Brainstorming Workshop
on
“Soybean for Household Food and Nutrition Security”
Recommendations
21-22 March, 2014
ICAR Lecture Hall, NASC Complex, New Delhi
Organized by
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS)
National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS)
The Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) was established on 17 October 2002 based on the decision of National Organizing Committee of 88th Session of the Indian Science Congress held at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi in January 2001 for harnessing the agricultural sciences for the welfare of the people. Its mission is to promote growth and advancement of agriculture through scientific interactions and partnerships. The major objectives are (i) to act as think tank on key policy issues relating to agricultural research for development (ARD), (ii) organizing seminars and special lectures on emerging issues and new development in agriculture sciences in different regions of India, (iii) instituting national awards for the outstanding contributions to Indian agriculture by the scientists of Indian origin, and (iv) facilitating partnerships with non-resident Indian agricultural scientists. The main activities include organizing foundation day lectures, special lectures, brain storming sessions/symposia/seminars/workshops on important themes, developing strategy papers on key policy matters, promoting farmers’ innovations and conferring Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Award for Leadership in Agriculture.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. Formerly known as Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, it was established on 16 July, 1929 as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in pursuance of the report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture. The ICAR has its headquarters at New Delhi. The Council is the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agricultural systems in the world. The ICAR has played a pioneering role in ushering Green Revolution and subsequent developments in agriculture in India through its research and technology development that has enabled the country to increase the production of food grains by 4 times, horticultural crops by 6 times, fish by 9 times (marine 5 times and inland 17 times), milk 6 times and eggs 27 times since 1950-51, thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security. It has played a major role in promoting excellence in higher education in agriculture. It is engaged in cutting edge areas of science and technology development and its scientist are internationally acknowledged in their fields.
National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), established in 1990, is among the youngest of the Science Academies in India. It owes its origin to the vision of the late Dr. B.P. Pal, FRS. The Academy focuses on the broad field of agricultural sciences including crop husbandry, animal husbandry, fisheries, agro-forestry and interface between agriculture and agro-industry. The Academy’s role is to provide a forum to agricultural Scientists to deliberate on important issues of agricultural research, education and extension and present views of the scientific community as policy inputs to planners, decision/opinion makers at various levels. To achieve this, the academy organizes and supports national and international congresses, conferences, seminars, symposia, workshops and brainstorming sessions on critical issues in the field of agricultural sciences. The Academy accords recognition to scientists at various levels, and encourages cutting edge research in different fields of agricultural sciences. In 2001, the academy instituted a scheme of NAAS-TATA research fellowships for Young Scientists with support from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. In 2003, ‘Associateship’ of the academy was introduced for Young scientists. The academy has emerged as a vibrant national level body devoted to agricultural sciences. The Fellows of the academy, recognized for their contributions to science, include distinguished personalities in the field of agriculture and allied sciences, both from India and abroad. The academy has also established “Corporate Membership” and “Corporate Fellowship” to attract involvement of industry in supporting the activities of the academy.
Brainstorming Workshop
on
“Soybean for Household Food and Nutrition Security”
BACKGROUND
Having attained food security, major concern in India is household nutritional security, particularly among children, about 40% are currently malnourished. On the contrary, fortunately majority of Indians are vegetarian and depend largely on pulses as protein source. Being short in pulses, India is importing around 2.0 million tonnes of pulses costing almost Rs. 22,500 crores annually. Interestingly the protein from soybean is least expensive and quality-wise better than most pulses and comparable to animal protein. Also, the soy fortified diet is affordable by the poor. Therefore, the need is to ensure use of soybean as a food crop by making its products available at affordable price to economically weaker section of our society.
Soybean is globally known as ‘Golden Grain’. Compared to all pulses, it has double the protein content (40%) very good quality containing essential amino-acids, calcium, iron, vitamin B complex and Omega 3 & 6, besides possessing neutraceuticals having therapeutic properties.
In India, besides being relatively a new crop, with cultivation having started in early 1970s, soybean has emerged as number one among oilseed crops covering around 10 m ha area with total production of around 13.4 m tonnes. The average productivity is about 1.3 tonnes/ha which can easily be doubled in near future. Currently, India is at 5th position globally in production. We use 80% of soybean for oil extraction. The de-oiled cake (DOC), a protein-rich byproduct, is mostly exported as animal feed fetching around US$ 1540 million (2012-13) foreign exchange annually. On the contrary, soy meal could provide protein-rich dietary supplements at low cost to meet the nutritional deficiency prevalent in almost one out of three children. Unfortunately, soybean in India is used mainly as oil crop, whereas, most of the South East Asian countries and China use it as a food crop. As such, soybean not only has the potential of increased production and productivity but can address effectively the existing concern for household nutritional security.
In view of this background, a two day brainstorming workshop on “Soybean for Household Food and Nutrition Security” was organized by the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) on 21-22 March, 2014 at the National Agricultural Science Center (NASC) Complex, New Delhi.
In all, 78 participants comprising policy makers, scientists, representatives of Soy industry, extension personnel, farmers, NGOs and small entrepreneurs attended the brainstorming session and held intensive discussions on various aspects covering soybean production to utilization.
The recommendations emerging from two days intensive discussions are presented here for consideration of all concerned:
General Recommendations
1. Soybean is a treasure trove of nutrients. Therefore, use of soybean as human food needs to be promoted through appropriate policy interventions and public awareness initiatives. A Mission Mode project in this regard is fully justified at the national level.
2. Soybean is a crop of considerable importance to India. Its production has to be increased to ensure household nutritional security. Fortunately, India can double its soybean production in next decade, provided area is increased under assured irrigation both in the north and north-eastern region. What is needed is varietal diversification and good agricultural practices, including higher seed replacement rate, effective weed management, on-farm mechanization, ridge furrow planting, supplemental irrigation (1-2) and intercropping.
3. Use of full-fat-soy-flour in Indian diets at 10 % level is already an accepted policy. Hence, fortified flour and other soy-products need to be promoted further under food product category by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Further, these soy-products be considered as essential food items and be kept out of taxation network as a national policy.
4. Protein-rich soymeal be also promoted for local consumption as feed for fish and livestock in order to increase their productivity and increased income of resource poor farmers, especially in arid area. A brainstorming session in this regard could, hence, be organized involving all stakeholders to decide future road map.
5. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has to be strengthened to promote small scale entrepreneurship, contract farming, licensing of new innovations and soy product development etc.
6. Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of ICAR, Home Science Colleges under SAUs, and some research institutions under CSIR, ICAR etc. are engaged in promoting use of various soy-products as human food. These initiatives need to be strengthened under the proposed Mission on Soybean.
Researchable Recommendations
1. Urgent initiative is needed to widen the genetic base of soybean, which is currently quite narrow. We need to exploit the untapped genetic potential, especially the wild and perennial gene pool, for higher productivity. Concerted efforts are, therefore, needed to introduce germplasm from China, South East Asian countries, USA, Brazil, Argentina as well as from IITA, AVRDC, University of Illinois etc.
2. Research efforts need to be concentrated to develop soybean hybrids with wide adaptability and enhanced productivity. Similarly, research efforts need to be intensified in the field of genomics, Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) and GM soybean especially for weed management, abiotic and biotic stresses as well as higher yields.
3. Development and dissemination of rural based, low cost soybean processing technologies need to be promoted and popularized.
4. To intensify research in soybean, a Centre of Excellence must be created immediately by the ICAR at CIAE especially to develop new products and to provide training for entrepreneurship.
Policy Recommendations
1. For ensuring required coordination and addressing the problems of soybean growers, processors and consumers, a single window system through regulatory board namely, “Soybean Development Board” be constituted on priority by the Government.
2. Invariably, the existing trade and pricing policies are not favourable to soybean producers in India. Hence, there is a strong case to raise tariff on import of crude soybean oil from present 2.5 to 10.0 per cent. Similarly, minimum support price (MSP) of soybean be raised to a level that is comparable to the market price and its procurement be ensured. Also while introducing soybean in rice-wheat production system, linkage with processing industry be established.
3. Tax incentives as well as tax holiday be given to soy-based industries, especially for establishing and expanding its use in non-conventional soybean growing areas. At the same time, a separate food product category by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) for all soy-based products be established. Also soybean must be exempted from all central and state level taxes and duties, in order to make them abundantly available to the consumers.
4. Though soybean is currently a rainfed (90%) crop in India, it offers good opportunities for doubling the production through productivity enhancement provided one or two supplemental irrigations are ensured. Hence, the rainfed tag on soybean has to be removed and it be popularized also in the irrigated areas, especially, for the diversification of rice-wheat production system in the Indo-gangetic plains. Soybean can fovourably compete with rice if its productivity can be ensured around 2.5-3.0 t/ha, which is technically feasible.
5. Soybean and processed soy-products (full-fat, defatted soy-flour, dal analogue, textured soy chunks etc.) need to be included in the nutrition intervention programmes of the Central and State Governments such as mid-day meals, ICDS, military, para military, jails, Govt hospitals etc. so as to provide low cost, high quality protein to the resource poor consumers. Also the soy-fortified wheat flour be made available through PDS and open markets to promote its use.
6. India is exporting currently around 5.5 mt of protein-rich high quality soymeal annually @ Rs. 70/kg protein while importing pulses @ Rs. 360/kg protein. Therefore, to fight protein-calorie-malnutrition, which is very high in India, the export of soymeal be rationalized to maintain a balance between internal demand and existing export potential.
7. A compensation package, such as, nutrient subsidy equivalent for its nitrogen fixation in the soil be made available to the soybean growers. This alongwith high MSP linked with procurement, both by Government and Private Sector, would accelerate higher growth of soybean production in India.
8. More investment for soybean R&D (atleast three times) is needed urgently to harness full benefits by soybean growers as well as consumers. Also higher investments on human resource development of all stakeholders, would go a long way, in addressing household nutritional security through use of soybean as a food crop.
Acronyms and Abbreviations
ARD Agricultural Research and Development
AVRDC Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre
CIAE Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering
CSIR Council of Scientific & Industrial Research
DARE Department of Agricultural Research and Education
DOC De oiled Cake
FSSAI Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
GM Genetically Modified
IARI Indian Agricultural Research Institute
ICAR Indian Council of Agricultural Research
ICDS Integrated Child Development Scheme
IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
KVK Krishi Vigyan Kendra
MAS Marker Assisted Selection
MSP Minimum Support Price
NAAS National Academy of Agricultural Sciences
NASC National Agricultural Science Centre
NGO Non Governmental Organization
PDS Public Distribution System
PPP Public-Private Partnership
SAU State Agricultural University
TAAS Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences
Recent TAAS Publications
· Public-Private Partnership in Agricultural Biotechnology - Second Foundation Day Lecture, delivered by Dr. Gurdev S. Khush, Adjunct Professor, University of California, Davis, USA, October 17, 2005.
· Farmer-Led Innovations for Increased Productivity, Value Addition and Income Generation - Brainstorming Session, October 17, 2005 - Highlights & Recommendations
· Strategy Paper on “Strategy for Increasing Productivity Growth Rate in Agriculture" by Dr. R.S. Paroda, August, 2006.
· Highlights & Recommendations of Brainstorming Session on "Models of Public-Private Partnership in Agricultural Biotechnology ", April 7, 2007.