Hidden Hunger

Hidden hunger of the masses is another area that IDA has worked consistently. The Indian chapter of International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD) entrusted IDA the research work on the problems of small salt producers in Tamilnadu in the context of the overall change in the iodisation policy and structural changes in the industry. The research report is being brought out as a publication by ICCIDD. Another important aspect that remained uncovered in the commodity of salt was its value chain. IDA mapped the salt trading practices of various types of traders in South India and constructed the supply and value chain of salt for the Micronutrient Initiative. The engagement with addressing the hidden hunger till then was confined to research till the ICCIDD asked us to be the extenders of universal salt iodisation programme for Tamilnadu. The programme involves identifying small scale salt producers and traders and support them with free potassium iodate so as to ensure availability of iodised salt at the lowest end of the product spectrum. So far , we have distributed over 5000 kgs. of potassium iodate in Tamilnadu with which about 1 lakh tones of salt would have been fortified.