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Food security and climate change are the two most important problems we face: Dr MS Swaminathan

Under the title ‘ Food for all in the anthropocene era', the three-day long congress that concludes on Saturday, February 18, aims to address issues with respect to food security and nutrition .

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“Food security and climate change are the two most important problems that our young people need to focus on in the next few years,” said the father of green revolution in the country Dr MS Swaminathan on Thursday through a video message that was played at the 8th Indian Youth Science Congress held by the MS Swaminathan Research foundation, Chennai in collaboration with the University of Mumbai. 

The inaugural event of the congress took place at the Cowasjee Jehangir Hall in the University’s Fort campus which was attended by the Vice Chancellor of Mumbai University Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, Dr V Selvam, executive director of the Swaminathan foundation and Dr C Muthamizhchelvan, Director at the SRM university Chennai and Dr Arvind Untawale, retired scientist from the National Institute of Oceanography ,Goa amongst other dignitaries. 

Under the title ‘ Food for all in the anthropocene era', the three-day long congress that concludes on Saturday, February 18, aims to address issues with respect to food security and nutrition . 

“With no food security in place, there is a grave issue of malnutrition resulting from three factors- inadequacy in calorie intake, lower intake of protein rich food and pulses and deficiencies in micronutrients. Our young people would have to look for ways in which they can address these concerns in the years to come” he added. 

Dr Untawale said that one can find a lot of science even in the Vedas and young scientists should look deeper to be able to find some of the references. “There is so much science in the Vedas which we can learn from. From Ayurveda to Mettalurgy and agriculture, one can dig into the past to get references of certain concepts” he added. 

The first day concluded with a public talk by Dr Madhura Swaminathan, daughter of Dr Swaminathan who works at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore. She spoke about what challenges lie ahead of the country in terms of food security with the help of research data based on national surveys. “In addition to poverty and unemployment, malnutrition is India’s biggest problem which needs to be addressed effectively” she said. 

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