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8/3/2019 Achieving Nutritional Impact and Food Security through Agriculture
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/achieving-nutritional-impact-and-food-security-through-agriculture 1/4
Agricultural projects have a proound eect on household
ood security and nutritional wellbeing. While themajority o agricultural projects result in improved
lives and livelihoods, some do just the opposite.Research shows that when projects neglect to considereects on nutrition and ood security in the planning
stages, they miss an opportunity to improve nutritionand health outcomes or women, children, and other
vulnerable populations.
Te US government’s “Feed the Future” initiative, along
with similar initiatives launched by other nations andmultilateral agencies, brings renewed attention to
the complex relationships between agriculture, oodsecurity, and nutrition, and to measures that strengthen
these relationships. Tis act sheet summarizes these
relationships by oering examples o what works andwhat does not, serving as a resource or agricultural
proessionals involved in the design and planningo projects.
G nrn—wha nr
Food security, or uninterrupted physical and economic
access to sucient ood or dietary needs and aproductive and healthy lie, is an important prerequisite
or improving the nutrition o vulnerable groups such as
women and children. However, good nutrition requiresmore than just having enough to eat. In addition toood security, the ollowing actors contribute to goodnutritional outcomes:
• Essential nutrients in appropriate amounts. Familiesneed more than just staple oods; they need a mix o
oods with the right amounts o essential nutrientsrequired to maintain growth and health.
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Br ing ing women’s and ch i ldren’s nutr i t ion to the forefront of agr icu l ture
Achieving NutritionalImpact and Food Security through Agriculture
R e s o u R c e s F o R l i N k i N G A G R i c u lt u R e ,
F o o d s e c u R i t Y , A N d N u t R i t i o N
U S A I D ’ S I n f A n t & Yo U n g C h I l D n U t r I t I o n P r o j e C t
P A t H / e v l y n H o c k s i n
• Equitable access to nutritious oods. All members o a
household, including women and children, need accessto the nutrients they require. Children, who depend on
their caregivers to make sure they stay nourished, needspecial consideration. Caregivers should understand
how to prepare meals and eed children the rightamounts o nutritious oods.
8/3/2019 Achieving Nutritional Impact and Food Security through Agriculture
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• Knowledge o basic nutrition. When individuals
understand their nutritional needs and the needso their children, they can make better decisions
about how to spend their resources to achieve thebest diets possible. Increased knowledge o women’s
and children’s nutritional requirements amongheads o households may also enable more equitabledistribution o ood.
• Adequate health. In order to properly utilize
nutrients, individuals need to maintain goodhealth. Understanding when to seek care, havingaccess to high‑quality health care services, and a
healthy environment are all critical to achievingadequate health.
Ahvng ry
Food security is a prerequisite or good nutrition. Here
are ways that agricultural projects can be more eective
in promoting household ood security or at‑riskpopulations.
1. Give priority to agricultural activities that generate
employment. Increasing employment o unemployedand underemployed population groups almost always
translates into improved ood security.
2. Careully watch the eect on ood prices. Policies or
interventions that aect ood prices have an impact onood security; how much usually depends on whether
poor households are net sellers or net purchasers o those commodities. Lower prices are a boon or netpurchasers but can hurt net sellers; higher prices help
net sellers but cut into the incomes o net purchasers.
3. Be particularly careul with projects that promote
cash crop production. Contrary to conventionalwisdom, introduction o cash crops requently has a
negative eect on household ood security. Achievingpositive eects oten depends on whether the land and
labor used is in surplus and on the variability in thesupply prices o basic ood crops.
4. Encourage small-scale agricultural processes and beware o projects that involve labor-displacing
mechanization. Agricultural interventions thatdisplace labor through large‑scale mechanization aremore likely to negatively aect ood security.
5. Increase production o oods that are eaten by at-riskpopulation groups. Te poor tend to disproportionatelyconsume specic oods—oten less‑desirable crops.When the production o these crops decreases, poor
households must pay more or the oods, or may beorced to consume more expensive crops.
th inan an Yng ch Nrn (iYcN) Prj | www.iyc. Ahvng Nrna impa an F sry hrgh Agrr | page 2
6. Involve women. Improvements in women’s incomeare more likely to translate into improved ood securitythan are improvements in men’s income—as long as
women have adequate time or child and amily care.
Maxmzng nrna mpa
Six ways agricultural projects can maximize
nutritional impact on vulnerable groups
o maximize positive nutritional impact during this
critical window o opportunity, projects can:
1. Integrate nutrition counseling. Including nutrition
counseling through agricultural extension can be highlyuseul, particularly when women are counseled.
2. Incorporate home gardens. Women are usuallyresponsible or home gardens, and thereore, have
greater control over household ood consumptiondecisions than their husbands.
3. Introduce micronutrient-rich crop varieties. Agricultural projects that utilize micronutrient‑rich
plant varieties have major potential or ensuringneeded nutrients and improving nutritional wellbeing.
4. Ensure that vulnerable household members consumethe oods produced. Even when a household has accessto adequate ood, cultural norms sometimes prevent
the consumption o particular oods.
5. Support agricultural tasks perormed by women.
Tese tasks include weeding, harvesting, processing,and preservation. In general, nutritional benets
increase when women can strike a balance between the
time they give to agricultural tasks and the time theygive to child and amily care.
6. Improve health to ensure utilization o nutrients.
Without proper health and reedom rom requentinections, proper nutrient utilization is not possible.
Activities that improve health include improvingaccess to sae water, promoting hygiene and sanitation,
improving health services and access to them, andpromoting timely care‑seeking or childhood illness.
P A t H / e v l y n H o c k s i n
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th inan an Yng ch Nrn (iYcN) Prj | www.iyc. Ahvng Nrna impa an F sry hrgh Agrr | page 3
4. Without intentional support, the landless may not
beneft. A project that introduced high‑value cropsin northwest Bangladesh ailed to have any positive
eect on the ood security o landless laboring amiliesbecause local landholdings were too small to allow
hiring o signicant additional labor, and inadequatelocal electric power prevented processing romtaking place.12
5. Time or physical constraints can limit women’sability to eed their children properly. Work thatrequires mothers to be away rom home or longperiods o time is associated with poorer nutritional
status or their children.13
dgnng prj wh h gra bn
o achieve both ood security and a positive nutritionalimpact through an agricultural project, the ollowing
steps should be taken during the project design phase:
• Be intentional about measuring impacts on ood
security and nutrition. Assessing ood security andnutritional status prior to an intervention permits
targeting o the most vulnerable. Modeling the expectedimpacts on vulnerable groups at the design phase
helps to ensure that they will benet rom the project. Assessment during key points o implementation—
including post‑intervention—helps improveeectiveness and avoid unintended negative eects.
• Incorporate household ood security and/or nutritionobjectives into project design. Tis will help ensurethat ood security and nutrition concerns are addressed.
Te Inant & Young Child Nutrition (IYCN) Projecthas developed guidance or project designers seeking
to build ood security and nutrition objectives intoagricultural projects. Please email [email protected] to
request the tool.
Avng harm
No mother, child, or other vulnerable person should beharmed by eorts to improve agricultural production.
However, in some cases, projects can have unintendednegative impacts on the ood security or nutritionalstatus o at‑risk populations. Here’s why:
1. Smallholders may not be able to participate in
improvements.An analysis o “green revolution”eects on small armers in Uganda ound that whileincreased production on small arms more requently
translated into improved ood security, most smallarmers lacked the means to use new technologies and
missed out on the economic gains enjoyed by the rest o the arming community.6
2. Mechanization may disproportionately avorlarger arms. Evidence on tiller introduction or rice
production rom Bangladesh, the Philippines, andWest Java indicates a general displacement o labor
and benets avoring larger armers at the expense o
smaller producers.7–9
3. Benefts o price supports can be unequallydistributed. In Honduras, price supports or maizebeneted larger, land‑owning amilies, while smaller
armers who were net purchasers suered underthe higher prices. Similarly, sugar price supports in
Jamaica increased employment, but the higher priceo consumption outweighed the economic benets o
increased employment.10,11
sr
• in Bangah, an mprv vgab prgramnra vamn A nmpn, rahrn manrn by 28 an 43 prnag
pn amng gr an by, rpvy, anmprv wmn’ nrn—a p ang
pr marab n hhnm.3
• A n Bangah, a pry prn avyha n am n h nrna va
nmng gg nra gg prn angg nmpn amng hrn an wmn rprv ag.4
• th nrn rang‑fh w
pa n Mzambq p wh nrnnng gnany nra vamn A naan a amng hrn. th nw w pa
vary an r mr han n‑hr hr vamn A na.5
P h i l i p p B l a n c
8/3/2019 Achieving Nutritional Impact and Food Security through Agriculture
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• Conduct a nutritional impact assessment during the
project design phase. When it is not possible to includenutrition objectives, incorporation o a nutritional
impact assessment in the planning process can help toavoid unintended negative impacts. Tis process leads
to more nutrition‑riendly programming by identiyingvulnerable groups within ood insecure populationsand estimating potential impacts based on expected
shits in land use, crop prices, ood crop availability,and labor utilization. Te IYCN Project has created a
Nutritional Impact Assessment ool to help agricultureproject designers consider the likely impacts o their
interventions on vulnerable populations. Please [email protected] to request this tool.
th mn wa pr hrgh ppr prv by h u. s. A gny r inrnana dvpmn, nr h rm cprav Agrmn N. GPo‑A‑00‑06‑ 00008‑00. th pnn
hrn ar h h ahr() an n nary rf h vw h u.s. Agny r inrnana dvpmn.
A b o U t t h e I n f A n t & Y o U n g C h I l D n U t r I t I o n P r o j e C t
th inan & Yng ch Nrn Prj n by h un sa Agny r inrnana dvpmn. th prj by PAtH
an n hr parnr: cARe, th Man Grp, an unvry Rarh c., llc. Fr mr nrman, pa na [email protected]
r v www.yn.rg.
P A t H / e v l y n H o c k s i n
Rrn
1. Haddad LJ, Bouis HE. Te impact o nutritional status on agricultural
productivity: wage evidence rom the Philippines.
Oxord Bulletin o Economics and Statistics. 1991;53(1):45–68.
2. Horton S, Ross J. Te economics o iron deciency. Food Policy.
2003;28(1):51–75.
3. Kumar N, Quisumbing AR. Access, Adoption, and Diusion:
Understanding the Long-term Impacts o Improved Vegetable and
Fish echnologies in Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 00995.Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute; 2010.
4. Institute o Nutrition and Food Science, Dhaka University, uts
University Friedman School o Nutrition Science and Policy.
Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project Garden and Poultry Projects:
Process and Impact Study. 2003.
5. Low J, Arimond M, Osman N, Cunguara B, Zano F, schirley D. A
ood‑based approach introducing orange‑feshed sweet potatoes
increased vitamin A intake and serum retinol concentrations
in young children in Mozambique. Journal o Nutrition.
2007;137(5):1320–7.
6. Munyonyo R. ‘Green Revolution’ in Uganda: Potentials and Constraints
or Dierent Categories o Farmers. Uganda Martyrs University
Working Papers. 1998;1(3).
7. Jabbar M, Bhuiyan M, Ban A. Causes and consequences o powertiller utilization in two areas o Bangladesh. In: International
Rice Research Institute and Agricultural Development Council.
Consequences o Small-Farm Mechanization. Manila, Philippines:
International Rice Research Institute; 1983.
8. Aguilar A, Camacho E, Generalla A, Moran P, Sison J, an Y, Wick J.
Consequences o small rice arm mechanization in the Philippines:
a summary o preliminary analyses. In: International Rice Research
Institute and Agricultural Development Council. Consequences o
Small-Farm Mechanization. Manila, Philippines: International Rice
Research Institute; 1983.
9. Saeudin Y, Siswosumarto H, Bernstein R, SriBagyo A, Lingard
J, Wicks J. Consequences o small r ice arm mechanization in
West Java: a summary o preliminary analyses. In: International
Rice Research Institute and Agricultural Development Council.
Consequences o Small-Farm Mechanization. Manila, Philippines:
International Rice Research Institute; 1983.
10. Garcia U Magdalena, Norton RD, Cambar MP, van Haeten R.
Agricultural Development Policies in Honduras: A Consumption
Perspective. Report prepared or the US Department o Agriculture
Nutrition Economics Group and the US Agency or International
Development Mission to Honduras; 1988.
11. Van Blarcom B. Consumption Eects o Jamaican Sugar and Rice
Pricing Policies. Washington, DC: US Department o Agriculture
Nutrition Economics Group; 1983.
12. Mirle C. Predicting the Eects o Crop-Based Agricultural Programs
on Household-Level Consumption in Rural Bangladesh: Te Case o
the Northwest Crop Diversifcation Program in Aditmari Upazilla,
Northwest Bangladesh. PhD Dissertation. uts University Friedman
School o Nutrition Science and Policy; 2006.
13. Kulwa KBM, Kinabo JLD, Modest B. Constraints on good child
care practices and nutritional status in Dar‑es‑Salaam, anzania.
Food and Nutrition Bulletin. 2006;27(3):236–44.
Fr mr nrman
Pa v www.iyc./aicuu rana rr r agrr prj gnr:
• Nrn an F sry impa Agrr Prj: A Rvw exprn
• ingrang Hh Nrn an F
sry objv n Prp AgrrPrj: irav Gan
• Nrna impa Amn t