achieving nutritional impact and food security through agriculture

8/3/2019 Achieving Nutritional Impact and Food Security through Agriculture

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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.

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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.



• 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.

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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.




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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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:

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5. Low J, Arimond M, Osman N, Cunguara B, Zano F, schirley D. A

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in young children in Mozambique. Journal o Nutrition.

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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.

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Consequences o small rice arm mechanization in the Philippines:

a summary o preliminary analyses. In: International Rice Research

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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

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10. Garcia U Magdalena, Norton RD, Cambar MP, van Haeten R.

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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

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achieving nutritional impact and food security through agriculture

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