The Integrated Horticulture and Nutrition Development Project reached out to the community directly, enabling beneficiaries to improve their lives with locally available resources and support from local-level government functionaries. The farmers trained by the project can prepare nutritious food, have more food available for their families and use improved food preservation and consumption techniques. Food preparation demonstrations and the school nutrition programme have become routine DAE activities.
The project also has lessons relevant to other developing countries in the region where inadequate nutrition is an important indicator of poverty. Food and nutrition interventions link agricultural production to good health and agriculture-based strategies can be the key to poverty reduction and nutritional improvement among rural communities in developing countries. Major FAO initiatives, namely the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN), the World Food Summit (WFS), WFS: five years later and the International Alliance Against Hunger (IAAH) focused attention on global hunger, drawing commitments from governments to address problems of food insecurity and nutrition, including developing National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPANs). Good nutrition and health are cornerstones of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
FAO is addressing food insecurity and malnutrition in a holistic way, promoting integrated food-based strategies to enable nations, communities and households achieve the right to food. This report is an example of best practices for incorporating nutritional considerations in horticulture programmes and policies.
A food-based strategy combined with extensive nutrition education offers a long-term sustainable approach to controlling and eliminating micronutrient malnutrition. Food and dietary diversification are central to food-based strategies. Dietary diversification is the most important factor in providing a wide range of nutrients and this requires adequate access to and consumption of a variety of foods.
Food and dietary diversification includes all interventions aimed at improving the supply, access to, consumption and bio-efficacy of micronutrient-rich food. In particular, dietary diversification requires assessment of dietary consumption, expansion and diversification of food production, improvement of food processing, preservation, storage and marketing as well as food preparation. This must be supported by a nutrition education programme.
Diets in Asian developing countries are deficient in a wide range of micronutrients and it is necessary to enhance total energy and micronutrient intake besides ensuring the bioavailability of the ingested micronutrients. Linking horticultural development policies and national nutrition programmes with a focus on increasing food variety may be the best strategy for sustainable reduction of micronutrient malnutrition. Horticultural cropping potential can be combined with rearing small animals, poultry and fish breeding for dietary improvement of marginal rural households.
The project experience in Bangladesh shows that agricultural and food policies, traditionally oriented towards primary agricultural production, should also promote home-based food and small livestock production with the explicit aim of increasing household consumption of micronutrient-rich food.
Agricultural policies and programmes can promote nutritional improvement through “desirable” dietary patterns, for example, formulated to meet micronutrient needs. This can be through integrated farming systems oriented to promoting household food security, but can also be based on a food variety that meets all dietary and micronutrient needs. These could be energy-rich staples, protein-rich fish and/or animal food, and vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. The cultivation of edible indigenous plants as additional sources of micronutrients could also be encouraged.
The low bioavailability of some key micronutrients in food, such as iron, can be significantly enhanced with the right food combinations as well as by appropriate food processing and preparation techniques. To ensure year-round availability of micronutrient-rich food, simple preservation technologies need to be further developed and promoted.
As Gopalan113 states, “a comprehensive food-based approach towards achieving household nutrition security (including micronutrient adequacy) is, in effect, a ‘People’s Movement’.” The cornerstones of this Movement are self-help, self-reliance, effective mobilization and optimal utilization of locally available food resources.
Instead of “dependence, doles and drugs”, the basic philosophy of the food-based approach is that the poorest community, adequately motivated, organized, mobilized, educated and provided with basic logistic and technical support, can meet its basic nutritional requirements. A food-based nutrition improvement programme can bring about a qualitative improvement not only in the nutritional and health status of a community, but also in its overall productivity and creativity.
113 Gopalan, C. 2000. Status of food based approaches to prevent and control micronutrient malnutrition. New Delhi, Nutrition Foundation of India.
