failure stories
    Uncontrolled Keywords: food systems, nutrition, food security, value chains
    Subjects: Others > Food and Nutrition
    Others > Food Security
    Others > Value Chains
    Depositing User: Mr Nagaraju T
    Date Deposited: 07 Aug 2026 06:06
    Last Modified: 07 Aug 2026 06:06
    URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/13654
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