Thanks to Mebit for introducing this crucial issue and to the contributors for their ideas and experiences.
I am glad Mebit mentioned the issue of agricultural extension services. He writes "agricultural graduates are employed by government organisations to deliver extension services to the community..." and "agricultural professionals with basic nutrition knowledge working with the community (family farms) will be responsible to promote nutrition sensitive agriculture with other agricultural extension services".
I believe the FAO developed approach of "Farmer Field Schools" could used to promote nutrition sensitive agriculture in the farming community.
The schools were very successful in promoting "Integrated pest management" as shown by an independent evaluation (van den Berg, Wageningen University, 2004). There have been a few pilot experiences led by FAO introducing the promotion of dietary diversity for improved nutrition in FFS, but they have not been upscaled. Unfortunately FAO did not pursue integration of nutrition aspects in the FFS initiative.
I strongly believe the FFS approach woul be a valuable tool for promoting nutrition sensitive agriculture at the farming community level and I definitely think future agricultural professionals should be trained to become Farmer Field Schools facilitators for promoting nutrition sensitive argiculture.
For those interested, the approach is described in a manual (not applied to nutrition alas !) available on the FAO website.
Marie Claude Dop, nutrition researcher, IRD, France
الدكتور Marie-Claude Dop