"Starting in the 1960s, a Green Revolution in India led to a boom in rice and wheat production and that helped reduce hunger - but it meant demands on the water supply and pollution from fertilizer.
When Indians have embraced modern technology more recently, pollution from fertilizer has gone down, but rice takes a lot of water. And "natural" rice is not great nutritionally.
Nutrient deficiencies are already widespread in India today--30 percent or more are anemic--and many regions are chronically water-stressed.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
By comparing yield, water use, and nutritional values such as calories, protein, iron, and zinc of six major grains currently grown in India (rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, and pearl and finger millet) researchers in a new analysis found that found that rice is the least water-efficient cereal when it comes to producing nutrients.
Replacing rice with maize, finger millet, pearl millet, or sorghum could reduce irrigation water demand by 33 percent, while improving production of iron by 27 percent and zinc by 13 percent..."
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