Food Security Status of Assam: A Districts Level Analysis

Abstract

Food security is the foremost important issue of a state or a country. The development of a country or a state is highly dependent on it.Food unsecured population cannot think for other issues of their life. In the state of Assam, just after independence the state had enough food for the population, which gradually decreased until 1981-83. But, after 1981-83, the per capita availability of food grains had increased gradually due to use of modern practices of cultivation viz., high yielding varieties, fertilizers, etc. which led to increase in production. Nevertheless, this increase could not surpass the normative requirement of total food grains. Thus, although per capita availability of total cereals was marginally higher than the normative requirement, the state remains food deficit state since 1961-63 to 2000-02. Almost similar trend of change in per capita availability of food grains was observed in all the districts of the state with a few exceptions. Per capita availability of pulses as well as oilseeds was found to be very low, which was far below the normative requirement and in most of the cases revealed a declining trend.

Cyathea gigantea (Cyatheaceae) as an antimicrobial agent against multidrug resistant organisms

“…Fresh plant material (fronds) of C. gigantea was collected from Southern Assam. The identification of the fern was done by Miss Kathakali Nath using standard manual [8, 9] and was formally confirmed by Dr. M. K. Bhattacharya. It was also matched with the available herbarium of the species at Central National Herbarium of Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta.…”

Optimizing crop planning in the winter fallow season using residual soil nutrients and irrigation water allocation in India

“…Household food consumption patterns included mainly carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Food items considered in the study are shown in Table 2 , and its per capita consumption is shown in Table 3 [ 38 ]. In addition to this, rice is the widely grown cereal crop as a source of carbohydrates, covering over 70 % of the total cultivable area of Assam during the kharif season.…”

Observations on the Distribution of Under-Five Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition in Assam

“…Assam ranks among the country's bottom five states in terms of child survival indicators [1]. With shortages in food production over food consumption, Assam is known to be a 'food-insecure' and 'food-deficit' state [2]. Despite these precedents, the SAM scenario in Assam is largely unknown.…”