India's Role in Fostering Intra-regional Collaboration in Rice Fortification

Leveraging the Experiences from Latin America to Reduce Micronutrient Deficiencies

With the aim of tackling micronutrient deficiencies, since 2013 the World Food Programme (WFP) has been working with the Indian government to introduce fortification across the rice value chain. Key areas of collaboration have included introducing rice fortification into safety net programmes, conducting policy advocacy, devising evidence-based standards, facilitating knowledge-sharing events, and sensitizing the private sector to scale up production.  

Building on this experience, WFP was able to successfully make the case for including fortified rice in government safety nets. This led to the development of a Centre Sector Scheme (CSS) for the distribution of fortified rice in the public distribution system under the Indian Ministry of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, as well as in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme and the Mid-Day Meal scheme. These schemes reach almost 800 million people in India who are most at risk of malnutrition.  

Recognizing India’s achievements in reducing micronutrient deficiencies through rice fortification, neighbouring countries demonstrated interest in tapping into South-South and triangular cooperation (SSTC) to learn from this experience. India’s expertise in quality assurance, food labelling efforts and strategies adopted to promote fortified rice are considered an example for many neighbouring countries in the region. To respond to government requests, WFP facilitated SSTC with Sri Lanka and Bhutan as an effective means of spurring peer learning among countries with similar contexts in order to enhance rice fortification efforts, improve food security and inform national policies. These South-South exchanges included not only promoting technical dialogue and advocacy, but also helping these countries to then contextualize the Indian best practices.  

With support from WFP, for example, Sri Lanka visited the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in 2019 to learn about the principles of setting minimum fortification standards and specifications in India. The study visit to India had a special focus on the creation of the F+ logo that certifies that a fortified product respects the standards and specifications set by Indian authorities. In addition, Sri Lanka dedicated special attention to the social behavioural change campaign (Eat Right India) developed by FSSAI to promote fortified food use by consumers and a healthy lifestyle for the people of India. For Sri Lanka, the visit helped enhance the knowledge base at policy level on fortified rice. Other lessons from the visit included a better understanding of the process for food fortification standard setting, monitoring of quality of fortified rice and fortified rice kernels and need for domestic production of fortified rice. The visit is part of a series of study tours, each of which focusing on a specific aspect of the policy in India.  

Bhutan also leveraged India’s expertise to make progress on its rice fortification programme. In Bhutan, non-communicable diseases are a growing health concern, responsible for more than half of all deaths in the country. Awareness raising and advocacy programmes on diet, food habits and health are central to reduce the risk of disease from foodborne illnesses. Through WFP-facilitated SSTC, in 2019, a senior delegation from Bhutan visited food testing laboratories and food establishments in India. It aimed at supporting quality assurance for the food fortification programme implemented by FSSAI and to learn about India’s Eat Right Movement. This study visit allowed Bhutan to better understand the Eat Right India campaign and to introduce some of these lessons learned in their own National Nutrition Strategy.  

In addition to being a reference for other countries, India has also leveraged South-South exchanges to advance progress towards an enabling environment and to promote learning on how to implement mandatory rice fortification in order to scale up fortification efforts in government social safety nets and open market. For example, in 2019, WFP facilitated a high-level study visit of senior officials from the Indian Government to Costa Rica, which has the most successful mandatory rice fortification programme in the world, with 100 percent rice fortified. The visit allowed Indian Government representatives to identify the key legislative and regulatory milestones in making rice mandatorily fortified. After its exchange with Costa Rica, India is considering replicating the practice of creating a National Commission of Micronutrients that would bring together cross-sector stakeholders responsible for all decision-making on food fortification with a focus on fortified rice.  

The multiple exchanges on rice fortification within and outside Asia demonstrate the strength of SSTC as a modality for peer learning to help countries advance efforts towards achieving food security and nutrition for all. Further, with WFP support, these exchanges are allowing contextualization in participating countries and deliberations in their respective policy space to put mechanisms in place that they consider most effective.  

Decades of experience have proven that large-scale food fortification is a sustainable, safe and effective intervention with significant public health impact. Leveraging the cost-effective modalities of SSTC to reach the sustainable production of fortified rice supported the Government of India to establish a multi-stakeholder and multi-dimensional approach (technical, political and business). Using SSTC also ensured government commitment and consistent funding. This project can be adapted to countries with a similar context and that promote political advocacy for mainstreaming rice fortification in government safety nets. As requirements, the country should have good practices to share with experts for facilitation, and there should be a clear demand from the host government to implement the SSTC initiative.