IFAD 2025: Nutrition-Driving Rural Transformation in India Report - Key Lessons and Gaps
SDG 2: Zero Hunger | SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being
Institutions: Ministry of Women & Child Development | Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare | NITI Aayog
The 2025 International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) report “Nutrition: Driving Rural Transformation in India” examines how nutrition-sensitive agricultural and rural development programmes are improving dietary diversity, health, and livelihood outcomes in vulnerable rural and tribal communities. Key case studies - including Tejaswini, OPELIP, Nav Tejaswini, and JP-livelihoods projects - show that integrating nutrition into agriculture (e.g. promoting indigenous millets, kitchen gardens, diversified crops), behaviour change communication, community creches with nutritious meals, safe water access, and women’s empowerment leads to measurable improvements in child nutrition, women's anaemia, and food systems resilience. For example: under OPELIP in Odisha, creche interventions provided diverse meals, improved anthropometric z-scores among severely malnourished children, and helped 36,000 children in Anganwadis; under Nav Tejaswini in Maharashtra, consumption of vegetables rose from ~44% to ~77%, milk from ~15% to ~32%, and meat/fish from ~23% to ~38% among participating households.
Still, malnutrition remains stubborn: rural areas lag urban ones in undernutrition, child stunting/wasting/underweight remain high; diets are still heavily cereal-oriented; many gram regions face both under- and over-nutrition. Gaps include weak policy coherence for “nutrition-sensitive agriculture,” limited reach of behaviour change interventions, infrastructure deficits (WASH, safe water) especially in tribal/vulnerable group areas, and scale-up challenges.
This report highlights that agriculture and rural development aren’t only about production, but also about nutrition outcomes; policies must go beyond yield to diet quality. For ministries (Women & Child Development, Agriculture, Tribal Affairs, Rural Development), integrating nutrition into programme design and ensuring multi-sectoral delivery (health, agriculture, water, gender) is vital. Scaling proven pilot interventions (millet cultivation, creches, kitchen gardens) via government funding and institutional anchoring can help address long-standing inequities in tribal and rural nutrition.
Follow the full report here:
https://www.ifad.org/documents/48415603/51074791/nutrition-driving-rural-transformation-india.pdf