Potato may feature in mid-day meals

Schoolchildren, many of them from farming families themselves, may come to the rescue of potato-growing farmers in West Bengal by eating the humble tuber in their mid-day meals.

School children covered under the Centrally-sponsored mid-day meal scheme in West Bengal may soon find more potatoes and less vegetables in their plates, if the government goes by the recommendations of the West Bengal Cold Storage Association.

At present, the mid day meal is usually a boiled mixture of rice and pulses with some spices and vegetables thrown in, and an egg served every second day.

The association in a letter to the agri-marketing department has urged the state government to include potato-based dishes as compulsory item in the mid-day meal menu.

"We are worried how the large amount of potatoes stored in cold storages will be marketed this year. The government should now encourage consumption of potatoes, so that hundreds of farmers are not ruined," said Patit Paban Dey, vice-president of the association.

With farmer welfare assuming significance in the state government's agenda ahead of Panchayat elections, the government is willing to consider the idea of marketing surplus potato to encourage consumption.

According to Abdur Razzak Mollah, West Bengal's Minister for agri-marketing, "The state would consider the proposal to include potato in the mid-day meal in meeting with the departmental secretaries and the ministry of finance."

The cold storage association has also sought that workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREG) be given potatoes in lieu of partial cash benefit.

However, Mollah ruled out to consider such a proposal.

Potato production in West Bengal this year is likely to be around 80 lakh ton, an increase of nearly 60 per cent over last year's production of 50.52 lakh ton.

With traders showing little interest in selling potatoes this year, more than 75 per cent of the crop loaded in the storages this year is by cultivators, against 30 per cent on an average during normal season.

West Bengal has been a poor performer in the mid-day meal scheme.

Despite the prescribed menu, many schools claimed lack of cooking and related facilities and were giving the raw materials like uncooked rice and pulses to the children to take back home, while some other schools had handed over the supplies to caterers and outsourced the entire project, according to sources.

According to th Annual Work Plan and Budget report 2007-08 for West Bengal, 5,185 institutions with an enrollment of 10,11,227 students are yet to be covered under the mid-day meal scheme. Against the standard 450 calories and 12 grams of protein to be provided per meal, the present meal served by the government provides 300 calories and 8-12gm of protein.

The overall anaemia status of children in West Bengal is poor as the state ranks as low as nineteenth among 25 states.

The proportion of children with anaemia at 78 per cent is higher compared to the Indian average of 74 per cent.

In rural areas the proportion of children with severe anaemia is 82 per cent compared to rate of 64 per cent in urban West Bengal and 60 per cent in Kolkata.

"Such nutritional deficiencies among children are a matter of concern which requires public intervention," admits a government report on mid day meal scheme.