Once the land of Green revolution, Now Haunted with Anemia.

Once there was a time when Punjab was known for his rich agricultural production & dairy productions. Now is the same Punjab is struggling with many diseases from Cancer to diabetes. There’s no doubt that Punjab is struggling with many dangerous diseases, Now there is a new disease emerging in Punjab known as “Anemia”. ( Anemia is a disease in which the blood doesn’t have enough healthy red blood cells.) The recent National Family Health Survey 2019-2021 shows that Punjab is facing serious problem with nearly three of every 10 males in rural areas suffering from some form of anemia. The problem is slightly better in urban areas where 20 percent of the between the age of 15-49 are anemic. Both the figures are higher that the all India average ?of 24.3 per cent prevalence of anemia among men in rural areas and 20.2 percent in urban areas. The NFHS found that 54.3 percent pregnant women( age between 15-49) in rural areas were anemic as against national average of 54.4 percent and 46.2 percent respectively. In case of adult women, the figures are 58.6 percent and 59.3 percent for rural areas, respectively. The 68.3 percent children in rural areas off Punjab are anemic compared to 71.1 percent, respectively at the national level. The most common causes of anemia include nutritional deficiencies, particular iron deficiency.?This happens in Punjab because of not eating good variety of diets, and lack of diversity in diet. A recent study by Punjab agriculture university shows that 64.4 percent of women and 65.5 percent of children get zinc from wheat. Wheat is the now the main ingredient of Punjab’s diet, but the earlier Punjab has many grains like millets, barley and maize were equally part of Punjab’s diet. The green revolution make Punjab dependent on monoculture farming of only rice and wheat, which led Punjab to become haunted land of diseases. The major crops in the era preceding the Green revolution were rice, millets, sorghum, wheat, barley and the production of rice and millets were higher than the production of wheat, barley and maize combined all together. But the production of fodder crop on just a few decades after the Green revolution. Meanwhile, a number of traditional rice varieties consumed prior to the Green revolution have become non-existent, and the availability of local rice varieties have decreased to 7000 and not all these varieties are under cultivation. This loss of species is mainly due to the focus given to the production of subsidized high-yielding hybrid crops and the emphasis of monoculture by the government. The only thing which can save Punjabi’s to move towards their traditional diets which are filled with millets and other nutrition full grains.