Prime Minister is right now declared that this is a nutrition month. See, if nutrition

has to happen, the most important thing is the soil has to be rich. I know we will think

of midday meals, we will think of giving them be complex tablets and this and that, but

that's all fine. That is all needed as an emergency measure because we have the largest

nutrient deficient population in the world right now, but that can easily change by changing

the soil quality. So, in terms of nutrition, the human nutrition is very connected to the

richness of the soil in a very big way. That is from, you know, like some of the studies

show that from 1999, from 1950 to 1999, 43 different vegetables and fruits, a significant

decline in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin that is mainly vitamin B2 and

vitamin C over the past half a century has happened, a significant decline. Some of the

studies in India show in the last 25 years, the nutrients and the micronutrients in the

vegetables that we are eating today is 40% less than what it was 25 years ago. So, because

of this vegetarian diet, slowly everybody is declaring is no good. When all the western

doctors and countries are declaring, you must eat fresh vegetables, in India doctors

are suggesting you must eat meat, otherwise there is no nourishment. Well, there is unfortunate

reality in this, the vegetarian meals that we are eating do not have enough nourishment.

This is simply because the necessary organic content and richness of the soil is missing,

what should be minimum 2% organic content has come to 0.5%. Without agroforestry, I don't

see a solution as to how we will provide nutrition for this nation. Nutrition does not just

mean giving them extra vitamin pills and iron pills and zinc pills and all this stuff. We

need to enrich the soil. Enriching the soil must become part of the nutrition mission. Now

that this month has been declared as a nutrition month, which is a very, very important focus

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