Overt vitamin A deficiency has been controlled in most parts of India, but prevalence of subclinical deficiency may still be high, which may enhance susceptibility to infections, reduce growth potential and also lead to higher mortality. We aimed to: (i) assess the consumption pattern of vitamin A-rich foods in children 1–5 years of age in rural Jammu; and (ii) estimate the dietary deficiency of vitamin A leading to risk of subclinical vitamin A deficiency in cluster- villages of the study area.

India has 18% of the world’s population, 1.15 billion people, but access to only 4% of world’s fresh water resources. In the recent past, the dependency of Indian agriculture on ground water resources has increased upto an enormous extent due to several factors including increased demand of food, erratic behavior of monsoon, developmental pressure of various allied sectors etc.

The Indian economy has shown considerable resilience to the global economic crisis by maintaining one of the highest growth rates in the world. The services sector accounted for around 88% of the growth rate in real gross domestic product in 2008–09.