Summary: Dietary diversity is associated with household or individual food availability and intake of nutrients from different food groups and is an important component of nutritional outcome. This study examined the Nutrient Adequacy Ratio (NAR) and the Mean Adequacy Ratio (MAR) of three dietary diversity indices and their relationship with the nutritional status of adolescents and adults in rural regions of two states in India, Wardha district in Maharashtra and Koraput district in Odisha, in 2014. Individual dietary diversity was calculated using 24-hour diet recall (FS_24hr) data and household dietary diversity was measured with food frequency data using Berry’s index (DDI) and food scores (FS_FFQ). The nutritional status of individuals was assessed using anthropometric indices. The diets in both locations were cereal dominated. It was observed that 51% of adolescent boys and 27% of adolescent girls had ‘thinness’ and stunting. The prevalence of undernutrition was higher among adult women (48%) than adult men (36%). The mean diversity indices were FS_24hrof 8, DDI of 89–90 and FS_FFQof 64–66 in the two locations. The FS_24hrwas found to be positively correlated with the NAR of all nutrients while DDI and FS_FFQwere correlated with seven and six nutrients, respectively. The DDI and FS_24hrshowed an association with MAR if the two locations were combined together. Sensitivity and specificity analysis showed that FS_24hrgave more true positives than false positives and the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve was 0.68, implying that this measure truly differentiates individuals having low dietary diversity with low MAR from those with low dietary diversity and a high MAR. All three measures of dietary diversity showed a linear association with the nutritional outcomes of adults, while in the adolescent group only DDI showed a relationship. It is concluded that 24-hour diet recall is a good measure for studying the relationship between dietary diversity and nutritional status in adults.

The Covid19 pandemic should be seen as a wake-up call for humanity, to reflect, rethink and redesign food systems that are safe, healthy, sustainable, and beneficial to all. This crisis has disrupted food supply chains, affecting lives and livelihoods. Hunger and malnutrition is expected to increase and the poor and vulnerable will suffer the most. There is urgent need to build resilient food systems. A location specific farm-system-for-nutrition approach, based on sustainable use of natural resources and local agri-food value chains can help improve household diet diversity and address nutrition deficiencies. The food-based approach can improve preparedness and resilience of communities to withstand the challenge posed by crises in general, and COVID19 in particular.

Agriculture is the predominant livelihood for 70 % of the population living in rural India, and food expenses occupy a major proportion of their household budget. Rural household diets suggest that agricultural growth has contributed to increasing calorie intake with very minimal effect on the intake of protein and micronutrients. This in turn causes weak positive impact of agriculture on household dietary diversity and nutrient adequacy. Given the prevalence of high levels of under-nutrition and a large population dependent on agriculture, recent thinking globally on leveraging agriculture for nutrition security has encouraged the agricultural sector to realign its focus not only to increase food production, but also to address under-nutrition. Against this background, an exploratory study was conducted in resource poor villages of Wardha and Koraput districts in the states of Maharashtra and Odisha in India, to investigate how location-specific Farming System for Nutrition (FSN) interventions can potentially improve the diversity of household diets and nutrition outcomes. A detailed baseline study was undertaken to identify the existing disconnect between agriculture-nutrition linkages. In the study locations, the proportion of all forms of under-nutrition, vitamin A deficiency and iron-deficiency anaemia among children 18 years) significantly increased as the dietary diversity score (DDS) decreased from high to low. In Koraput, the prevalence rate of anaemia in adolescent girls and women significantly increased, as the DDS decreased. We conclude that food and diets lacking diversity and without nutrition-sensitive farming systems (either commercial- or subsistence-based) may not be appropriate to improve household nutrition and health status. Our findings provide a basis for structuring integrated agriculture-nutrition programmes or a FSN approach to diversifying household food and diets, for improving nutrition and health in India.

The challenge to food production posed by climate aberrations has been seeing increased attention to reviving millet-based farming systems. Millets are climate-resilient and nutritionally equivalent or superior to most other cereals, making them a favourable crop to address the prevalence of malnutrition. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is among the major crops cultivated in the undulating terrains of Koraput district of Odisha, India. It is consumed as a staple food and drink by the local tribal communities. However, over the years there has been rapid decline both in area and in production of the crop leading to reduced grain availability for household consumption. With a view to increase the productivity, the study assessed the effects of possible combinations of crop varieties and agronomic practices that can be customized for finger millet production system in Koraput over 2 years (2015–2017). The study focused on crop productivity, profitability and labour requirement along with nutrition awareness initiatives. On-farm trial with improved variety ‘GPU-67’ with line transplanting and recommended fertilizer management in 2015–2016 showed 31 and 50% higher grain yield and profit than that of farmers’ practice (1579 kg ha^− 1 and ₹13,730 ha^− 1, respectively) and was counted as a recommended cultivation package. In 2016–2017, the recommended practice showed 60% higher grain yield and 1.16 times more profit than farmers’ practice (1575 kg ha^− 1 and ₹14,000 ha^− 1, respectively) (P < 0.000). Both total and women’s labour requirement per ha was lower under recommended practice. An endline survey in 2017 revealed improved household consumption over baseline.