ICRISAT, FWGA launch fortified whole grain school feeding project in India
The new project will support the use of fortified whole grain foods in Indian school feeding programs while linking nutrition efforts with wider food security research taking place across Africa and India.
INDIA – The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, together with the Fortified Whole Grain Alliance, FWGA, has launched a new project aimed at increasing the use of fortified whole grain foods in school feeding programs in India.
The project, known as Scaling Fortified Whole Grain Foods through School Feeding Programs in India, has funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation and will run through a partnership between FWGA, ICRISAT, and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition India.
ICRISAT and FWGA marked the launch during a workshop that brought together stakeholders from research institutions, government agencies, development groups, and the private sector.
Participants included representatives from The Akshaya Patra Foundation, HarvestPlus India, the ICMR National Institute of Nutrition, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, and the Tribal Welfare Department of the Government of Telangana.
The discussions focused on increasing the use of millets and whole grains in food systems, strengthening research evidence, and supporting policy adoption and future growth of fortified whole grain foods in school feeding programs.
ICRISAT leaders, including Director General Himanshu Pathak and Deputy Director General for Research and Innovation Stanford Blade, also joined talks around the implementation of the FWG Expansion Project and future cooperation between FWGA and ICRISAT.
The launch comes at a time when ICRISAT continues to expand its wider food and crop research work across Africa and India.
Earlier this month, ICRISAT and CIMMYT started a separate five year research program aimed at helping dryland farmers gain access to stronger sorghum and groundnut varieties faster.
The program, launched in Nairobi on May 14 with support from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will focus on reducing crop breeding time through artificial intelligence, genomic selection, speed breeding, and advanced data systems.
The research effort includes partners from Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, India, and the University of Queensland. The teams involved said the work could help farmers dealing with drought, heat stress, crop disease, and poor rainfall linked to climate change.
“This project exemplifies the value of sharing data, infrastructure, genetic resources, and know how across institutional boundaries to deliver meaningful solutions for farmers,” said Dr de Bang, Senior Scientific Lead at the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
“Through frontier science, AI, and deep expertise in dryland agriculture, we are building a new generation of breeding systems capable of delivering faster, smarter, and more climate resilient solutions for farmers,” said Dr Pathak.
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