The Union Government Lends A Helping Hand To A Multinational Central

The Centre’s decision to provide only fortified food items under government schemes will ensure an annual market of over ₹3,000 crore to just five multinational companies

- Jitendra

Addressing the nation in his monthly radio programme, Mann Ki Baat, on August 25 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that rice provided to India’s poor categorized under five government schemes, including the public distribution system and mid-day meals, will soon be fortified with micronutrients such as vitamin B12, iron, and folic acid, to help fight malnutrition. The government believes that micronutrients, which enable the body to produce enzymes and hormones essential for growth, can play a crucial role in the country where 38 percent children under five years are stunted and 36 percent are underweight, as per the National Family Health Survey 2015-16. The rice fortification scheme will be implemented in 15 districts of 15 states on a pilot basis from this Kharif season. The announcement has rekindled the debate on whether fortification helps combat malnutrition and who actually benefits from the move. “There is no proven case in any part of the world where fortification has reduced malnutrition,” says Umesh Kapil of the department of gastroenterology and human nutrition unit at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. “Sometimes it can have the opposite effect. Natural foods contain protective substances such as phytochemicals and polyunsaturated fat that are adversely affected by the process of blending micronutrients,” says Delhi-based pediatrician Arun Gupta.

FORTIFICATION IS A lucrative business and a government backing translates into an assured market worth crores of rupees. Globally, just five multinationals— Germany’s BASF, Switzerland’s Lonza, France’s Adisseo and the Netherlands’ Royal DSM and ADM— manufacture micronutrients and all Indian entities that sell micronutrients import from them. “These multinationals govern the world market through a cartel,” says Vijay Sardana, a Delhi-based agribusiness and trade analyst.