Transition from food to nutrition security in India

• Apr 2, 2026
• 2 min

India is transitioning from food to nutrition security to address public health challenges, such as anemia. According to NFHS-5 (2019–21), anemia affects 57% of women, 25% of men, and 67% of children. While the Public Distribution System (PDS) reached 800 million beneficiaries, it traditionally focused on ensuring caloric sufficiency and not micronutrient deficiencies, particularly iron. 

To bridge this gap, the Government of India integrated fortified rice enriched with iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12 into national food security programs. This program enabled an estimated INR 20 billion (USD 218.36 million) in capital investment for manufacturing, blending units, and laboratory infrastructure.  

MSC supported the nationwide rollout and helped build a strong rice fortification ecosystem to produce and distribute approximately 40 million metric tons of fortified rice annually. We also helped the Department of Food and Public Distribution advance the rice fortification initiative, which moved from its pilot phase in 2020 to nationwide full-scale implementation in a phased manner by March 2024. The pilot was implemented across 11 districts in 11 states. The rollout excluded wheat-consuming states as well as states and union territories with direct beneficiary transfers under the PDS. 

We provided strategic formulation support, developed an implementation roadmap, and facilitated engagement with states and union territories. Our team conducted landscape studies in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh to assess and strengthen the fortified rice supply chain. These assessments informed a gap analysis and revisions to quality assurance standard operating procedures and led to the design of a digital architecture to improve transparency, monitoring, and quality control across the supply chain. 

MSC also organized regional learning workshops to onboard the state governments and key stakeholders to share implementation experiences, challenges, and best practices. 

The initiative established more than 900 fortified rice kernel manufacturers, 56 fortified rice testing laboratories, and more than 21,000 blending units. This growth created potential employment for 50,000-plus people across India’s fortification ecosystem. The program reached more than 500 million women and children through the distribution of fortified rice through schools under the PM POSHAN scheme, alongside anganwadi centers and fair-price shops. It supported 16 states and union territories to develop sustainable fortification roadmaps.  

The Gates Foundation commissioned the project.