Devex Dish: India has a lot of grain. So why are its people still hungry?

Happy New Year, Dish readers! I munched my way through last week — can’t resist the honey-drenched melomakarona cookies my Greek family makes! But I am now ready for a healthy and nutritious start to 2024.

Among the issues we’ll be covering this year are the increasingly clear link between food systems and climate change; what’s happening inside food institutions like the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, along with nonprofits, philanthropies, and research groups; and whether promises made at the United Nations’ COP 28 climate summit will be kept.

📧 What are you watching this year? What trends in the food systems space give you hope — or keep you up at night? What should Devex cover in the year ahead? Let me know by emailing Dish@devex.com.

This week our eyes are on India, the world’s most populous country and home to a paradox: its food grain production has soared to all-time levels, but food insecurity and malnourishment are stubbornly high, writes Devex contributor Sanket Jain. Why the disconnect? It comes down to money: Three-quarters of Indians can’t afford a healthy diet due to stagnant income.

Climate change is wreaking havoc on food production. Extreme heat means farmers are working harder than ever in difficult conditions, yet they still can’t afford a healthy diet. Meanwhile, as India’s government incentivizes wheat and rice production, more farmers are cultivating those crops. But shifts to high-yielding crop varieties and hybrids have come at the expense of indigenous, nutrient-rich, and healthier crops, such as sorghum, pearl and finger millets, and emmer wheat.

Devinder Sharma, an expert on Indian agriculture, has called for a different way of pricing millet to incentivize production. After all, traditional millets don’t require much water and can grow without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In general, India’s situation is a wake-up call for the country — and the world — on the need for food system transformation to enable sustainable, healthy, and affordable diets.

Read: India's paradox of surplus grains and soaring food insecurity 

Meal planning

As you make resolutions and map out your year, you’re probably looking ahead to major events in the food systems space this year. Chief among them is the Nutrition for Growth Summit to be held in Paris at a date that’s to be announced. The pledging event for malnutrition raised a whopping $27 billion the last time it was held, although there are concerns there won’t be the same momentum behind it this time around.

My colleague Jessica Abrahams has the rundown on that and other key global development moments we’re watching this year.

Read: Key moments to watch in 2024 (Pro)

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The long road to justice

A group of farmers in Honduras has reached a settlement with the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, after they filed a lawsuit alleging that a company IFC invested in tortured, harassed, and killed members of the Bajo Aguán community in the course of expanding its palm oil plantations and building a biogas plant.

It’s the first time IFC has settled a case where communities say they have been harmed by one of its investments — and it comes at a time when IFC is adopting a new approach to handling things that go wrong, writes Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger.

The farmers allege in court documents that IFC and its Asset Management Company, or AMC, were “knowingly profiting from financing murder, violence, and dispossession,” by approving $30 million to Corporación Dinant. The company used “all kinds of unsavory and brutal and violent methods to obtain land from the campesinos,” Marissa Vahlsing, one of the lawyers at EarthRights International representing the farmers, tells Adva. And the violence was “openly talked about,” meaning IFC should have known about it, Vahlsing adds.

IFC, AMC, and Dinant all denied wrongdoing. As part of the settlement — which still needs to be approved by a judge — AMC will pay $5 million mostly to support programs benefiting the local communities. It took four years to negotiate.

Read: Honduran farmers, IFC settle suit alleging violence linked to investment

Related: IFC policy for when projects cause harm lambasted as ‘letdown’

Malnutrition mystery

It’s alarmingly common for children who recover from severe acute malnutrition, or SAM, to relapse, with relapse rates 50% higher in rural areas compared to urban ones. But why?

A recent study from Action Against Hunger points to some reasons, writes Devex contributor Rebecca Holland. It tracked children treated for SAM across Mali, Somalia, and South Sudan, and it found that relapse rates for Somali children were significantly lower. Despite being internally displaced, those children had access to a camp where they could get services such as health care, food distribution, and cash transfers. The children in South Sudan and Mali, on the other hand, lived in more remote settings where services were sparse.

Read: Why do some malnourished kids relapse? Study finds urban-rural divide

Chew on this

Gaza is seeing “the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative said in a report. [IPC]

Despite China’s bumper grain harvest, experts say the country’s food self-sufficiency rate is decreasing as it increasingly relies on imports. [Voice of America]

The U.S. farm bill, which governs foreign food aid and programs, wasn’t reauthorized by the end of 2023 due to what can only be described as “culture war” issues. [Devex Pro]