Multi-functional assessment of nutrition-sensitive landscapes

Nester Mashingaidze et al. 4 March 2015

Humidtropics

Introduction• Vulnerable populations are often food insecure

• Food security:– Sufficient calories– Diverse nutrients

• Sources of food– farm production– market– Landscape

• Nutrition-sensitive landscapes– optimise production, NRM and nutrition

Objectives

1. Characterise the current landscape and determine landscape performance in terms of production, environmental outcomes and nutrition.

2. Explore trade-offs and synergies of proposed interventions at landscape level.

3. Identify and test entry points for improvements in farming, diets and ecosystem services provided by the landscape

Approach: InDEED Cycle

The case studies• Western Kenya

– Densely populated (1 044 persons km-2)– Food crops (maize, beans)– Cash crops (tea, vegetables)– Food insecurity, land degradation, poverty

• Northwest Vietnam– Low smallholder agricultural productivity– Degradation of natural resources– Low income and access to markets– Malnutrition

Site selection

1. Review of secondary sources & experts 2. Field visits to 10 sub-locations

- Mambai: tea-based & Masana: maize-based

3. Participatory mapping 4. Transect Walk

Landscapes in Vihiga County

• Mambai landscape- river + ‘forest’- Impactlite survey to

10 households

• Masana sub-location- circumcision forest

- 10 households surveyed

Preliminary results

• Soil fertility Masana > Mambai• Majority of land holdings < 0.5 ha

- Some Hhs had fields away from landscape Mambai (50%) & Masana (30%)• No major forests, nearby lakes or dams• Hh size: Masana 5(±2.5) and Mambai 4.5 (±1.4)

Crop production

• Crop species: Mambai slightly > Masana • Masana: maize > banana > napier • Mambai: maize > tea > eucalyptus• Vegetables < 0.04% of cropped area

Food – produced and purchased

• All farms produced food crops– Beans purchase Masana > Mambai– Banana purchase low– Low consumption of traditional vegetables?

Way forward

• Building of farms into FarmDesign on-going

• Farms to be aggregated in LandscapeIMAGES

• Field visits for additional data collection

• Modeling and community feed backs

FarmDesign N cycle

Thank you

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. C. Timler 2014