A higher level of performance in agriculture is necessary but not a sufficient condition to reduce malnutrition, say Ashok Gulati, T Nanda Kumar & Ganga Shreedhar

INDIA has been lauded for its remarkable overall economic growth of over 8% over the last five years. But despite this high and relatively stable growth, India's underbelly is soft. The agriculture sector is performing below expectations, with growth rate of around 2.8%, it is way below the Eleventh Plan target of 4%. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimates that 22% of India's population is undernourished. Child malnutrition is especially high, as National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data reveal that 48% of children under-five years suffered from low height-for-age (stunting) and 42.5% from low weight-forage (underweight).

This raises some questions