First Secretary, Sneha Dubey at UNSC

New York: India will play its due role in advancing global food security, upholding equity, displaying compassion and promoting social justice, said First Secretary Sneha Dubey at the UN Security Council high-level special event on global food security crisis on Monday (local time).

Dubey said that New Delhi is running the world's largest food-based safety net program, which has seen a paradigm shift from welfare to a rights-based approach.

"To achieve targeted delivery during COVID-19, food assistance to 800 million people and cash transfers to 400 million people were provided by the Government," she added.

India's mid-day meal programme continues to tackle undernourishment in school children by ensuring the provision of healthy meals.

"A nutrition drive has also been launched, especially for vulnerable groups including women and children. Our Farm-to-Table digital initiatives include Farmer's Portals, farm-advisory services, online network of agricultural commodities, price prediction and use of blockchain technology for quality certification," First Secretary said in a statement.

In view of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, India is donating 50,000 Metric tonnes of wheat to the people of Afghanistan.

"India has continued its humanitarian support for Myanmar, including a grant of 10,000 tons of rice and wheat. We are also assisting Sri Lanka including with food assistance, during these difficult times," Dubey noted.

India has exported more than 250,000 tons of wheat to Yemen, in the last three months.

She also said that India remained strongly committed to the cause of global food security and also has contributed to UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the UNOCHA in response to various humanitarian crises over the years.

"Our spearheading of the UN General Assembly Resolution for declaring Year- 2023 as the "International Year of Millets" was aimed at addressing similar such food security challenges," she said.