India’s food and agriculture indicators that are related to the United Nations (UN) which mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) looks in a worrisome state.
At a workshop hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in New Delhi, NITI Aayog advisor Sanyukta Samaddar said that two-thirds of India’s cultivable land is vulnerable to droughts. Moreover, a quarter of the country’s arable land (land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops) has been degraded. Also, 12% of the land area is prone to river basin floods.
Samaddar further added that India is home to 18% of the world’s population and almost 2.3% of the world’s land area is exerting pressure on the land.
At present there are 232 indicators for 17 SDG goals and nine indicators have been identified for zero hunger. While, out of these 232, the FAO has come out with 21 “Custodian Indicators” to meet the SDGs.
Samaddar also added that they have been working towards meeting the goals and have identified indicators that are calculated to find the current status of the SDG goals.
Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report is one of the UN’s processes to evaluate the status of a country’s adoption to meet the SDG goals. India presented its first VNR Report during the High-Level Political Forum HLPF in 2017. Samaddar mentioned that India has committed to present its second VNR report in 2020.
The main objective of this five-day workshop is to bring all stakeholders together, including Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), other ministries/departments and the FAO to discuss the challenges involved in national and global monitoring of the SDGs with a particular focus on SDG2 (zero hunger). The workshop will end on May 10 and started on May 6, 2019.
Image Credit: The Guardian Nigeria
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