Context:

=> The government of Madhya Pradesh in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) proposed two inexpensive and ingenious ideas to encourage women to cook balanced meals.

=> These are:

• The ‘7 days 7 plots’ programme:

=> Here, women from the village are taught how to grow different vegetables in their own gardens, seven to be exact, one for each day of the week.

=> By the end of the week, the first plot is ready to be harvested again. This way, families get to eat fresh, affordable vegetables that they can consume for longer and in greater quantity, as against buying from the market, and so reduce sickness.

=> This scheme is an adjunct to the Tejaswini Rural Women Empowerment Programme implemented by the UN-affiliated IFAD in MP.

• Tiranga Thali:

To encourage a more balanced meal, the project introduced the concept of the “Tiranga Thali”, where each plate contains ingredients of the three colours from the Indian flag. Saffron — all pulses like yellow split peas, pigeon peas, and split red lentils representing proteins; white — rice, milk and roti representing carbohydrates; and green — leafy vegetables representing vitamins and minerals.

About IFAD:

• It is a specialized United Nations agency created in 1977 engaged in providing grants and loans with low interest for allied projects.
• The IFAD works with rural people allowing them to enhance their food security, improve nutrition and raise their incomes.
• It also helps people to expand their businesses.
• The organization is an outcome of the World Food Conference of 1974.
• It is headquartered in Rome and headed by a President.
• It has 177 member countries.
• IFAD brings out the Rural Development Report every year.

The objectives of the IFAD are three-fold:

=> To increase the productive capacity of poor people.

=> To increase benefits for them from market participation.

=> To strengthen the environmental sustainability & climate resilience of their economic activities.