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For Suryakali Vishwakarma, all rice is not created equal.

The pearly grains might look and taste the same. But the fortified rice, along with wheat, that she collects from a government village shop in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh State – both packed with essential vitamins and minerals – have become her go-to staples.

“Providing good nutrition to our children is no longer a problem,” says the young mother, after rolling a bowlful of fortified rice for cooking. “We feel healthy and fine with the consumption of nutritious, fortified rice.”

In India, and across Asia and the Pacific, fortified rice and wheat are transforming diets and futures for millions of the world’s poorest and hungriest people – thanks to government-led initiatives in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Gates Foundation. Regional bodies, like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, are also catalytic, by helping member states share lessons, align standards and pilot new models – so that progress in one country drives broader change.

“What connects all these efforts is strong government leadership, solid delivery systems and growing private sector engagement,” says Arvind Betigeri, WFP food fortification advisor for the Asia-Pacific region.

Packing up to eight essential nutrients, including iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamins A and B, the fortified grains amount to an inexpensive and powerful weapon in fighting malnutrition – in a region where poor diets leave one in three women anaemic, and nearly 80 million children stunted, or too short for their age.

Some of the most stunning results can be seen in India, the world’s most populous country, with high rates of anaemia and micronutrient deficiencies. More than half the population now has access to fortified food, especially staple rice, thanks to government leadership and WFP-supported pilots rolled out and expanded in some of the most vulnerable parts of the country.

“Improving nutrition outcomes has a direct implication on improving the national productivity and economic output for the country,” says WFP food fortification policy officer Reema Sood. She cites findings showing that every US$1 invested in fortification delivers US$27 in returns, in terms of better cognitive development, increased economic productivity and reduced expenditure on treating diseases and anaemia.

Game changers 

In populous states like Uttar Pradesh – where fortified rice reaches millions – the pilots are improving local production capacity and the quality of fortified food. They are also expanding public availability and acceptance, through cooking classes and awareness campaigns. For the most vulnerable, including pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children, fortified  rice and wheat are available free of charge, as part of government safety net and school feeding programmes.

“The fortified rice that is being provided is very beneficial for people’s health,” says mother Vishwakarma, who also credits her children’s strong marks to platefuls of fortified rice they receive at class.

“They are active throughout and their performance in school is also good,” she says of her two daughters. “They are the highest scorers in their school.“  

In Sri Lanka – where many children suffer from a dearth of essential vitamins and minerals – WFP is collaborating with district governments to set up fortification facilities, which supply enriched rice to the national school meals programmes.

“This isn’t just a project, this is a game-changer for nutrition and education in Sri Lanka,” says Samir Wanmali, WFP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.

In Bangladesh, where micronutrient deficiency, known as ‘hidden hunger,’ is also widespread, WFP is providing technical and other support to the Government’s food fortification programme, which targets women like Shikha Akhtar.  

“Since I started eating fortified rice, I’ve been in better health,” says Akhtar, a Dhaka-based mother of two, who has struggled with illness. The 30kg of free Government-fortified rice is a welcome windfall for the family, which survives on her husband’s meagre wages as a daily labourer. “I encourage my neighbours in the village to eat this rice,” she says.

“Our main objective is to reach every woman’s doorstep across the country” with fortified rice, says Sharmin Shaheen, deputy director of Bangladesh’s Women’s Affairs Department.

Powering private partnerships 

Along with governments, WFP is also working with the private sector to improve fortified food production across the region. A case in point is Pakistan, where WFP provides technical support and training to small-scale millers known as chakkis, to provide enriched wheat to local communities.

“These boost people’s health, helping to reduce malnutrition, especially for the elderly, women and children,” says one chakki owner, Rashid Nazir, who received WFP support for his business, located in a town outside the capital Islamabad.

The private sector is also key to scaling up food fortification in Nepal, one of the world’s poorest countries, where malnutrition among young children and mothers is high. In the remote, northwestern Karnali Province, WFP is supporting government efforts to make subsidized, fortified rice available to the poorest through social protection programmes, and in commercial markets.

That includes supporting companies to build their capacity, so Himalayan communities can better access the nutrient-packed grains in a region where food, especially nutritious food, is scarce.

“People travel three-to-five hours by foot to buy the rice,” says Raj Bahadur Rai, a company manager in the Himalayan district of Mugu. “The consumers of this fortified rice have been gradually increasing. They are slowly realizing its value.”

WFP’s rice fortification initiatives in the Asia-Pacific Region are supported by the Gates Foundation, DSM-Firmenich, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the UN-India Partnership Fund.

Learn more about WFP’s work in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Hear that? That’s the sound of the jobs market creaking, if not cracking.

Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to a four-year high of 4.5% in September, up from 4.3% the month before.

Jim Chalmers is in Washington DC attending a G20 summit, but still found time to put out a statement reminding us that the jobless measure is “still very low by historical standards”.

That’s a fair statement. Not counting the pandemic and its aftermath, you need to go back 17 years to find a lower jobless rate.

The jump in the share market after the data release pointed to firming bets that the Reserve Bank was now odds-on to deliver a rate cut at its Melbourne Cup day meeting.

But low unemployment is a prize we must not lose, and the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be a major worry for the treasurer – as it will be for all Australians.

The resilient labour market is the jewel in Labor’s crown when it comes to its economic record, even overshadowing the major decline in living standards that has been a feature of the post-pandemic landscape.

Chart showing jobless rate increasing

Unemployment at 4.5% is no disaster, but it is very much not part of the plan – and it raises the fear that it could go higher still.

The RBA had expected the jobless rate to peak at 4.3% this year and stay there through 2026, which aligns with the budget forecasts.

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Two-a-half weeks ago the central bank’s monetary policy board held the cash rate as board members fretted that inflation would come in hotter-than-expected in the three months to September.

They will surely be reconsidering their options today, and Thursday’s figures mean the RBA is now favourite to act when it next meets.

The chance of a November rate cut jumped from 36% to 64% after the jobs report, according to pricing in financial markets, while the chance of a cut by December jumped from 60% to a near certainty.

There were even murmurings in the market on Thursday afternoon of a double rate cut, which is surely premature.

Rising inflation and climbing unemployment would be a headache for the central bank. Much now hinges on the September quarter consumer price report on 29 October, but it would have to be pretty bad to stay the central bank’s hand.

The key question is: was September’s labour force data a monthly blip, or the start of something worse?

The answers lie in the cross currents that have been shifting below what has been, until now at least, a largely becalmed jobs market.

Pat Bustamante, an economist at Westpac, says rapid hiring in government-backed sectors such as aged care and the NDIS helped drive the post-Covid employment boom, despite underwhelming economic growth. That impulse has since faded, and the dynamic has reversed: employment growth has slowed even as the economy has picked up.

Which means much depends on whether the private sector, which tends not to be as labour-intensive, can maintain enough hiring momentum to keep unemployment low – something RBA board members also discussed at their recent meeting.

If it can’t, then Bustamante calculates that the unemployment rate could reach as high as 4.8% early next year, which is perilously close to losing all the post-pandemic labour market gains.

That’s not something the central bank, or the government, would want to risk.