Rwanda, the East African country Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited early this week, may have an interesting model for India to tackle the high levels of malnutrition and stunting among its children, said a top official with a global nutrition firm.

According to official statistics, India is home to 25 per cent of world’s stunted children, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradeshtopping the charts globally. According to the National Family Health Survey 2016, the under-5 stunting in these States — home to a third of the country’s population — is very high with Bihar reporting a whopping 48.3 per cent.

Agricultural system

Rwanda, which till recently had stunting levels as high as 51 per cent, has brought it down to 38 per cent in 2015. This is expected to drop to 32 per cent by 2020. Helping the country, ravaged by a genocide that claimed one million people 24 years ago, achieve its nutrition goals is Africa Improved Foods (AIF), a unique public-private partnership experiment.

The genesis of AIF stems from a thinking that external food aid does precious little to the economic development of a country. Predominantly an agrarian economy, Rwanda can progress only if there is a transformation of its agricultural systems. Spearheading the effort was Royal DSM, a Dutch nutrition science company, which has a long record of food aid initiatives with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), including in Rwanda.

Improved nutrition

“This model is something that some Indian States can take a serious look at, particularly States where malnutrition and stunting is rampant,” said Fokko Wientjes, who heads nutrition programmes at DSM.

“We are not into a straightforward business here in Kigali. We want to share our knowhow in nutrition sector. So, in 2013, we started negotiations with the Government of Rwanda and a few potential investors (such as Dutch development bank FMO, and the UK’s Department of International Development or DFID), said Hugh Welsh, DSM President for North America, who was actively involved in the early days of AIF. The negotiations led to setting up of a consortium with DSM, FMO, DFID and International Finance Corporation —– the investment arm of the World Bank as partners.The consortium subsequently joined hands with the Rwandan government in founding AIF. “Our commitment was to help Rwandan people maximise their potential through improved nutrition with affordable and high-quality locally-sourced foods,” Welsh said.

The efforts bore fruits when AIF Rwanda set up a world- class food processing plant in a special economic zone on the outskirts of the Rwandan capital Kigali, in May last year. Today, the plant produces food products meeting the nutritional demands of different segments of the Rwandan population, such as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, infants older than six months and children. Besides, WFP has signed a $100 million, multi-year with AIF contract to purchase food products from the latter.

According to Anita Asiimwe, national coordinator for Early Childhood Development Programme of the Rwandan Government, complimentary food worth $6 million is bought by the government every year, and distributed among poor mothers and children through primary health centres.

As the model is envisaged, AIF procures staple grains used in the food products it makes from small farmers across the country.

More importantly, the aflatoxin — a fungal infestation that can be toxic — levels in maize dropped dramatically from 90 per cent to 20 per cent of the harvest.

The author was in Rwanda recently at the invitation of AIF

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